The hammer trick worked great for removing them.

What is the trick to putting them back in?

I lapped the valves today.
Is it ok to decarbon the rest of the combustion chambers with
a wire wheel on my drill or should I just leave it alone? It is black
but not to heavy looking.

Thanks

http://geometroforum.com/topic/1299263/

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i315/planetetf/g10head2009.jpg

Use the same method with needle nose pliers, but you need an assistant to drop them in for you. It can be frustrating, but you will win.

I was waiting for this question to come up. The hammer and socket means of removing the spring keepers is nice but sooner or later you have to put them back in, and you can't do it in the reverse.
If you can weld or know someone that does, get three 1/4" bolts about 3" long. Weld them together so they make a wishbone so that you have 2 bolts pointing down and one up. I used allen head bolts and had the heads pointing down. Put your tool in a drill press. and use it as an arbor press. You should be able to figure out the rest. If you can't get any welding done, get a piece of pipe, cut out windows and figure a way to chuck it up in a drill press.
As to the carbon or any other foreign bodies on the head, clean it up as best you can. Any air flow increase due to a good cleaning is a good thing.

Thanks again guys.

These are a pain in the ass. Did you get them back in? Atleast the springs don't have a lot of pressure on them. I had to make my own tool for removal and reused it for re-installing them. I used a harmonic balancer puller kit to make this handy device. See it there in front of the head:

http://i329.photobucket.com/albums/l375/doug2060/10-14-08_2334.jpg

It worked quite well.