Dropped my extra VVT head to a local 'head only' machine shop last week and just got it back today.
I asked them to deck it, hot tank, swap out stem seal, swap out oem spring to supertech heavy double.

Feels like such an obvious thing to do now, but I didn't check if the cam shaft could spin freely by itself with just hand pressure before I dropped it off. With the motor attached and timing belts connected however, I remember I was able to easily turn the entire assembly via the crank shaft bolt.

Is it normal that I can't spin the camshaft via the sprocket by hand esp with the heavy double spring ? I thought maybe they over torqued the cap bolts so I undid all and re-torqued it to only 100 in lb.using the correct pattern but no luck.

 

I can't turn my sprockets by hand, but you should be able to with a wrench and socket on the cam gear bolt, and I've got stock springs.

Does it look like any of the springs are binding (coils touching?)

 

Cool, thanks for letting me know. I didn't want to force it with a wrench so I took things apart to double check torque values and to verify if its supposed to be able to turn or not. I'll double check for coil binding today.

 

+1 on wrench required to turn cam gears! Its the resistance from lobes pressing valve springs!