Will The Valves Really Drop Into The Cylinder While replacing the Seals?

Poorman

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So I've been chasing a really bad smoke problem on startup, Injectors checked out so I moved on to replacing the valve stem seals. I read a lot about doing the job, It sounded harder than it actually was, I just made my own spring compressor and it worked great no issues getting to any of them, piece of cake. I was really concerned about dropping a valve into the cylinder so I wrapped a tape around the harmonic balancer with 4 marks exactly 90 degrees apart starting at the notch on the balancer. I brought each cylinder up , removed the rockers and spring and then slid an o ring over the stem and also zip tied the two stems together for extra safety. Did the drivers side , seamed really easy, then went out yesterday morning to do the other side. I didn't have a lot of time so I was in a bit of a hurry, just got started and we had a power outage, waited for an hour and then decided to just use flashlights. So now I'm really in a hurry, I brought #1 up to TDC and bang, bang, boom done, super easy, I rotated the engine 270 degrees to get #3 to TDC and started putting the spring compressor on when I noticed something didn't look right! it was the two valves I had just completed, I forgot to tie them up and they were gone down there holes! After calming down a bit I took a flashlight and looked down the holes, I could see the valve stem about an inch down still visible, I was able to slide a magnet into the hole and retrieve them!! So I don't understand, the crank was rotated through bottom dead center and yet the valves didn't drop out? The valves are pretty heavy and they fit into the guides perfectly, supper slippery and hard to hang on to. How long are the quides? How long are the stems? would these measurements allow the valve to ride on the piston all the way down without dropping in? I don't know what else it could be.
I had one intake seal that was completely broken up, and one had the tiny spring off, the others looked ok. I don't understand the exhaust seals, they were in different positions on the stem, all up high leaving 1/2 inch of stem exposed, couldn't be doing anything, which might be a good thing, there was zero play on all except #1 which had a tiny bit of play, hard to even feel. I was hoping to find a plugged drain hole or some other "smoking gun" to blame my smoke on but it looks pretty good, clean no gunk. New seals on the way. (hard to find).
 
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