You can indeed just rest the valve on the piston crown. But this is a little bit of a dodgy solution because the valves go into the cylinder at an angle - turning the crank - raising the piston might cause a geometric lock and a bit of damage to the valve. So don't do that! Make sure you have TDC for each cylinder before you drop the valves though.

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1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!