Catriderf7 said:
I cant see the valve with the scope. When you stick it thru the spark plug hole its looking straight at the piston, theres no way to turn it around and face it up at the valve
Sorry, easier to reply now that I'm at a PC.... With the manifold off, I would try needle nose pliers or locking pliers...even if I had to sacrifice a pair to the grinder wheel to make it work through the port. If you can hold onto the stem, you can release the keepers and with the piston at TDC, the valve won't fall through the guide.
Rotate the crankshaft by hand lowering the piston until the valve was low enough to see but still in the guide. At this point you could probably see the top of the valve with the scope looking down onto the piston.
I'm guessing the valve is just barely open, which would still allow the engine to run but not constantly misfire.
With that being said, going back to the reason you're doing this....what were the symptoms that caused you to perform a compression check, how was it running? Constant misfires...engine shaking or was it intermittent.
Carbon doesn't usually build up on the exhaust valve, could be anything but I agree it could be warped ever so slightly.