Alright, guys, I had an idea.

I intend to swap my cam one of these days soon, but having to take off the valley pan(which means IP, turbo stuff, intake manifold etc) is a real pain.

What about this:
1. make 16 3/8" dowel pieces 10" long, and attach a Neodymium magnet securely to the end.
1. Remove head covers.
2. Remove rockers and pushrods.
3. Insert one dowel down each pushrod hole, then pull up(with the lifter stuck to the end) until the lifter is at the end of it's travel. Insert a screw into the side of the dowel to hold it in place.
4. Remove front stuff, pull cam, reinstall.

Would this work? I don't see why not. There has to be enough extra travel in the lifter sliding against it's keeper to clear the top of the cam lobe, and the cam journals aren't much above that.
If it works, it would be nearly half as much work as normal, I think. And one less $40 gasket to buy.

 

I dont see why not

 

Doesnt sound much cheaper or easier, but could be lol

 

This is an interesting idea. One possible snag (at least on a truck with AC) is that the last couple of push rods on the passenger side don't clear the box on the firewall and can't be removed. You would have to remove the AC box or at least loosen it enough to move it so the push rods on cylinder 7 could come out. I don't know if it would be possible to dislodge a lifter while wiggling the cam in and out of the block but the consequences of a dropped lifter don't thrill me. But I know those are some ~serious magnets and if held high enough it should be a non issue. You forfeit the opportunity to examine the lifters before running them against your new cam, but I definitely see the appeal in leaving the IP and fuel system un-disturbed.

 

i always replace lifters and valve springs before installing a new cam on anything.

yes we can reuse the roller lifters, and we can even check the shape of the rollers if the cam does come out, by looking at the wear pattern on the camshaft.

however, i dont think there is enough play on the flat sides of the lifters to bring them out of the hole far enough for the lobes to escape.

on the stock cam i have in the garage, it appears that the cam journals are a RCH bigger than the cam lobe.
my Starrett eyeball says theres a solid .020" gap in the lobe when a straight edge is laid on 2 journals.

this isnt something i would try, but what the hell, you may just sneak it in.

 

Never been into these engines that far, but I own a bunch of said magnets. They are VERY strong in any linear pull depending on how thick they are. My biggest worry would be not loosing one on the lifter: cause how would you get it back out?
"Attached securely" would have to be something like 40-grit sand paper the back side of the magnet, and JB weld to dowel or similar.

But if you try it, post it!! I'm in the market for a new cam and turbo. So anything to make it easier is good.

 

We used the magnet trick on a tractor one time. Worked well.

 

They use the pen magnet or wooden dowel method on ls1 style engines all the time. I've never done it, I always had engine out and just turned it upside down on stand lol

 

It could work.... If you drop a lifter it wont fall in to the engine. it can only drop the distance of the slots the dog bones run in.. so you will need to have all the lifters pulled to the max and held in place... You could use a jig and some heavy rubber bands to Pull up on the dowels so you wouldn't need to screw anything into the dowels possibly dropping debris into the engine. Just my 2 cents...

 

We used pen magnets on ours and clamps to hold them up.

 

So what you're saying is the REAL trick is to simply invert the pickup! Brilliant!

 

What about the bolted in lifter retainers? Looks kinda like a little dog bone in there. Pretty sure they have to be unbolted for the lifter to come out of the bore. There is a large spider like thing over the top of all them that keeps the lifters held in.

Becaus of that, I see no way you could lift them high enough out of the bore....

 

The dog bone lifter retainers keep lifters from rotating in their bores.... There is more than .100 clearance under the retainers for lifting the lifter up... I checked this out when I was looking to increase the lift on the Cam and wanted to be sure there s no clearance problems.

 

Just throw it on the stand and turn it upside down... But at that point you may as well clean/paint reseal it all.

 

Yep. You are exactly right! I went out to my spare block, slipped in a new lifter and the dog bone retainer, lifted it all the way up to the top and was able to just slip the cam journals past the lifter.

Theoretically, it will work. In the real world, hopefully all would go as smooth as it seems it would.

I say, give it a try Macrobb and tell us how it works!