Polomeno, you can change the lifters without pulling the cyl hd. Access to the lifters is thru a cover beneath the intake manifold. You have to do like Starfighter said, take off the valve cover to remove the pushrods and rocker arms. Guess you could just loosen the rockers, but now would be a good time to clean them up. I've heard you can remove lifter cover and lifters with the intake in place but it would be a royal pain, not much room to work as it is. Take the oil filter off, give ya a little room to play. The cover is held on with studs and nuts, be careful, the cover bends real easy. Make sure there are new washers for the studs, your old ones are probably brittle and will leak if you try to use them again. Good luck.
Almost forgot, when you get the side cover off, try to VACUMN out any gunk or other debris laying around. Don't let it fall down in the pan, It takes very, very, little crud to clog the oil pump screen. If it's real crudded up around the lifter bores, try to disturb it as little as possible, unless you are sure you can keep out of the pan. I used a small screwdriver with a sharp bend in the end to pull the lifters out of the bores, but they make a couple different tools that are supposed to work well. I think the hole for the oil is supposed to go toward the front of the engine.( I may be thinking of another application) Better ask somebdy else about that.
Don
[This message has been edited by maryjane (edited 08-09-2001).]
