Any way i can keep the head on and pull the cam and keep the lifters in place....

 

If you dont remove the head the lifters are going to fall into the oil pan and or where ever else they feel like getting stuck.

Its going to be alot easier to remove the head. Good excuse to do a headgasket and be good forever too

 

Also if youre going with a higher lift cam, it would be a good idea to replace the lifters anyway

 

Pulled the head to much hassel

 

Only ways I could think of is to attach a strong magnet like the ones to pick up lost bolts and hold them up while removing the cam(would need 12 magnets), but if one falls you are out of luck. The other would be to turn the engine upside down and let gravity do the work, but difficult to do if it is still in the vehicle.

 

Just pull the head, don't be cheap and lazy.

 

I'm going to chime in a lil late here but if you are replacing a cam you always replace the lifters. You will kill the cam in no time if you don't

 

True story. No shortcuts.

 

In the cummins world we do this all the time. You do not need to remove the head. Take wooden dowls not sure the size you would need on the jeep lifters, cut a thin slit in the end so they can compress and sit in the end of the lifter pretty tight. Pull them up so there off the cam, at the top tie them off with rubber bands or put a cloths pin on them so they do not drop. pull the cam out. cut a small piece of pvc in half to make a tray to slide all the way to the back of the motor. pull a dowel pin out and let the lifter fall into the tray. Pull it out with a magnet put the new lifter on the end of the magnet and slide it down the tray until you can get the dowl into it and pull it back up into its bore. Obviously start from the back and work your way to the front. I would rather take a little time messing with lifters then pulling a head. That's just me though...

 

And on the Jeep, still have the old flat tappet lifters wipe out the new cam.

Cummins has rollers, right? My NTC 400 did. Different ballgame than flat-tappet.

 

We didn't have to in the ls1 world either, at least from what I remember, different setup though. It makes things easier.

 

Huh?

 

This advice will not work on a jeep. The pushrod hole is tiny. You can't get anything bigger than a magnet in there.

 

And as you already stated, the old lifters would wipe out the new cam.

The 2.5s had bigger holes in the head so you could REMOVE the lifters without removing the head.

 

So your telling me you cannot replace the lifters through the cam bore? and a wooden dowl the same size as a push rod will not fit in the push rod hole? ISB Cummins have flat tappet lifters also not roller.