pull a cylinder off to view camshaft and lifters?

[mooneyflyer]

Pulling a cylinder on a pre-buy?  Never!  Find another buyer.  Too invasive with possible catastrophic results if mechanic (who you probably don’t know) improperly reinstalls without proper preload.  A complete annual should be sufficient.  Just my $.02

[RobertGary1]

I might be missing something but when I’ve pulled out lifters I didn’t pull the cylinder just removed the pushrod tubes. 

 

-Robert 

[67 m20F chump]

You can pull lifters from some continental engines with pushrod removal but with lycoming you must split the case.  Even when you pull a cylinder on lycoming you only get to see the edges of the lifter and the face of the cam.  

[Guest]

You can pull the lifters from the Lycoming 76 series, the O-360H2AD in a 172 and the O-360E series in a Piper Seminole without splitting the case.   Continental engines from the 360 series and larger also have removable lifters without splitting the case.

Clarence

[PT20J]

And, before someone asks: you can’t remove the roller tappets out of the newer Lycomings without splitting the case either. Hopefully, the roller tappets will obviate the need to.