You have me curious now. I am going to have to check the clearance on my spare block before I tear it down next week. I know a local that is getting a lot of noise when the DI system fires up. I wonder if his lash has fallen far out of spec. It's a shame that you have to pull the block just to check the clearances. Flat engines can be rather painful to deal with.
I'm sure if someone was very dedicated you could do it without pulling the block but it would probably take the same amount of time to pull it.