I run a solid roller, crane cam and lifters. I recently changed from the bronze gear after 1000 miles, showing some wear, a small groove in the gear teeth, to a billet gear by crane compatabile with the billet cam. Because the MSD distributor has a larger shaft, you need to get the distributor gear for the 429/351C engine, and not the one for the FE with the MSD. I was told by one engine builder that he doesn't like the billet gears, because they don't "absorb" the cam vibration like a bronze gear does.
Regarding solid roller lifters, I spoke with Rob McQuarie at Blue Oval Perf, and he said it is not only the lack of oiling that causes solid roller failures, but is also the constant impacting on the lifters because of the valve lash needed, as opposed to hydraulic lifters that run 0 lash, and therefore is a much smoother transition when the valve opens. I had thought about cutting a small groove in the side of the lifter body to feed
oil from the lifter gallary down to the roller for greater splash oiling at low rpms, as I already have the crane lifters, instead of buying a set of crower's, but with 1300 miles on them already, I will probably replace them with crower's.
Regarding hydraulic rollers, Rob said that it was difficult to get high rpm's out of them. Crane told me that the lifters don't bleed down much, since they have a tight tolerence, and I thought that running too high of spring pressures wouild cause the lifter to bleed down too much. I had thought about running a hydraulic roller lifter with the valve train adjusted so the lifter is close to bottoming out with the valve closed, to limit the amount of lifter collapse with high spring pressures needed for high rpms. Higher spring pressures are harder on the roller bearings though. Crane didn't reccommend running their lifter like this. I think Keith Craft stated he gets 6500 rpm's out the hydraulic rollers.
Interesting topic.