Solid Roller vs. Hyd. Roller - Pros/Cons?

[RICK LAKE]

Hi-tech cobra I got a stroker kit from Barry R. The crank doesn't have grooves for the rear main seal, ran the motor and raced for 3 days. No oil leak from rear main seal yet . Stroker kit worked great, dropped right in, filed rings for correct gap. As far a a roller cam, I am running the small crane hydro roller .587-.607" lift one with a 484 kit. Car idles nice and runs strong. I only had 20 minutes of breakin and raced for 3 days without any problems. Unless you are going to turn 7,000 rpm+ put hydro lifters in your motor if you can. Once my motor is broken in I will limit the rpm to 6,500 rpm. I built a strong broad range torque motor from 2,000 rpm to 5,700rpm with the HP topping out at 6,200 rpm. Spinning the motor any higher is just wasteing motor. If you are worried about pumpup for valve float, here is what I have done, I put a setof beehive springs,#26120 from comp in my valve train. With the swap a removed 44 grams per valve and 5/16 hollow pushrods with heavy tubes. I can wind the motor to 6,500 without any float. KCR sell some nice custom cams for hydro roller lifters with under .650" lift. I have one for my next motor,a 498 I am using his cam, .622". I have a set of Edelbrock heads, worked to the max with11/32 valves and 360cfm+ flow. I have the T&D setup for these heads. I would tell you to get a set of Erson rockers for your edelbrock heads and save the money on the machine work and the different between Ersons and T&D. Maybe KCR will honor what you have for credit. I think you will be happy with one of his custom cams. There is nothing wrong with the crane cam either. For the distributor gear, go with the cam company and what they say. I have a polymer carbon gear on my MSD with a HVHP mellings oil pump. I also am running a 100 psi spring in the pump. When cold a get 125-130 psi until the oil and motor warm up a little. I also have the oil dripping where the 2 gears meet to help stop wear and tear. Do your self a favor and buy a accusump 3 qrt. tank and hook it up to the motor oiling system and use it as a preoiler before you start your motor. This will stop 90% of the dry starts and limit wear. You can use a toggle switch to turn on and off. Run the Hydro's, do less maintainence on the motor and enjoy the car more.You are NOT driving and having the motor at 6,000RPM all the time so skip the solid lifters. Your driving and application doesn't need them. As for noise, You have sidepipes, sweet music, you will not hear those solids anyway. you will if the clearances are too big. Rick L.