[Tom Wells]

BOBO,

I've had the Crane hydraulic roller setup in both my 460-based engines, forever. In numeric terms, that's 35K miles in the 521 Cobra and 11K miles in the 557.

I've used them on the street, at the track, and idling for literally three hours at a time in parades.

Absolutely no problems from either setup; 400+ horsepower at the rear tires and 500+ ft-lbs of torque over a very wide rpm range, thru an IRS and a C-6 automatic. Pump gas. Sticky (200 wear rating) street tires can be spun at will.

Happy camper here.

I got rid of the Ford solid roller and cam setup before the engine went into the Cobra for the reason you state: solid rollers are high maintenance items. If you are willing to replace the lifters every 5K (or less!) then you should be OK. Surprisingly most of the high stress for a solid roller seems to occur at or near idle - apparently the low-speed dynamics (read shock loads) are worse for that setup than higher speeds are.

Good idle (no one ever asked if it's a small block ;-) ), plenty of go when asked.

Let us know how it goes,

Tom