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Old 01-05-2005, 11:39 PM
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ByronRACE ByronRACE is offline
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Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: Gilroy, CA
Cobra Make, Engine: West Coast Cobra w/ Centrifugally Blown Big Block, Pickles, Onions, on a Sesame Seed Bun.
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Default Solid roller lifter setups can last a lot longer...

If you pay special attention to lift, lobe shape, etc., you can drop the spring rate way down and run a solid lifter a whole lot longer than 13K street miles.

Trouble is, most off the shelf cams for solid roller are huge lift, aggressive ramps, and require high spring rates. You have to have a custom cam made with far more realistic street specs if longevity is a requirement.

Properly configured, I've seen then run 20-25K between needing adjustment, and last the normal life of a high performance street engine (80-100K).

I think solid roller is wrongfully tagged as short-lived simply because most people run them with .680+ lift, ramps that look like flying rectangles, and spring pressures you could lift your car with. That, and they don't check/adjust the valvetrain, which I'd do about every-other oil change.

I also think you're wasting your time running a solid roller unless you intend to spin the motor beyond what modern hydraulic lifters can reliably do. An aged modern lifter can reliably handle about 6200rpm. If you don't spin beyond that, you're wasting your time with solids. Most 514's will peak power before 6000...if yours does (ever dyno it?), you may as well go hydraulic and not have to maintain it.
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