Duane
I think hydraulic rollers for FEs have pretty well proven themselves...KC's a big supporter of their use and I think he's put enough of them on the ground to show that they do indeed work well.
Solid rollers...biggest problem was using those little bronze gears, asspecially with high flow
oil pumps adding to their strain.
When the lifter's needle bearing let go (who knows why), I had the engine completely torn down and rebuilt exactly as it was...and starting wearing through bronze gears again. Comp has come out with polymer gears to replace them in Chevys and SB Fords, but not FEs...feedback on the Chevy forums show they seem to solve the problem with rapid wear and breakage after extended use, so a future FE fitment would take care of that.
If the needle bearing failure was caused by the lack of
oil from splash, then I agree the advances made at getting
oil directed at the bearings will help that.
I got to the point that I just didn't want to worry about bearings and gears anymore, so I pulled the perfectly good solid roller cam and put in the flat tappet setup of about the same grind. (the solid roller sits on a shelf) I can live with the expectation of a slow death of a flatening cam versus waiting for tiny little bearing pieces to start banging inside the motor any day. KISS still remains the ultimate universal truth.
In furtherance of KISS, I also pulled that doggone internal hydraulic TOB POS and replaced it with a good ol fork/external slave setup, which can be repaired without tearing half the drivetrain apart.
Next, I'm on the hunt for asbestos brake pads...