OK...first thing is, we're talking FEs...there are some things to consider for just FEs that aren't a problem for small blocks, Chevys or 385 Fords.
Solid roller cams and distributor gears. I and others have talked about it enough in the past few years, but nobody brought it up in detail here, so here goes (again).
I started off with a custom Clay Smith solid roller in a motor full of good stuff (482ci Shelby block, Velasco crank, Manleys, C-Ps, T&D top end stuff, etc.). 680 lift, 270 duration at .050...in other words, pretty damn big.
IN FEs....you could not not get a hardened cam gear for solid rollers, which meant you had to run a bronze gear. Cam builders do add hardened cam gears for Ford small blocks and SB/BB Chevys and even the 385 Fords...just not FEs (unless someone started doing it in the past year). Bronze gears break...alot...at 10,000 feet in the Sierras...at the track...around town. They are just fine when you tear down your motor after every race or after several passes down the track. They are meant to be disposable items. They run the damn hi-volume
oil pumps we all tend to use to keep pressure up...and they don't like that. I have several as paper weights.
Supposedly, there are some "plastic" (or some such sh!t) distributor gears that have come out in the past few years which won't eat up your cam gear. Haven't heard of anyone putting thousands of miles on them in FEs...not saying they don't work, but haven't heard of such stories here or elsewhere where FEs are discussed regularly.
I have a slightly used Clay Smith solid roller cam now sitting on the shelf now...offers over $750 are being accepted.
Went to a slightly bigger custom Clay Smith solid flat tappet. I use an iron gear at the bottom of the MSD. Not one freeking problem in the past three years. And anybody that's driven with me knows I don't baby it on the track (or the street, for that matter). I've been using VR1 50w in the summer and 20/50w in the winter.
If someone has solved the solid roller cam/distributor gear issue FOR FEs...and can prove it with thousands of miles, great! Go for it and enjoy the first 1,000 miles of not having to break it in. Just don't let it idle as you sit in traffic and keep blipping your throttle (we all do anyway) so you keep splashing
oil on them little basturds with the needle bearings at the bottom of the pushrods. Ever see what a solid roller lifter does to a cam when the needle bearings let go? As Bill alludes to, it is the perfect cutting tool. Pretty damn sure they use them in Amsterdam to cut diamonds.
If not, go with a solid flat tappet, or go with a hydraulic roller cam. Given Keith's work over the past several years with the latter in matching them up with FEs (especially modern FE-style arruminum blocks with the lubrication needed), there is assolutely no reason not to if you want carefree power for street as well as enough for track use.
Bottom line, if I ever build another FE monster (if this sumb!tch ever breaks)...I'm going hydraulic roller, even if they do come up with the world's greatest distributor gear for solid rollers. The ticking sounds nice, but my pipes are so loud I won't miss it much.
One thing I always advise my clients...don't be the test case. It gets expensive even if you end up being right.
