[Barry_R]

Geez - - I must be the luckiest guy in town.

This is kind of a general answer - so its a little long winded...sorry. Its also only opinion - my opinion - for whatever its worth.

I ran a solid roller FE on the street for over a decade with zero lifter failures and a total of two bronze gears - I changed the first one only because the new MSD distributor has a larger shaft diameter. If you have good springs and maintain them, along with a standard volume oil pump, a bit of lube, and proper cam thrust play - things seem to last OK. Crane sells a very durable steel distributor gear as a great option.

There is really no discernable difference in sound between a solid roller and a solid flat tappet. The reason most solid flat tappets are larger is because racing is the environment the technology came from - smaller solid rollers are becoming more readily available and can always be custom ground. The reason you can't find matching profiles is that they really dont match at all during the opening event portion of the cycle - a roller cam starts out moving tangent to the axle centerline while a flat tappet starts at the edge. The popular @ .050 numbers are not really comparable - a larger solid roller number will idle similar to a slightly smaller flat tappet.

The deal with little needles would be as big a problem with a juice roller as a solid. The only differrence is that the hydraulic does the maintenece for you. What kills lifters is not too much spring - its too little. I like the Comp or Manley oval track springs - they cost more but last far longer, and have only enough pressure to do the job - coupled with a slower rate of degradation than drag race style springs.

And lash. Lash should be at the minimum needed to keep the valves closed when cold - roller bearings have poor impact resistance - I would not want to be much more than .016-.018 hot on a street aluminum head iron block application.

Hydraulic rollers are definitely OK for cruising - but are RPM limited - so far I have not had a lot of luck with them beyond 6000.....