no i dont believe there is any restrictors. the last set of lifters i had before the rebuild lasted over 100 hours. same brand

Dave Crower told me to stay away from synthetic oil with a solid roller setup. Have you looked at your other motor ? Found this on Crowers site, Use of Synthetic Oils,
Crower does not recommend the use of synthetic motor oil in any application, particularly in hydraulic and flat tappet camshafts. If your car manufacturer's owners manual suggests running synthetic oil, you may do so. The minimum gains in horsepower are offset by the excessive wear to cam and lifter surfaces. We have found that the benefits, of synthetic motor oil, do not outweigh the costs and may endanger your engine's life. Crower recommends a non-detergent / race only petroleum based 30wt. motor oil in all performance applications. The lack of phosphorus and zinc in current oil blends is catastrophic to engine longevity. For all applications we do recommend running our ZDDPlus additive, which adds zinc and phosphorus back into the oil.

I have a question.....with an 8.3 L Whipple and only 1300 hp, why are you running a solid anyway. There is no reason you can't do it with a hydraulic roller and get 150+ hours out of it. Myself, along with several others do it on a regular basis. Hell, I can't recall the last solid I did. It was quite a long time ago. Just curious.
Eddie

Thats a good question, i would love to be able to go to a hydraulic, im guessing i would have to change my cams along with getting the mefi 4 program re-flashed?

Question for you, would i have to go back to the dyno to switch over?

Not as long as you stayed close in cam size. You will need to do some tuning, but it can be done in the boat. A hydraulic roller will need to have smaller duration and lift to be comparable to the solid roller you have. The general rule is the hyd. will be 8-10 degrees smaller than the solid roller because of the lash. Along with the cam and lifters, you will need to change the springs. The pushrods may or may not work.
The biggest problem I worry about with the solid lifters failing is the potential for a needle bearing to make it into the oil pump and lock it up. The needle bearing will just fit in through the screen on an oil pump pickup. It's amazing how it can make it in the pickup when it has to be perfectly vertical and is bouncing around in 14 qts of oil, but they do. All it takes is one needle bearing in the pump gears to lock it up and break the drive rod. I've seen it happen quite a few times.
Eddie

Anyone have any reports on the EZX?

I totally agree with Eddie Young here, why are you guys using these high spring poundage solid roller camshafts on this engine if you are keeping the rpms at 6300 rpms and under with reasonable boost numbers ??
A good grind billet hydraulic roller camshaft with a good set of Morrell hyfraulic roller lifters and about 200lb closed and 500lbs open will keep most good BBC valvetrains in one piece up to that rpm range in boost and without the need for valve lash adjustments and the beatings that solid lifters put on a camshaft and lifters. This seems like a bit of "Old School" marine engine building here. Going up to 6500-7000 rpms and yes a good solid roller setup and higher spring pressures will be needed along with a good shaft rocker system that's needed to keep N/A and supercharged BBC valve trains stable at these higher rpms and loads.
Just my old rusted 2 cents opinion here.

Best Regards,
Ray @ Raylar

Bringing this subject up again. Why did Merc go with solid on their 850 and 1075,1200? They are not turning the rpms to 7-7500....

Just curious...

What cam is in the new merc turbo motors?

Also curious.. bump.