Fwiw all else being equal it doesn't seem worth it. I'm a googler also like to find good tech articles.

http://www.stangtv.com/tech-stories/...raulic-roller/

One key ingredient to a solid roller is good oil pressure at idle. If your hot idle pressure is low the roller isn't getting oil and your in trouble. This is one place were I think heavy strait weight oil is a big plus.

Isn't that a loaded question. You need to check lash at a fairly high frequency to make sure everything is stable and not moving, then you keep adjusting your frequency based on how your adjustments go. And If you do something stupid like overheat one it needs checking. When I ran solids 20 years ago I checked them 3 times a season.

Agreed. I ran 50W Valvoline Racing dino oil when I had solids. Now I run 10/50 synthetic with hydraulic. Both are good combos, I just prefer the hydraulic in my older ages..

I'll also add in not allowing the engine to go under 1K rpm for long periods of time. And, allowing the oil to cool before idling.

I think it goes back to what I posted about the cam profile you choose. The more aggressive and higher lift of a solid roller you choose, the harder it will be on the valvetrain and needs to be checked more often.

The 8-10 or so years that I ran my mild solids the lash either stayed the same or would tighten up very slightly (valve seats). The only time it ever loosened up was when there was a problem (lifter).

Lowest my oil gets hot is 25-30 at idle and that's worst case, normally is 40-45 average conditions

So seems hydraulic is probably best in my case lol

Good Point! Good Info to Have out there.

How often do you check yours on Unleashed? or are you using Hyd?

I think Getrdunn uses solids maybe he can add some light

Nice thing about solid, is youre eliminating another point of failure, the hydraulic mechanism, and , if something is going south, you have a good chance at finding it. Like valve seats getting pounded out, cam lobe wear, etc.

All solid roller grinds arent equal. They make many profiles depending on the application. A drag race solid profile, will likely make more power than an endurance profile, but be alot harder on parts. Theres more to a cam than .050 numbers and lobe lift.

Yes and no on finding it in my opinion.

The valvetrane on a solid lifter engine is already loud so by the time you can hear a definitive tap or something different then the normal growl, the lifter more then likely already damaged the cam. You might get lucky if you catch it super fast but more then likely the cam will look sort of similar as Tim's did.

Here's mine back in 2014 before I switched over to Hydralic. I knew I was rebuilding my engines that winter and didn't plan on using the big boat much that summer because I also had two boats (22' Apache). Low and behold, the day before Memorial Day I took a test ride and heard a lifter tap. Checked lash and it was out 10 thou on the bad lifter. Pulled the intake and cam was f#cked and several other lobes were also worn but the lifter had not yet failed the lifter wheel bearing yet.

Like anything else, you have to stay on top of things and know your service interval to catch the problems before they happen. I tried to stretch to save $1300 on new lifters ahead of my rebuilds and it wound up costing me $3500 on a cam and lifters for both engines just to get me through the season.[ATTACH=CONFIG]562290[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]562291[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]562290[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]562291[/ATTACH]

My last 3 builds were solid rollers. Use good parts and **** doesn't move. If it does, as MT mentioned, you know somethings up. EOIC can check all 32 valves in 20-30 minutes. Do it while you're letting oil drain on a change or whatever... Not really much louder than anything else so if something's f@cked up you'll hear it. My 2 cents