Hey Jeff,
Bummer on the needle bearings,Crower I believe has shaft rocker set up that have composite bushings instead of needle baerings,they are pretty expensive but from what i've read here and there work great are quieter that bearing rockers and supposedly less drag as you're not making bearings change directions,makes sense to me,I think you have to do machining to eliminate the rocker stud bosses off the head and that will make the heads usless to anyone not running shaft type rockers but,no studs,guide plates,poly locks,stud girdles,extra tall rocker covers to clear all that stuff and beat of all,no needles!!!!!!!!!!!
If I ever get to the point where I can build the engine I daydream about that's deffinatly the way I'll go,besides a guy named Smokey Yunick that was an engine builder in the old days of Nascar wrote the he absolutly hated GM's Mickey Mouse stud mounted rocker system as there was way to many directions for flexing of the valvetrain and tried his best to get GM to redesign their system,hence all the accessories I previously mentioned,also something you might consider is tha roller lifters also have needle bearings in them,I can't say I know from personal experience but Comp Cams has a solid roller called an EndurX
or something like that that're supposed to be designed for the rigors of street use as a lot of idleing is apparently hard on solid rollers,just thought I'd my 2cents in but it look more like 5 bucks,can't help it,I just seem to get carried away sometimes,by the way I think that's the first time I've seen slurred typing,thought it was pretty cool actually,Good Luck and don't give up! Cars are to much fun when they're right! Later,KillerDave
