I picked up a set of roller rockers that were on an engine I'm rebuilding. I'm just curious as to everyone's opinions of them for a street engine that will see the track maybe once or twice. Should I use them?

 

If you do use them, make sure to inspect them very close for crack or issues. Alum doesnt have a very good fatigue life.
And you cannot just run any dual spring with them. Check with the company you are using springs from, some wont handle that extra weight.
We recommend the Texas Speed/PAC dual springs there as they are very high quality and no question on whether they can use roller rockers or not.

 

What would I be looking for other than cracks? No way I could determine metal fatigue without some kind of test.

 

Thats all you can look for besides odd wear.

 

Stick to steel rockers. Either run the ws6speed max effort stockers or texas speed steel rollers. Aluminum will wear quick and it's not very light either since more weight is added over the nose.

 

FWIW - I would pick a stock GM rocker over the Comp aluminum LS1 rollers for all the reasons mentioned above.

Aluminum roller rockers that have a proven and failure free record seem to be T&D and Jesel. They are expensive, harder to set up properly, need more spring and probably not worth the hassle unless the cam lift is well over .600

Yella Terra's later alum LS roller rockers seems to have a pretty good reputation too.

 

I have been using those rockers for around 5-6 years, no issues yet. all 1/4 mile, zero street miles. .640 lift camshaft, reving to around 7200, I have gone through two sets of springs, just to keep parts fresh. The old PRC double golds. .650 rated and a set of BTR Platinum .660 rated springs. BTR recommends their Max Pressure springs for roller rockers, so I will be running those this year.