[Alan Roehrich]

No, you WON"T be able to raise spring pressures, UNLESS you get stud girdles to go with the roller rockers. The 7/16" stud will STILL be the weak point. Note that the ONLY difference between the Holroyd setup and the older 7/16" stuff is the STUD DIAMETER. The rocker is made of the same material, the same thickness, and the same heat treat. In fact, the rocker ball itself is thinner, and material is REMOVED where the ball rides in the rocker to allow for the larger stud. We've done some serious testing, and we've also done full failure analysis on failed rockers. The fast 396 cars already turn 8200 or more now. We already run enough spring pressure, we can control all the profile you can generate for an 0.842" lifter. Put roller rockers on a fast big block car and watch the studs start breaking, unless you get stud girdles as well. It doesn't matter whether the stud or the rocker breaks, the damage will be close to the same.

Shaft rocker engines are a different situation all together, especially if they have large diameter lifters. With the rules allowing big pushrods, if you allow roller rockers, they'll be on 8620 bar stock shafts. Put that setup on top of large diameter lifters, combined with big or multiple carburetors and you'll REALLY see something happen.

I hate to see racers scrounging for used parts, I don't want to see cars parked because you just can't get any parts. But roller rockers are not the solution, at least not one that we can live with.