My 3 cents, I have never felt the high cost of roller rockers to be worth the small power gain on my own engines, if money was no object I would use them with a good set of high intensity springs. Jugding by the beefy designs I have seen the roller rocker is not going to ever break. You will use less horsepower to rotate the cam, less friction & less wear, higher redline on the engines top end. But commonly people build-up the top end and then the bottom end goes out. A Cam is a better price per power gain and should always be installed with a new set of high intensity lifters and double roller chain to handle the increased torque required to rotate a cam with more lift. Now a new problem arises, passing the smog check could now become an problem. A mild cam may not fail the smog but with many other variables involed you really wont know until you test. In this case you may really benifit from a hotter ignition to help burn the increased Fuel/Air mixture like the PD system Jeffy reviewed. Shaving a few thousands off the head has made some major power gains for me in the past and the only reason I did this was to remove some gouges caused by broken timing chains were pistons hit the valves into the head. Ultimately it all comes down to money, but if I had a choice right now, I think I would change my ring and pinion gear ratio letting my 4banger 5 spd work less & go faster!
