While I no longer consider myself to be a professional engine builder and when I did, I was probably talking out my ass, I'd really like to try to make a set of roller rockers.
If one were to find a set of rollers with shaft diameter close to the rocker shaft diameter of Rover rocker shafts, could one fit the roller rockers to the Rover shafts? Might require some boring and bearing searching, but I think it might be done. I've thought about buying a set of used roller rockers from eBay to play with, but life has gotten in the way.
While roller lifters allow for very steep camshaft profiles, IMO the advantage of roller rockers is extremely lower friction in the upper end of the valve train, reduced mass (in some applications, but probably not in the Rover) and extended RPM operation-again, not something we need in most Land Rover applications.
In my application, I want to reduce as much power robbing friction as I can so that power can make it to the wheels. Our engines are not setup for peak efficiency and simple changes like bigger cams, better exhaust and modifiable fuel injection management systems hold great potential for either generating additional power or reducing losses due to friction and heat. Of course, just about anyting would be more efficient than Lucas EMS!
