I am pondering the same question for building a 350 for the street in a light 29 roadster, but I do not care about the rumpy idle, and my wife would not understand anyway! I asked this question in another thread about SBC mileage but received no answer yet. The comment/question is that you CAN have both low and high rpm performance with Rhoads lifters which provide at least a 10 degree variation in cam timing. My question is why don't more people use Rhoads/Crane lifters for low rpm idle and mileage and keep longer duration performance at higher rpm? Are they noisy? Do they work? Does a high volume oil pump defeat the whole idea? If you say you want the rumpity idle just for effect that is what you will get, but if you can live without that inconvenience on the street why not use variable lifters? Comments?

Don Shillady