What's a good hydraulic roller lifter to use in a 383 roller block, with a 560 lift cam? How adequate are the factory roller lifters? What aftermarket lifters do you like? How reliable is the factory retainers and spider, or is the link bar type of lifter a better choice in a performance motor?

For any engine seeing anything similar to reliable street miles, that is NOT a petted over race engine, you need the factory roller dawg bone setup, those toggles seem be known to let go and wipe expensive stuff out....

about lifts and so forth, I can't help except to say I have a 480/520 lift cam...at the valve with 1.5 ratio rockers....

I have an HT383 (factory roller block) that I'm changing the cam and top end on. cam lift is 578/585 with the 1.5 roller rockers. I'm using lunati High RPM Hydraulic Roller Lifters (part# 72530LUN) because I'm going to rev it to 7000 or so. not sure what you consider a "performance motor," but regular hyd rollers are good till 6200-6500 rpm before pump-up causes valve float. I cant comment on the factory stuff. Its not gonna stick around long enough for me to find out what it takes to break it.

I've heard that the LS7 or caddy race lifters will work with a factory roller block, but I didnt look too deeply into it. that would be another way to go.