To set up my crane rockers on my stealth headed 470 I bought .650 spacers. To get .030 clearance and center the rockers on the valve tips I had to machine down the hold downs and the spacers. Problem is it's hard to be accurate and keep the rocker centered with .030 clearance and every time I loosen the hold downs they don't tighten back in the same spot (slack in the bolt hole). Is it worth the effort to use the spacers or should I put the crane springs on and shim from there to center the rocker on the valve tip? Thanks, Scott.

Probably doesn't matter either way unless you're really spinning the motor hard. The springs work fine as long as you use a hard shim on each end so the spring isn't wearing into the rocker arm.

At high rpm the rocker arms probably wiggle around a lot more with springs than they would with spacers but that is just a guess. I've never actually seen anyone film a Mopar valve train with a high speed camera.

My sons 500 stroker is running Crane golds with springs on Eddy heads. He is putting about 500 HP to the rear wheels and shifts at about 6,200 at the track plus does a fair amount of street driving for about 3 yrs now with no problemo!

We ran the Cranes with springs for 6 seasons on Eddy heads. 2 yrs. with the 446 spinning 7200 at the traps and the last 4 yrs. in the 496 spinning 6800 at the traps. No problems

I've never had a problem using the springs.I think you'll be fine.

Although I like a well spaced set of rockers, the issue you mentioned with the holddown bolt holes makes keeping the clearance during assemble tight, difficult. IMO, 0.015-0.030" tolerance should not be a big deal, but does take care installing. You can change your specs to 0.025-0.040" and that tends to be easier, but allows more movement.

Depending on application, the springs with hardened steel shims (0.015" or more) on each side of the spring, and between each rocker and holddown will work very well. For a low 6000 rpm engine, I think that will be fine. Over 7000 I would suggest going to the trouble, as well as all the rest for a motor spinning the valve train higher.