Let me elaborate a little more on my "rods: good" thing.

Yes, it is true you usually have to spend a little more to balance those rods with your assembly but from what a few machinists have told me it isn't because of the forging of the rod, its just the design of the H-beam.

Also...the reason why i say those rods are good is because i have yet to hear from someone who has broken them meaning the rod itself. It is usually something else that happens first and then takes out the rod. This isn't just my personal hearsay either...this is coming from many race shops and machinists in my area to use them. They have all told me the same thing, they see the rod bolt or something else let go before the rod ever does.

i can give quite a few examples of very high horsepower motors ranging from 800-1200 living with these rods.

Now the cranks are a different story, i will agree with anyone that thinks they aren't very good for a high performance application. I have heard numerous stories of them breaking and just recently had a friend who literally snapped the snout off of his eagle 4340 forged crank ON MOTOR and its not like he has a 9 second on motor car either....it wasn't a balancing issue either in case you ask about that.

These are some of my opinions and some of the racers/machinists around by city's opinions.

The cool thing about stuff like this is that everyone has opinions and makes you consider a lot of stuff you usually wouldn't have before hand