[ted]

Ernie,
I no longer use Lemans rods for Fe builds although I have boxes of used ones laying around. The cost of rebuilding a set of used Lemans rods now makes it cost prohibitive versus the cost of brand new aftermarket rods. I prefer using the Eagle rods or suitable counterpart whenever possible as they are now reasonably priced using brand new material and are lighter than the Lemans rods. At this point, material fatigue due to age and use are a major consideration against using any used rod in a performance build. And regarding the CJ rods, I'm not a fan of the 3/8" bolt kit that is supplied by ARP as a replacement for the stock CJ bolts. At this point, I'll use the standard 390 or 428 Thunderjet rods with the non-shanked ARP rod bolt set when wanting to use a stock set of rods in an engine build.

Just my thoughts on connnecting rods.

Ted Eaton.