4.8 rods
They are all powdered metal which is surprisingly strong to the uniform granular structure, the difference is later engines have "floating" rods meaning the pins are held in by circlips compared to the press fit bushings of older gen LS engines...I can tell from experience my 2005 l33 rods looked better than my buddies brand new eagle rods he put in his ford 302...also the rod bolts are where you need the strength so if you wanna upgrade your rods upgrade the bolts...be aware though that some upgraded rod bolts require the rod to be resized by a machine shop...good luck
Yes You have them honed out .002" and clevite or Federal Mogule makes every undersize and standard that are .002" larger outer diameter . Oh and BTW the LS based 3rd n 4th gen rods are forged powdered metal . Why They are'nt as strong as other forged rods must be the metal and/or the process of how they are made ???????
They are actually pretty strong due to their being cracked..which means the rod is made as a whole piece and they crack the bottom cap which makes the mating surfaces an exact fit rather than making the rod and cap separate and then millig them to be completely flat to mate correctly...I do believe resizing is a little more finicky than traditional rods
