Who makes best forged connecting rods?
The Best V8 Stories One Small Block at Time
Scroll down to page 66 of their catalogue for rod info....not cheap but these
are top dog american made stuff
only rod that would survive in Nascar environments, and has since been cop-
ied by everyone. There are dozens of reasons why they are so fricken expen-
sive and are probably overkill for most builds....but your thread title did say
BEST. Most of the modern copy cats that are under 400 bucks are forged
AND machined in China. The 500-800 dollar range rods are forged over there
and rough machined before being sent here for finish machining. Quality
control on machining is very important. I've taken cheap H-beams to the
machine shop for balancing with an assembly and found that they needed to
be sized on the big end because of tightness and inconsistency. The pin end
bushings almost always need a quick honing to loosen the pin clearance from
.0004" to .0008". Pretty standard and usually is only 4 bucks per rod.
All American made rods usually start at 1000 and quickly escalate from there
The purity standards for the alloy is much more cleaner, meaning the molec-
ular grain structure is better from the start...prior to the machining. Then the
quality of machines as well as the operator using it is IMO just plain better
on our soil. Again the problem is that most builds can't justify the expense
and not too many people care about where their stuff comes from as long as
it does the job. Most import rods will do just that.......Your call
I've made over 800whp with Callies Compstar rods in a nitrous LS7.
Both cars were abused at the track and Tx Mile events.
No need to complicate things, waste a ton of money, and go overkill on this. Shelf Wiseco piston and a 6.125" Callies H-Beam will handle just about anything you throw at it.
Callies makes a Compstar rod with the stock dimensions, Part# CSC6100DS6A2AH. (Actually 6.100" instead of the stock 6.098" to be exact)
These are said to be good to 800 HP at crank and come with the 7/16" ARP 2000 bolts installed.
Here is my list of other budget friendly aftermarket rods with stock dimensions I have been looking at:
- Manley 14114-8 Sportsmaster I-Beam, 550 HP, 8K RPM rating
- Eagle CRS6100M3D, 700 HP rating, 1100 HO rating with ARP2000 bolts
- SCAT 66100945
If you are replacing pistons and rods, I would be going with a 6.125 rod, as it also has a smaller wrist pin and lighter overall weight.










