Someone on another forum told me that these rods are forged. Its a 4 bolt LT1, from a 1995 vette. Im looking to have it rebuilt locally, and was asking about installing 6" forged rods, in anticipation of a big nitrous shot in the future. Anyway, Im being told these are forged.

They're PM rods.

Don't the PM rods have then end of the rod rounded off.....

Those are forged....

How can I tell for sure? Im considering paying a couple hundred bucks for forged rods, and would rather not, if they are already forged. Also, how can I tell if the pistons are stock, then?

Appears to be a stock motor to me. Those are the stock pistons, you should see Mahle stamped on the inside of them. Also on the skirts you might see blue writing for the cylinder. Also on the pistons face after you clean up the carbon you will probably see arrows.

You are right LOL - I'm sorry for the misinformation - I should have looked more closely. Those do have the parting line of a forged rod - the pistons and crank look like stock cast.

So are they forged from the factory?

What rods, where is the pic? If they are factory for a '95 LT1, they are not forged. I am not an expert on production lines, but it is very hard to think that somehow a set of forged rods accidently found themselves in a motor.

Rich

ps: if you need new rods, look at the Callies Compstar. But the weak pint of the stock LT1 rotating assy is not the rods or crank - it's the pistons. They do NOT tolerate detonation/high cylinder pressures.

Why would there be forged rods, but have stock cast pistons and crank...

Thats what Im trying to figure out. They dont look like the PM rods I have seen in a couple pictures. And a quick measure shows the cylinder is over bored. It should be exactly 4.0, well it isnt. Ill have to run to work and get my calipers, but its been over bored.

up into early 95 it was possible for an LT1 to get "pink" rods which are are forged rods originally used in the musclecar era LT-1.

I have a set in my 94 shortblock BUT it has been a year and a half since I saw them and that is not something I can go look at without a pretty significant amount of work at the moment. Do a search for "pink rods" and see if what you find matches these.

If those are the pink rods, they arent any better than the PM rods anyway - but those are pretty good in their own right. I dont think rods die from too much compression as much as they do from too much rpms where the bolts let go or the big end gets distorted.

Agreed on all counts.

The "pink" were the ultimate OEM rod for a couple decades till the PM rods came out. A lot of race motors have been built on them over the decades.

Are you sure? I am not arguing, just wondering what you are basing your statement on.