Which is why I said "there's that word again". You only have to mention the name of that particular country and the haters will come out.

My point about the finish machine work was that I have read or heard very few material-related failures of the 4340 Chinese forgings, the most-often criticism was the accuracy of things from the machining process like tapered journals or journals not indexed properly. Many of these opinions came from Dan(RIP) at Performance Only back when he was posting using a different handle.

What the haters won't admit is that before the start of the Chinese forgings, there were precious few ways to make a stroker Mopar that didn't involve buying $1100 rods and cranks(that's in 1995 dollars). So basically the whole era of cheap Mopar strokers (as well as most other brands)came straight outta' China.

But haters gotta hate.

Now to the question of made in the USA. I have seen forged 6" chevy connecting rod blanks on the 'bay for $2 each. So if I buy a box of them and invest in the machinery and skilled labor to turn them into finished rods that cost me a total of $25, where was most of the money spent? By some definitions, that rod is made in the USA. Happens all the time in industry. Guys in Wisconsin assembling foreign parts into valves that have "Made in USA" printed onto their nameplates.

End of rant.

R.