Damn John, don't sugar coat it.
THe PEP rod is like any rod. Check it and go from there. If the things need any work they go back to hughes. Simple.
My eagle rods needed work too. Hell the rods in many engine builds on here need work.
If im dumb enough to buy them, stick them in and run them and it goes bang, yeah my problem as I didn't check.
How many guys run 440 sources junk and have no issues? a lot. This is a very mild build. No reason to spend big coin.
If the block wasn't rough bored to .040 over I wouldn't be worried to run a resized LY, but its not worth it to stick over 350-400 bucks into my stock rods.
He must own the company that makes Oliver or Lentz rods and Chinese products sicken him.
I wouldn't hesitate to use them with the expectation that Hughes would make it right if they were really out of shape, but damn they are heavy
