My $.02 is I haven't been able to get any rod through my machinist's inspection. I bought some Manley Hemi I-beam rods off a SS Hemi racer. They were new in the box. The rod bolts were galled on the threads and under the bolt heads and cap. I paid $1300 for the rods and then another $1000 to get them fixed - new rod bolts, ring dowels, remachine the big ends and touch up the rod bolt seating areas, etc.

I've taken a set of 440 K1 rods and some Manley 440 I-beams to him. The Manleys checked out dimensionally, but the rods were in the mid-20s on the HRC scale, so basically in the annealed or normalized condition for 4340. The K1s were in the mid-30s HRC, but had some ovality in the pin and big end bores.

My machinist likes the Crowers and Carrillos and the CARR bolts. I'm thinking that is the way to go on an all out race engine. Why spend money ($600or so) on new rods, and then have to spend more fixing them? CARR bolts are about $50 each, so that's $800 for rod bolts alone. For the money I got in those Hemi rods, I would have been better off buying Carrillos with better bolts.