Hole is a thru hole. Both ARP and 440 say they have never seen it unless an air drive wrench used. Which certainly was not the case. Rod is obsolete so no joy with another from the source. This build is an old 66 hemi block that I salvaged and got in a lot. So not a lot invested. It is not going into the space shuttle or some NHRA record setting car, so even if a catastrophic failure occurs it will be along the lines of a 15 min trip at 40mph to the cruise in. Not 8 secs at 160mph down the track. Crank. rods and pistons I got for nothing, and the set up looks like it was never used. So while the quality maybe crap based on the rods, this build is probably less than what some of you guys spend on a weekend golf outing or your lawn mower

So I am going to use the rod and see how it goes. It will be run and broken in on a test stand. The rod has more internal threads than the nascar rods used with a nut. So from a fastener perspective there is plenty of good threads to hold the torque.

I was just shocked that the bolt galled like that.