I have been disassembling some stock 440 rods from pistons and reconditioning/balancing them and was wondering how much does balancing big/small ends versus overall weight matter. The reading on the internet is all over the map in my opinion. The sets I have worked on always have a rod or 2 that are out of wack compared to the rest. Stock rods coming out of motors probably in factory condition.

The latest set had 6 rods around 852gm with big ends at about 604gms. But #1 was 875, and #8 was 865. But the lightest rod at 851 had a big end at 612. I was able to bring #1 in at about 855 and 604, and #8 about 854 and 604 but clearly the density distribution of the lightest rod is way off. Swap it out or is that close enough considering total weights. This is not for a high performance engine, but just curious how this is viewed and not the first set of rods I have seen where one or two rods way off from the factory, or the big end versus total weight mismatch. Thanks,