copper dipped con rod

I was sorting out the parts on my spare T/A motor and wondered about this rod. It is completely covered in a thin layer of copper. The motor had several failures in its short life. It had rods from two different engines and two new rods. One was normal but the other was completely covered in copper. Even the rods bolts and nuts wee covered. The bearing surface and bushing were clean. Any ideas? All I could figure out that it may have been to add a little weight to balance it. IDK. It blasted off for the most part in my glass bead cabinet.

The copper layer is used by the factory to get an out of spec rod back into spec.

They sometimes copper plated rods to get the bearing specs within tolerance.

There were some 440 HP motor's in 70 that had a complete set of copper 6bbl rod's in them.

Some motors use copper to dissipate heat. Tim

None of the bearing surfaces were coated so all it did was add weight.

I have a set of these rods out of a 1973 340. My machinest says that he has seen and used thousands of these rods and it is not a concern.

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I have a set of these rods out of a 1973 340. My machinest says that he has seen and used thousands of these rods and it is not a concern.

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It seems to be more common on the 340 rods from the factory, I have several extra 340 rod now,both early and late forgings, one is coated the others are not If you want some more cores PM me $10.00 each plus the actual shipping costs