The '68 onwards GT6 and pre '73 TR6 rods are the same.
The very early GT6 had a wider big-end, shared with Vanguard 6. The beam of
the rod is very thin, like a Spitty rod. I doubt anyone would be copying
these GT6 rods, as the bearings are getting very hard to find
The post '73 6 cyl rods had a hole drilled thru the big-end to allow 1 rod
bolt hole to be tapped easier. The Spit 1500 used these rods
Whilst these later rods looked "weak", i have never seen one fail in a stock
engine. Even on race engines, they dont seem to fail thru the hole, but
rather by bolt breakage and/or cap fretting
All the above rods are exactly the same length.
The weights however vary considerably. This is not a bother if you are
building a balanced engine, but is an issue if you are swapping stuff
around.
I build a lot of modern turbo race and stock engines. conrods are rarely an
issue, but i have used quite a few "chinese" sets at circa $500
set because that is less cost to the customer than stuffing around trying to
fix/grind/balance/shot-peen 4 old rods. never had a problem provided they
came with genuine ARP bolts.
Terry
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