Regards to the bent rod issue PEC would like to comment but they are having issues joining the forum but this is what they sent me to reply to the thread
"This is an open letter to all members of the Starlet club and anyone else who should read this. This thread was brought too my attention some time ago but I have not had the time to sit down and draft a response to some of the questions raised in this thread until now, apologies for the delay.
The rod that has been picturered earlier in this thread, as far as I know, is one of ours. What has been missed out though is that this is the first time I've seen this or have even been made aware of its existence. I have not knowingly dealt direct with any company called TB Performance and have not been contact by them relating too this matter so I can only assume that they have dealt with one of our re-sellers but then I have not heard anything from any of them either.
I have to query why the owner decided to post on forum's rather then contact the manufacturer or even the company who sold him the rods?
To clarify this statement:
Because of the bends it caused the bearing to overload on 1 side leading to bearing failure. This one was the first one to majorly fail where the bearing grabbed, spun then welding itself to the crank causing that huge bend and then pushing itself out the side of the engine block casing.
This is quite incorrect. Rods will not bend on their own, there has to be an external force. In this instance, it looks like an oil pressure or supply problem has caused the bearing to super heat due to lack of oil, then grip and spin on the rod / journal. If it gets hot enough, this will "weld" the bearing rod and journal together and cause the whole rotating assembly to grind to a hale mid cycle. This will bend the rod as it cannot take the forces being loaded on to it.
(if the link doesnt work James please let me know and I will send you the pic to post up).
This is a Peugeot rod that we were running in an engine in house with a new type of oil pump. The pump was running out of pressure at higher rpm's and was causing similar problems to those I mentioned above. Note the same decolourisation around the big end as the rod posted earlier, these are the tell tale signs oil supply problems.
We have often maintained that it does not matter who you buy from or how much you spend, if you have fundamental problems with your engine such as oil supply and detonation, it makes no difference wether you have spent £50 or £5000 the internal components will eventually fail.
To clear up some of the specific questions on here...
1. No, our rods are not made for us by Cosworth, nor do we make rods for Cosworth. We used to deal with Cosworth for pistons but that is another story.
2. Block notching. Older versions of our con rods used to need the blocks notching due to space constrictions inside the crank case. When designing rods, it is essential to leave enough material in places to maintain strength in key areas and also use the right radiuses to also maintain strength. Over time, we find ways to modify the rod drawings to improve strength and fitment, an evolution of the design if you will. Our present rod design is the optimal design we have at present but older versions are still more then up to the jobs they were supplied for and current customers should not worry.
Lastly, on a more personal note. Dave at TM was a close friend of the staff here and his loss is still felt. One of the reasons why Dave and ourselves became so close was his regular visits to us, helping us work on the design of Starlet components and us in return supporting him in his business and also explaining too him the technical constraints in mass manufacturing parts such as this.
We still love Starlet engines here and will continue to develop new components for them (watch out for some new pistons at the Autosport show) and if any one wants to know anything at all about anything and wants to show us anything that has happened to another person that we are unaware of (as has happened here), please contact me directly, we are always happy to try and help.
Dave - MD PEC
P.E.C. ltd
www.performanceenginecomponents.com
Europe's finest selection of Performance Engine Components
01376 583030 9-5 Mon-Fri
Due to large volumes of e-mails received, please include all previous e-mail messages when responding. This allows us to view the complete situation and will result in a quicker response. Thank you.
Interesting guaging pin 
