“These builders are really confident in what they’re doing, and they know they have a really good rod-to-stroke ratio, which basically is how comfortable that rod is going up and down,” explains Turner. “Is it going up and down nicely? Or when it comes down to the bottom of the bore, is the big-end of the rod kicked over so far that when it comes back up, it almost wants to push the piston out the side of the block?”

Engine builders pushing the limit perform careful calculations to know where they can save a few grams on the piston, too. “Most of the time, if they’re using an ultra-lightweight rod, they’ve got a very light wrist-pin, they’ve got a light piston, and they’re typically doing a really thin ring pack, something close to 1.0, 1.0, 1.2-mm — they’re doing everything really, really lightweight.”

• 
• 
• 

Whether it’s 85 degrees outside or five-below-zero, Oliver’s northern-Michigan facility maintains a constant temperature inside for consistency. Since the components can expand and contract with temperature, controlling the temperature of production seems like a logical step when you're shooting for accuracy to the ten-thousandth of an inch.

Beefing Up the Big End

Rods typically fail not in the beam, but in the big end, so some builders spec one of several available high-strength bolts. These include the industry-standard ARP 2000, an L19 bolt, or the king of the steels, the CA625 bolt. The “CA” stands for “Custom-Age,” the strongest alloy of steel in Oliver’s arsenal.