"The oil holes in the rod ends, as I understand it, are not to let the oil out."

This may not be the intention, but it is the fact, and it is detrimental to our little gems.

I had a talk to one of Sydney's noted engine tuners about this and his findings were that where an engine had oil hole/s in the big end of the conrod, there was significantly MORE wear on the back plate side of the crankpin.

His answer for this phenomena was pretty simple, simply do away with oil holes and add a crossed slot on the face of the conrod where it contacts the crank web. This acts as a pump to force oil along the entire length of the crankpin.

Greg