The lower connecting rod end has a brass bushing. On one side, it's milled flush with the side of the rod. The other side has a small bevel on the edge. The bevel goes towards the crankshaft counterweight.

We'd have no idea if there's a heli-coil available to fix the threads in the exhaust port of your engine. It's a very fine-pitch metric thread. The thread size is M11 x 0.75