I have an old Super Tigre S2000 on which you can clearly hear the conrod clicking at idle or when you flip the prop by hand... it has never missed a beat. it doesn't seem to matter that much.

Run your old Veco... if it fails: bummer... if it holds: have fun. There's not much more you can do about except making a new rod, but I don't know if it's worth that much trouble...