Carrillo rods

Hello all,
My con rods seem to have nicks and scratches. Ive tried polishing them off but can still see slight nicks. I'm not sure how important this is but I have heard when in doubt chuck them out. Which leads to my question I have found on the web that I can buy a pair of Carrillo rods for $499 US, which seems cheaper than standard new. Is there anything I should know about these rods when using them in the 750 (Combat). Ie do I use standard Norton bearing shells. Not having the oil holes in the side of the rods as standard ones do cause a problem? Crank balancing, can it cause problems?

Thanks in advance Bryan

I've never used Carrillo rods, but I'm pretty sure you would need to have the crank balanced.
I have Norton ones in my racer which I polished and then had shot peened. The scratches would have to be quite deep to make them too deep to polish out.
My rods are now in their 23 rd year of ( admittedly infrequent) racing.

Thanks for the reply John.
I'm not sure how much to polish out. How much material I can take off. How deep is deep? Perhaps I should add some photos. I don't have any other rods to make comparisons. But I would have thought they should be perfectly smooth.

Perfectly smooth sounds about right. I'd hate to advise you to use them only to have them break! If you're worried about it go for Carrillos or even a set of new Norton ones. I had to do quite a bit of balancing to get both rods the same with my Norton rods.

Bryan, I have Carrillo rods in my 1971 Commando Cafe Racer with 4S camshaft, gas-flowed and skimmed head and 32mm intakes. The Carrillo rods use standard bearing-shells, I carefully drilled the missing oil holes, using the old bearing shell as a guide for locating the drill. I recall reading somewhere that these oil holes were actually superfluous on Commandos, but I was unwilling to take the risk. I did have the crank dynamically balanced, simply because I thought it was good practice, particularly with non-standard components and a slightly more stressed engine. I would do this for any engine that I dismantle as far as the crank. Another option is to send your existing rods away to be x-rayed, polished and shot-peened by a specialist.

Hello Dave,
I just got off the phone with a machinist with experience building race Nortons. He said the Carrillo rods are heavier than the stock rods but are stronger. I had to be careful with the choice of Pistons ( I got GPM's O.K) or my crank will look like swiss cheese (JPs are bit too heavy) .

Sorry to ressurect an old topic, Bryan, but just wondering where you found your Carrillo rods for $499? I've just been quoted $725 + $150 (!) shipping from Carrillo.....