yep...from 2001 on all FS's had a forged crank...and the rods quickly became the weakest link...After tearing them out and doing quick tests...it appears overall they are pretty strong...But the recipricating specs of the assembly, and the long stroke...puts a huge amount of inertial load on them...and they are usually the first to fail...
Senor...I cut a set of 4 rods at school out of preforged billet aluminum...They are more or less a test set simply to see if there is any feasible way to get the FS to breathe up around 8 grand...I had to do some CAD work, as well as SolidWorks Plus for a summer class a few weeks ago, and decided to "keep" my project...
These rods are most likely only slightly stroner than stock...But they are much ligher, and will inherantly take less inerital loads at the "big end" because of that...Aluminum, forged or not, is not the most reliable and powerful metal to use in the engine...and cutting them from billet gives goofy grain patterns at the thrust bearing journals...So in the end, I can't see myself using these for very long...But since they were literally paid for with tuition, I will see how they do...