Adept connecting rods???

My thoughts - There are always corners cut in order to make a rod cheaper. It's not just labor costs that are lower. It's antique and worn out equipment doing the work. It's removing what some builders consider critical inspections, it's using iron whose grades are not tightly monitored or enforced, and removing higher skilled labor from final machining that makes Chinese stuff cheaper. A friend of mine is a millionaire because he's a liason between Chinese manufacturing and US companies. There are all kinds of issues with Chinese product and producers. Some will affect the end user. Some only affect the workers. But there are all kinds of things in play with that stuff and by using that product we all accept the risks and issues associated with producing it. For me, I do use the product but every chinese rod gets cycled and inspected carefully. I find issues where many others don't: pin bores too tight is common. So is the incorrect lube and/or torque specs on the hardware used - that means the final sizing is off once you use the right lube and torque them properly. The term "weight matched" has a different meaning in the far East too. These are all things that can be found and fixed - for a price. Usually it's still cheaper than a "better" rod. But not every time. Plus, there are casting issues that are not identifyable by any easy means. A certain percentage of any cast product is expected to have flaws. Inspections by the manufacturer will weed out some. Others will be weeded out during the finishing phase when something is noticed. But the cheaper rods skip some inspection steps with the understanding that as long as the profit margin is high enough, some failures are acceptible and can be blamed on other means and nobody's going to send the money to find out it was really the rod.
On these rods - I wouldnt want to be the guinea pig. I can have a very good set of stock rods done for $250.