Newer Rod's Strength info, assessment

[Superdave]

I'm not surprised, what all have you done to your engine?

http://www.v6z24.com/registry/whitelightning2

[Joseph Upson]

As Homer Simpson would say "Ssswweeeeet" and a drop of spittle follows. Sounds like anything less than 7K would be a limitation with that build up.

[SHOoff]

Still the fuel cutoff has ZERO to do with the rods ability to take the RPM or Power

I have to agree with that. But I think that what's been stated throughout the responses is the manufacturer's standards. It would be stupid for them to have an engine that they let rev to 6000rpm when the rods can only handle that speed. They are gonna want that 'safe zone' so to speak, in case of any types of small manufacturing defects that would deviate that speed a bit, maybe not enough to blow it during normal operation, but on the high end. This makes sure that they're not spending money on warranty issues. And they'll probably spend a lot of it if ten thousand cars leave a rod hanging out the side of their engine block. What it all boils down to is GM making money, and not spending it.

While I can agree that it may be true that the newer engines MAY have stronger rods that can handle more speed, I have to disagree that they're going to get very far in a performance application.

[RacerX11]

GM manufactures two kinds of PM rods, powder metal & forged powder metal, unless there are several typos across the engines that only list straight PM.
Then there are Sinter Forged rods found in the 3.6L which may only differ by a heat treatment or maybe not at all

Powder Metal, Forged Powder Metal, and Sinter Forged all mean the same thing.