Hi all:

 I've been slowly, slowly rebuilding two 2.0l Vanagon engines, and today
 I set out to test fit the (refurbished) connecting rods to the cranks.
 (I plan to plastigauge them to make sure clearances are correct.)
 However, in reading my manual (Clymer) I've run across a couple of
 things that have me puzzled.

 First, the manual says "make sure the forge mark of the rod faces up
 as shown in FIGURE 96."  FIGURE 96 is a small photo of a crank with
 the 4 rods attached, and there's an arrow to a small white mark on
 the center of each rod.  This seems to be refering to some marking I
 should be able to distinguish on the rods but, frankly, both sides of
 all the rods look more or less the same.  That is, there's (I guess)
 a forge mark about 1/4" wide down the center of both sides of the
 rod.

 I made notes to myself so I know the orientation of the old rods (I
 used the numbers stamped on the caps) but I'm forced to assume the
 old rods were installed correctly.  Can anybody clear up this matter
 of rod orientation?  Does it make any difference?

 Secondly, the manual says "peen each rod nut into the slot on the rod
 to lock it in place (FIGURE 97)."  Figure 97 is a line drawing
 showing a close up of an assembled rod; it looks like each rod is
 supposed to have a small "slot" right where it interfaces with the
 nut, and this slot receives the peened material from the nut.  But,
 I'm sure not seeing any "slot" on any of the rods I'm holding in my
 hand.  Can anybody help out with this?

 Thanks.

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Tom Young               young@sherlock.SIMS.Berkeley.EDU
Lafayette, CA  94549    '81 Vanagon
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