I'm sure that I remember reading in more than one source when the SVT Contour was new that it had forged pistons. I can't find one of those articles at the moment, but I did find something interesting in the SVT Contour broucher that I got when I bought my car. It refers to the rods as forged (really?) on the same line as describing the pistons "aluminum alloy".
The brochure is quite large (10" x 12"), has a dark blue (Ford blue) cover, is labeled "Special Vehicle Team 1998 Contour", and has 14 pages inside plus a fold out double page of a beautiful cutaway drawing of the SVT Contour by David Kimble. I destroyed one copy of the broucher to take that cutaway drawing and frame it to hang in my family room.
The pages are not numbered, but on what would be page 5 it says the following:
"Forged Rods, Aluminum-Alloy Pistons"
"The connecting rods are sinter-forged alloy components. They are made from powered metal that is compacted into the rough shape of a connecting rod and then 'hot-struck' at 1,024 degrees Celsius in a 600- ton press. After forging, the rod big ends are mechanically fracture-split to create the bearing caps. Due to the irregular, interlocking surfaces along the fracture line, a Duratec bearing cap and rod can be reassembled only one way, ensuring an exact fit and making the entire bearing cap assembly especially strong."
"The SVT Contour V6's specially designed alluminum-alloy pistons deliver a compression ratio of 10.0:1. The piston pins are full floating, reducing friction. Like the main bearing inserts, the rod bearing inserts are aluminum alloy."
I can see how someone reading this quickly may have the mistaken impression that it said forged pistons. I'm sure that I did read that somewhere else though.
Back to the rods for a moment. I certainly would not equate this sintered metal with cracked caps with the strength normally associated with forged rods. It makes me wonder if the "forged rods" slated for the SVT Focus are also really the same thing as the normal Zetec rods. Maybe this is an example of "Fordspeak".
