*** SHORT VERSION: What is the orientation of the connecting rods to the engine? *** Long version : I've looked in many, many places looking for an a plain answer to this. None exists. My ride : 04 Ranger 4L V6 SOHC 4x4 (has jack shaft, but no balance shaft). Every plastic piece virtually disintegrated while doing some hauling. No mechanic would touch the engine without wanting a ridiculously high amount. So, wanting to learn and not having a better opportunity, I've ventured into doing it myself for the first time (for a complete teardown). Engine is out and apart. Completely tore down. . I have new pistons (and reman'd heads) and know the orientation of the pistons. But what about con-rods? I balanced the pistons. Need to check the con rods once the 2 I've ordered (to replace 2 I bent removing pins while being distracted and not paying attention) and install the rods to the pistons. But what is the orientation of the rods? I haven't seen any markings on the Ford rods. I did on the pistons; They had a convex "pimple". Having nearly 200k miles on the odometer, a LOT of the marks were severely if not completely obscured when removed. Rods have numbers in multiple places, but I have yet to find any arrows or such. Are all of the oil holes and/or pin end weights on the same side? (Please use DS - Driver Side - and PS - Passenger Side; I keep running across those who use RS and LS (right and left) and when you corner them, they're not all using the same orientation. That's extremely frustrating. DS and PS eliminates that no matter what orientation. Thanks!). I'm going to get the shop to press the old con bolts out, press the new bolts in, and resize them all.

 

I'm sure you've figured it out by now, but I just finished putting mine back together and ran into the same issue. All the connecting rods have the same orientation regardless of the bank.
All of them have the the oil nub sticking out on the passenger side, and the counter-weight on the wrist pin end goes on the driver side.
I opened up a spare motor to confirm before I reassembled mine.





All pistons will have this orientation, with the front marking of the piston pointed up