1) Grind in the direction of the grain, not across rod. ex., big end to little end.

2) it is a lot of work with hand tools such as a die grinder. A burr works better than a stone.

3) use old rod bolts to protect the mounting pad for the bolt.

4) grind off only enought to get the casting off and smooth.

5) lastly, make sure you re-balance the rods and your rotating assembly.

I did a set once and it was a lot of work. Do I think it helped? Not a bit since I was turning under 7000.

If polishing... polish first, then shot-peen. Not the other way around.

I didn't even fool with polishing the beams of the 289 rods in my current engine. However, they DID get shot-peened and recieved ARP wavelock bolts.

Good Luck!