I really doubt you have a rod knocking. Do you have an engine stethoscope? Also called a mechanics stethoscope, you can get one at any auto parts store. Northern Tool's website lists them for $5:
With this little dude you can pinpoint the source of the noise.
The rod rides the crank on a needlebearing, and the crank rides in roller bearings in the engine cases - It's not a plain bearing setup like a car engine. The bottom end of the Savage is completely bulletproof.
The top end, however, is the weak link -- plain-bearing all the way, not even any soft metal inserts - just steel-on-steel and steel-on-aluminum. You can imagine it can't stand being without oil, and can get very noisy.
I hope you don't have what I had on my first Savage and on my current project Savage.
My first Savage, a 98, had been oil starved and had so much wear on the rocker arm "lifter" surfaces that you had to adjust the valve screws WAY down, and even then the exhaust rocker was hitting the decompression rod and the top of the head rather than following the cam's low spots. Hell of alot of noise it made. Alot of well-intentioned folks said the rod was loose, but that was not the case for me. Rocker arm replacement hushed the noise.
Of course there are alternatives to rocker replacement, like heating/bending the lifter arm; or welding up the lifter surface and re-surfacing it. Then re-heat treat the whole thing in the winter time when you have a good fire going.
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