Cryogenics and less engine wear?

[V6 Diesel]

Is anyone familiar with this process?
Was talking to someone who is rebuilding his engine and is going to have the entire engine treated, cost it about $500. Basically the parts are frozen in nitrogen.
Found companies that do this work on the web, sounds popular with the racing crowd.
It is claimed parts last 2 to 3 times longer and are much stronger. The stress is taken out of the parts, sort of a tempering method from what I understand.

So it would seem like any uoa's from an engine treated should be very low.

Anyone familiar with it and seen how it works?

[ October 19, 2003, 01:33 PM: Message edited by: V6 Diesel ]

 

[Virtuoso]

It is a tempering process. A few people in the SHO group have had tranmission internals treated..our 3rd gears seem to shred after 400+ HP. I don't know how well it would help an engine, though. Suppose it couldn't hurt.

 

[Flimflam]

quote:

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Originally posted by V6 Diesel:
Is anyone familiar with this process?
Was talking to someone who is rebuilding his engine and is going to have the entire engine treated, cost it about $500. Basically the parts are frozen in nitrogen.
Found companies that do this work on the web, sounds popular with the racing crowd.
It is claimed parts last 2 to 3 times longer and are much stronger. The stress is taken out of the parts, sort of a tempering method from what I understand.

So it would seem like any uoa's from an engine treated should be very low.

Anyone familiar with it and seen how it works?

---

Cryogenics: back in 1995, I read about some of the Daytona Crowd: NASCAR and AMA (AMA are the bike racers). They were alleged to have used cryogenics on all their high-stress engine and trans parts. But don't quote me on this. For all I know, it may be a BS and smokescreen job.

 

[outrun]

If you have the money to tear down and treat and reinstall all your heavy metal components Cry treatment is the way to go.

No "BS" as previously cited.

Personally, the most common part I have seen done are brake rotors. Cryo treatment typically triples the life of these high grind high temp parts.

Especially peices that are prone to warpage

(Right 98+ F-Body owners??!

On differential ring and pinion gears in addition the results are quite exceptional from what I have heard.

If I had the money and time, I would not hesitate to take any stock engine apart and treat the block, pistons, crank, rings etc to a cryo dip. And I would also throw on some high tech coatings on the piston crowns as well.

Dream on Outrun-

 

[got boost?]

cryogenic treatment is good if you need a part to maintain very high tolerances when operating in extremely cold (arctic) climates. there is no real benefit to doing it otherwise. it's a real process, but only for very specialized purposes. parts are always done before final machining. doing a motor or tranny could cause dimensional changes that will adversesly affect durability. basically it is snake oil.

 

[labman]

Cryogenics is a real process, and may help in racing where very small margins make a big difference. Forget it for even the most abused street machine except for parts that are frequently replaced. It does dramatically reduce wear, but with regular changes of quality oil and filters, modern engine internals show very little wear.

I used it in a industrial application back in the 80's. Where you are regularly removing expensive, short lived cutters and sending them out to be sharpened, it is a great process.

 

[Kestas]

I am quite familiar how cryotreating works. Cryotreating is most useful for tool steels. That's because they are expensive to make, small parts to treat, and are made of heat treated steel which is a material that makes the best use of cryotreating. Cryotreating can remarkably extend the life of tools and this has been documented in testing reported in respectable journals.

For most other metals it is simply used to stabilize dimensions.

A lot of it is snake oil. If you want, I can tell you whether a part will benefit from cryotreating on a case-by-case basis. I use liquid nitrogen in my lab - this is the stuff used for crytreatments - yet I have no desire to dip my engine and transmission parts in this stuff, even when I was rebuilding my Cutlass engine some time ago. The benefits are marginal at best.

 

[Dan4510]

Moving this thread to general and off topic.

Dan