Cryogenic Treatments for SRT Engine Parts?

Found an interesting read and wondered if this was a cheaper way to strengthen engine parts?

When putting more power through an engine you need to ensure that every part will perform at its optimum.

One of the motorsports favourite techniques to improve the durability of an engine is a process know as cryogenic treatments.

As you can guess from the use of the word Cryo - it involves the cooling and heating of the engine block to temper the metal changing its structure.

First the engine is slowly cooled in liquid nitrogen. The liquid nitrogen is added to the sealed tank in very precise measures, too fast and you risk causing stress fractures in the metal.

After you have reached around -350F the engine temperature is slowly raised up again to over 300 F over a 12 hour period or so.

This process is repeated 3 or 4 times over the course of a week. The process will work on any metal engine part with popular use for hardening the block, pistons and crank.

The camshaft is also a high wear area of a performance tuned engine and will benefit from cryo treatment. It is best that the parts are cryo treated separately and then assembled.
Extreme cooling and heating has a massive effect on the engines durability and reliability.

The cooling and heating of the metal aligns the 'metal molecules' and allows them to be much more tightly packed together. This cooling and heating actually traps carbon atoms that do not have time to diffuse out of the crystal structure.

It forms a more symmetrical crystalline lattice which is much tougher than untreated metal. Known as a Martensitic structure this process has been used to strengthen blades and cutting surfaces and is now being applied to engine tuning.

It allows the head gasket and valves to seat better and this will also improve engine efficiency and power. It also improves the lubricity of 2 surfaces as there are less friction causing imperfections again raising the power output of the engine.

Rather than just affecting the surface of the metal the slow temperature changes allow the entire metal to attain the benefits.

Any stress points in the metal are thus removed and the result is that the engine is much harder and will cope with a lot more stress.

The internal friction of the surfaces is reduced giving an instant power gain. Because internal friction is lower the engine is more reliable and some sources quote 8 times the wear resistance for certain metals after a cryogenic treatment along with improved tensile strength.

There are not many places offering this service but there are some specialists out there. The relative cost to benefit ratio is fantastic and will give you a distinct advantage in the competitive motorsports arena allowing you to raise the bar of your engine power.

Not only will you gain power and a longer engine life you will also get better fuel consumption as the engine is more efficient with less internal friction. TorqueCars see Cryogenic treatments as a win/win situation.

We anticipate that performance parts suppliers will be listed "cryo treated" items as premium parts alongside their usual catalogues. As interest in this grows you are best to get in there quickly and gain the competitive advantage.

 

This is what stanko does with his StageIII Heads I believe to run FI or large shots of the giggle juice!

 

I have rear gears enroute to me right now that have been croyed..:bigwink:

 

Milan, just park you car outside in January for 30 seconds... geesh! LMAO!

I think the physics to that idea sound ok, but isn't part of the metal forging/casting process heating and cooling already? Maybe its the extreme temps?!?!

 

Someone should test cryo treated half shafts to see if maybe they hold together a little better. I mean... I know it will not make it take 1000hp.
But to maybe take a Nitrous 100 shot with DR's would be nice.
If someone lives near Rochester, NY, or wants to ship them there. I could set up them getting them treated for free for testing.
I am not running the best mods for the test.

 

This is what I've heard about the stock shafts...that they simply weren't treated properly...HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM. Maybe I should make a call tomorrow. Stay tuned!!

Oh wait...I think the tone rings have some sort of magnetic quality that ahs to be retained in order to work properly. But the shafts themselves may be useful. I'm sure someone had to have thought of this though.

 

You will have to remove the tone ring...I think.
Anybody know how they are constructed?
How about a closeup pic?

 

Being "sort of" involved in the heat treat industry, from the pics I have seen of the shafts is it appears to be a heat treatment issue and the worst is the material grain quality. This is visible where the axle attches to the hub, usually seen right where it breaks.
Cryogenic treatment will definately help strengthen the axle, how much is to be found out.
However with some materials your may need a temper at 1,000 F (or higher) before the cryo treatment. Sometimes this is needed more than once....called a double temper. I have no idea if our axles need a temper or not. However if someone knows exactly what the stock axle material is?

 

Actually to maintain the thread also.....lol

There a lot of stories of HP gains and longer life with cyro treated engine parts. It is a whole industry. Stronger block.....less twist.

 

Yup my Stanko stage 3 heads, springs, and valves have been cryoed.

 

Mister (Jim) had his halfshafts Cryo'd on his 5.7.

They did break eventually, but it was after many many 1/4 mile and road racing runs. But they did break. So I would consider this a band aid fix to the halfshafts.

 

Wonder how much he paid to get them done. I'm not sure it's worth it if it merely extends the life of the shaft.

 

if that was true then my whole freaking truck is treated from -40 in burlington!!!!! hahaha

i have heard this before and i could never decide if i thought it was fake or not hahahaha

 

I have had a few parts cryo'd too.

I have seen claims of 15% increase in durability of parts cryo'd.

 

http://www.srtconnection.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6075&highlight=toner+ring&page=2

 

If some one wants to test a set of cryo'd half shafts.
I can get a set done for free.
You take care of shipping to me and back.
I would also like to get hold of a good set of pics showing how these shafts break and what the break looks like. Does anyone have a good set of pics or, a thousand times better, a set of busted shafts? The guy that is doing the cryo wants to see the break, to see the inner grain structure.
He would also like pictures of the cryo'd shaft when it breaks.
With some trial and error, he may be able to make them cryo better. Some times it is necessary to temper the shaft before cryo. A "temper" relieves the stress and strengthens the grain microsturcture with about a 1000 F soak. This means he does a temper folllowed by a cryo.

 

Ummm, Erik should have all the above? And wasn't someone working with a vendor or a vendor working on cryo'd half shafts? I've seen some excellent pics of busted half shafts. Just can't remember where or when but they're out there (probably here too).

The only part I'd wonder about on doing blocks and internal parts is clearances. They mentions relieving stress points/areas in the metal. I'd think if it was stressed before and it's not now then it might have changed shape too right?

 

Not uaually.... the relieving of "internal stress" rarely leads to dimensial changes. Quite commonly welded compoenets are stress relieved with no dimensial changes. It only relieves the stress between the parent metal and weld material internally.

 

Well, I'll be swapping to the HD half-shafts soon made by DSS...only problem is I'll need the tone rings. I will have a set of stockers left though. Anyone?

 

This process has been around for a while and a "secret" used by top engine builders. Our Mondello proprietary heads are offered cryogenically treated as an option.