Posted by THEWASP on Friday, January 19, 2001 at 2:08PM :
In Reply to: Nitriding my crankshaft posted by Matt Wilson on Thursday, January 18, 2001 at 10:46PM :
We had this discussion on the MML a year or so ago. I have an excellent magazine article discussing the nitride process. For the life of me I cannot find it right now. But from what I remember about it. Nitriding is a surface hardening process. This not a common thing on crank shafts. The race hemi of the 60's had this process done. I dont know if the street hemi did or not. The Top Fuel Boyz do this on thier nitro engines. Its a hardening process and in nitro engines the severe pounding that takes place as the cylinder fires takes its toll on the rod journal an crankshaft. If you nitride a crank you have to use different bearings also. When you do this You make things hard and then the bearing and crank material are less forgiving to microscopic trash in the oil. So long term use is not a good thing. Obviously the top fuel drag cars run down the track and then are bebuilt. They also can determine the amount of nitro going into the cylinders by the crush factor of the bearings and know their fuel settings.
If you plan on pumping your flathead 6 up to a few thousand horsepower and run it for a race or 2 and the rebuild go ahead and nitride it. Otherwise magnuflux it to check for cracks and machine it and get a good set of bearings and use good oil and forget about this. The nitride process isnt a very common thing anymore. It was a 1960's concept before metalurgy and oil technology came along.
You will waste your money and in the long run th engine wont last as long under normal use your powerwagon would see.
THEWASP
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