What about the Brake Rotors offered by the Cryogenics Guys?

[dezertcamper]

We cryo'ed engine and gearbox parts for few years in our off-road race cars. To be honest we did not see any huge improvements, then again we only used a part for a specific life cycle and then replaced it. So for me to say this or that part lasted 2 or 3 times longer, well I dont know. Our original reason for Cryo was to see if we could get our expensive Ring & Pinions to last longer.

I can say the our drive line CV joints showed less wear then before we started to Cryo the CV cage and spline stars. Due to the extreme angles we run we would see wear patterns and sometimes a bit of mushrooming at the edges of the stars. Once Cryo'ed that seemed to go away. These two items are made of 300M steel and we have to take into consideration that each set or part we get comes from a different batch and lot of 300M material. The machinist will get specs on the material, but we have assume it is the same or close to the last block they got.

At the end of the day we had to look at Cryo as a cost and look at how many failures we had prior to Cryo'ing and after. We felt the cost and time to send it out was not worth the overall benefit for us. Like I said we gave parts a life cycle and after that we replaced the part and used the old parts as spares. BTW Cryo'ing was not that expensive, but when you are working with budgets you need to evaluate everything. And over a year it was a significant amount.

Now I did meet some guys at SEMA a few years back that were making high performance Dodge Vipers. They were getting over 1,000 HP in their street legal version. They said they were have rear axle ring and pinion issues. They went from stock R&P to high end R&P. They were having less issues with the high performance R&P, but the cost was very high. They started to Cryo their R&P and found they could make them live. He said they were at the point that they could make stock Dodge OEM R&P live with 1,000 hp.

BTW my guess is 4 MH brake rotors should be around $100 to $125 to Cryo. We used Cryo Science in Oceanside California. They are really nice guys and are willing to talk and explain things.

Another thing. If I was experimenting with a new part I would consider trying Cryo again. Because the more info I can gain the better I can perform in the long run.

http://www.cryoscience.com/auto/

[Hitch Man]

I cannot thank you enough dezertcamper for the time you took to share your knowledge with me. There's nothing like learning from a guy who has already tried something and can give honest testimony to the how's, why's and wherefor's. This was exactly the kind of response I was hoping to get. Thanks Again, Hitch Man

[dezertcamper]

No problem Hitch Man, Like I said we probably did not see or get the full benefit of Cryo, because we ran life cycles on our parts. The real way for us to test the true life of the part would have been to run it till it broke. But as I'm sure you understand we dont race to see if we can brake parts. The Baja 1000 is tough enough!

One other thing we did see was that our drive axles and CV joints ran about 25 degrees cooler. This was quite surprising as we watch those temps pretty close when testing. I asked Cryo Science about this and they explained how the molecules in the steel alien themselves, and this is what makes the part less subjectable to extreme temperatures.

Oh we even tested Cryo'ing an aluminum wheel once. It's not uncommon for us to bend a Centerline race wheel. We run that wheel because of the light weight of them. To be honest it was a tough test as we dont go out to bend wheels and to say that the wheel was stronger would be hard to tell. Because every impact a tire and wheel takes with a bump or rock is different. But hey when we were trying different things we were thinking way outside the box.

[DriVer]

Here's something "NEW" that just came up on the radar screen this morning:

New Brembo Ventilated Brake Rotor for Commercial Vehicles With “Star” Pillars


Currently:


Brembo is on the fabulous american motor homes!

The American Workhorse trademark has chosen Brembo brake systems for its chassis for commercial vehicles and motor homes.

The new Workhorse chassis W16/18 and W42 are equipped with a Brembo brake system that guarantees high performances and high reliability.

[pkmesser]

I had a discussion with my wife's cousin yesterday. He was a GM certified mechanic for may years, then the dealership shut down. He now works in the Kern Co. auto garage. They have gone to cyrogeic treated rotors in the sherif's dept cars. Put them in the K9 unit cars first as they had the most severe service. (only a few of them, and they respond to other officers requests with high speed runs, Kern is bigger than the 3 smallest eastern states put together). They were replaceing pads and rotors at 3,000 miles. With the cyro treated rotors that went up to 25,000 miles. The pads are special pads that come with the rotors, and they put replacements on with the ones from that supplier. He said the rotors are generally quite good, many not needing turning, and those that need it, only take .002. He says that the instructions say to break them in with 5, full on stops from 60 to 0. He says that before doing that, the car has almost no brakes, and then afterward, are normal. These are generally Ford C. Victorias.

[wa8yxm]

I do not know about brake rotors and what freezing does to them but I do know Allison tests it's transmissions to minus 40 or more on your choice of F or C scales.

In fact. They test the parts too.. they have cold rooms that can hit -60 F,, I know one of the engineers who built the smaller one.

[pkmesser]

Not sure what they are doing with the brake rotors, but generally cyrogenic treatment is several hunderd F below zero. (a dip in liquid notrogen for example).

[jdsr]

"The secret about having brakes ..... is not to use them." WOW, I guess the secret to lets say having a good engine or trans is DONT USE THEM. Thats a big LOL.

[edgray]

Originally Posted by jdsr

WOW, I guess the secret to lets say having a good engine or trans is DONT USE THEM. Thats a big LOL.

Actually, it is just the opposite. engines and transmissions have seals and other parts that "benefit" from regular USE. However, brakes are, by design, "sacrificial" in that they are wearable parts that are consumed -used up- by regular use.

I don't understand "why" you would question the original statement at all........
Ed

[dieselclacker]

Damn, and all along I thought this was the process for preserving bodys and heads of humans.

Dieselclacker

[wa8yxm]

Originally Posted by RustyJC

If you want to get into the technical aspects of the cryogenic process and how it affects components such as cast iron brake rotors, you can download a .pdf format article from Heat Treating Progress magazine HERE.

Rusty

Thank you.. I'd like to read that PDF, it's downloading SLOWLY due to weather via Virgin Mobile as I type.

[DriVer]

Has anyone verified that you can get cryogenic processed Bosch rotors?