Micropolishing

[anderson750]

I don't think this topic will have a lot of interest to most of the people in this sub forum but I think most will be curious how it all turns out.

In an effort to gain a competitive edge for Jack on starts, I am trying to squeeze some extra HP out of his 125. When I rebuild his race bike in preparation for Loretta Lynnsn I will have some porting and polishing done. But that is something pretty much everybody does so I need something more. That is where micropolishing comes into the picture. From my research and some discussions with somebody who has run the dyno numbers, having the transmission micro polished can give you around a 2HP increase on the 125.

After researching several companies I have decided to go with a company called Cryo Heat. http://www.cryoheat.com Their process with cryogenically treating the parts makes them stronger and the micropolishing reduces friction. Their shop is in Oceanside,CA and it just so happens we are staying there next week when we go watch the Utes play in the Holiday Bowl so I am going to stop by and check it out. Also, since I have a bad case of might as wells.......I am going to polish the transmission on the 250 sx-f I am rebuilding right now.



Besides the gears, they will also treat and polish the shift forks, sliders and drum. I will post up after pics when I get the parts back.

 

[Gravy]

Excited to see this.

 

[Tonkaman]

I’ve heard lots about this but never known anyone who has done it. Very cool!

Have you looked into ceramic coated bearings?

 

[anderson750]

Have you looked into ceramic coated bearings?

Not for this bike but I will for the 125 when I do it. I know a couple people who have run them in superminis

 

[anderson750]

We went to southern Cali after Christmas to watch the U play in the Holiday Bowl and stayed in Carlsbad. Cryoheat is in Oceanside and was only about 10 miles from where we were staying so I made arrangements to drop the 250 transmission off to them on New Years Eve day. Like a lot of places, they are tucked away in a little industrial complex.

Since it was New Years eve, it was just the owner of the company and 1 worker there trying to get caught up on a back log of work. Due to a lot of proprietary processes, he did now want to show me a lot of the process, but he spent about 30 minutes talking to me about it and the successes they have had with the Robbie Bell WORCS and Baja race bikes. He has one of Robbie's motors in the showroom that raced in Baja that has pieces of the case cut away so you can see in it. His background is in metallurgical engineering and has done a lot of work in the defense and aerospace industry.

My no engineering summary of the process is that the cryotreatment re-aligns the molecular structure of the metal making it so that it's structure does not change with the heat the parts see in operation. We may be talking about minuscule changes but it is changes that affect all parts. Simply put, when you have hundreds of parts who's tolerances change very slightly, it all ads up to be significant. Especially when you think of how many different qualities of metal are in a motor and how they each are affected by heat. The micro finishing part of the process smooths the surface to reduce friction.

When he started working with Robbie Bell they were not treating the entire motor with the CryoHeat process. I don't recall everything they were doing at first, but they took a bike that was set up for Baja with a top speed of 99 mph and increased it to 105 mph with just this process. When they did the entire motor including the cylinder, head, cases, etc it increased that top speed to 109 miles per hour and the motor was running about 35* cooler.

So, when I build up this motor for Loretta's, I am going to do the CryoHeat process to the entire motor and I will document it here.

 

[Agility Customs]

Does this place do ring and pinion gears as well?

 

[anderson750]

Does this place do ring and pinion gears as well?

Yes. You could do axles, bearings and about anything else you could imagine.

 

[anderson750]

Let the assembly begin

 

[anderson750]

 

[Tonkaman]

Any reason you only did the transmission? Why no other internals?

 

[anderson750]

Any reason you only did the transmission? Why no other internals?

This transmission is from my daughters 250f and she is not racing much any more. I mainly did this because the bike was apart and wanted to do a test run on having this company do the work. I will be doing the entire motor on Jack's 125 that I am building up to be his Loretta's bike.

 

[Tonkaman]

This transmission is from my daughters 250f and she is not racing much any more. I mainly did this because the bike was apart and wanted to do a test run on having this company do the work. I will be doing the entire motor on Jack's 125 that I am building up to be his Loretta's bike.

Gotcha, that makes more sense. I’m excited to hear your input

 

[anderson750]

Regional qualifiers for Loretta's start the end of May so it is time for me to start the motor build on the bike we will use for the regionals and ultimately the national at Loretta Lynn's. For this build, I bought a new cylinder and complete crank. The new crank will be pressed apart so that it can have a complete polishing done. I will also press apart the crank I took out of the motor (56 hours) and have it rebuilt with a Pro-X connecting rod. Both will be rebuilt by Andrew Cooksey who has been rebuilding all my cranks since we were on a 65 and also rebuilt the crank on @Cascadia 's 300 I rebuilt a few years ago.

Here is the pile of parts that will go for Cryo treatment and micropolishing.

When I get everything back, the cylinder will go to Links racing for porting and polishing.

 

[Cascadia]

When Paul rebuilt my 300 and I got it back I didn’t want to sell it. My wife bought me a brand new bike while it was apart. The new bike was so smooth but with the work @anderson750 did and had done the old motor had zero vibration. I really wanted to sell the brand new bike but didn’t want to piss my wife off. So I waited a few months.

 

[Tonkaman]

When Paul rebuilt my 300 and I got it back I didn’t want to sell it. My wife bought me a brand new bike while it was apart. The new bike was so smooth but with the work @anderson750 did and had done the old motor had zero vibration. I really wanted to sell the brand new bike but didn’t want to piss my wife off. So I waited a few months.

Was it just that rebuilt crank that made it so smooth? Or did he do some other voodoo as well?

 

[anderson750]

It was so smooth due to the magic of Andrew Cooksey. If I remember correctly, Tysons crank had a run out of something like .0024 when I sent it to him. When he replaced the rod, the run out on it was .0004. The crank was so perfectly true, it pretty much got rid of the vibration.

 

[rholbrook]

I have called Andrew a couple of times and tried to talk him to rebuilding my bottom end like he used to do but he will only do the cranks. Bummer, I'm not experienced with splitting the case and am a little afraid to but I do what him to do the crank when I rebuild the bottom end of my 300

 

[anderson750]

I have called Andrew a couple of times and tried to talk him to rebuilding my bottom end like he used to do but he will only do the cranks. Bummer, I'm not experienced with splitting the case and am a little afraid to but I do what him to do the crank when I rebuild the bottom end of my 300

Let me know when it is time. It is easy to do and after you see it, you will shake your head at the fact you were nervous.

 

[Tonkaman]

I have called Andrew a couple of times and tried to talk him to rebuilding my bottom end like he used to do but he will only do the cranks. Bummer, I'm not experienced with splitting the case and am a little afraid to but I do what him to do the crank when I rebuild the bottom end of my 300

It’s super easy. I’d happily help you through it or you can drop it off and I can do it for you

 

[anderson750]

All my parts came back from Cryoheat last week right before we left for a race in California. Not only do all the parts look shiny they also feel smooth and slick.

They also vapor honed the cases and cylinder

Some assembly has started while I wait for the cranks to make their trip to Texas and back and the cylinder is on its way to Vermont for some porting magic