rear end power loss info

[saltfever]

Thanks folks.   I'll research both proccesses and look for a west coast source.

[Bob Drury]

  Larry, I would be careful about some racers claim.  Several years ago the cars of Warren a Kurt Johnson carried sponsorship decals for a Cryogenic company.  Turns out that Warren tried using it on his Lathe tooling for bucks on his race car
  I am not saying that Cryo (for instance) doesn't work, nor any other process, but I wonder how much a coating  or the REM process can help in 60-90 weight rear end lube.
  p.s.  unless you are banging gears, I think you could run virtually any domestic rear end you want.  It's the big torque motors that need tough gears on the salt...............

[38Chevy454]

Some quick metallurgist answers:
Cold treating is done to reduce the amount of retained austenite in the quenched parts.  Retained austenite is bad for dimensional stability and ductility.  Under stress it transforms to untempered martensite, which is very hard and brittle.  All quenched parts are tempered to give higher ductility.  Strength does go down with tempering, but without it the parts would be too brittle, like a file.

REM surface treatment is really just improving the surface finish by removing the peaks.  Reducing friction so you have the lubrication film between metal parts and not metal peak to metal peak contact.  A set of old worn in gears has basically the same effect, the contact surfaces are polished down.  The REM (or whatever name you want to call it) is just providing a head start on this.

My opinion is that these both do provide benefit, but more for reliability than for ultimate hp savings.  That's my two Lincoln's worth.

[desotoman]

John,

I tested both at 2.47, from the quick change to the Ford 9” we gained about 6 HP.  It was interesting when we went to the 12 bolt drop in and it jumped to 10 HP.  My car is HP limited and runs on gas, so the only way is to gain the lost HP.  Remember 75% of the horsepower loss occurs in the drive train.

I found the post I was looking for. I thought this was useful information.

Tom G.