Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech Possible Failed Oil Pump? Bike down hard (LONG)

The cryro- treatment affects the metal micro sturcture (grain), sort of a stress relieving, which makes the piece stronger. Racers, both bike and car, have been doing this for some time now.

And ol' Falicon is a top notch company! I contacted them some months ago, about stroker cranks for Triumph twins, and found out they do a welded stroker deal. Now Wiseco has pistons for just such a stroker crank.

Michael, you're going first class!

Yeah that's what I figured. But I'm guessing it is more of a surface treatment since it's a gas thing right? As opposed to heat threating which can get into the whole piece cause it all heats up.

PapaDean, thanks for the reassurance, the work order form that I submitted to the dealer for inclusion with the crank and rods had an option for stroking in 2mm increments. I think I'll enjoy the stock stroke just fine, just really curious to see how the engine feels with the crank getting the knife edging.

Mike, if you wind up having new oil pump gears machined, please have your machinist use either brass or phosphor bronze material. That's what the hot rod guys use for a replacement distributor gear when they convert to a steel camshaft (stock cams are cast iron, so a steel gear is OK there). I had a nice used roller cam for a Chevy V-8 that had the distributor gear area worn down to a sharp edge, all because some numb-nutz used a stock steel dist. gear on his dist. Brass or phosphor-bronze will "last forever".

Benny: the cryo- treatment affects the metal all the way through, just like heat treating does. A brother of my friend, Fred Young, up in the Sturgeon Bay, Wisc. area, owns a cryo- treatment company and specializes in bike engine parts. Racers cryo- everything: pistons, rods, cranks, piston pins - anything that can be heavily stressed.

Yeah, I'd pretty much decided on using bronze for the oil pump gears, at first I thought that I'd use steel because any slivers or shavings that might ever come off those would be picked up by my magnetic drain bolt, but another rider who's technical opinion I greatly respect had also suggested brass or bronze vice steel. Another point was reading a write-up on the new Buell Ulysses, they also used bronze as the material for their oil pump gear, so all that input together has pretty much sold me on bronze.

Hmmm, hadn't considered the pistons, I need to talk to Falicon, I'm sure that they wouldn't have a problem throwing the pistons in with the crank and rods, I have a feeling that the $50 charge for the service is just to pay for running the cryogenic freezer. Good point!