WyattH

Hello, everyone...

I don't exactly know what this process is or how to do it, but I see it makes the 4.57 final gear significantly stronger than the other final gears (most commonly found in Kias and Mazdas). Is this a process you can have done to your parts? I am buying a 4.44 final gear, and would like it to be as strong as the 4.57s, but I am not sure if this is available. Thanks a lot.

xviper

Where did this information come from and was it ever published with a quantification? 4.57s from Rick's (Richmond Gear) are stronger because they were made that way from the beginning. As far as I know, they aren't "cryo-treated", but are subjected to a "chemical" treatment that helps to make them even stronger.
Cryo-treatment is a process by which the metal part(s) are dipped in liquid nitrogen (thus, the term "cryo") to get them down to almost -200*C. This re-aligns the molecules in the metal. The premise is that this makes for a stronger substance, however, I've never seen any quantification of just how much stronger this makes it. You can cryo-treat anything metal and it doesn't cost that much, either, but till now, I think it's still a bit of a gimmick for the kinds of applications that we are targetting.