For those of you who lap your irons, what process do you next to harden the surface?

 

lapping the irons does not, reduce the hardness, as long as you didnt turn them blue with heat during lapping

 

I thought the top layer of the irons was nitrated stock, and lapping them removes this. Which increases the wear on them.

 

did you remove more than .005

 

The nitrated thickness is more than you would normally need to remove.It will go outside tolerances if you machine it that much.

 

ok thxs. I have not lapped any plates yet.

 

If you plan on having them re-nitrided, do it before you lap

 

um im looking at an SAE paper right now that says that the whole hardend area is less then .1mm , including the diffusuon area which is only marginally harder then the base metal, the actual compound layer looks like its more like .025 of a mm. It also says they are soft nitrited, whatever that means.

 

when you nitrided parts tend to grow about .001 to .003 on piston motor the nitriding tend to go about .030+ deep on crankshafts

 

you can have them RE-nitrided? So if this is possible you can bring marginally thinned out irons, back to spec by re-nitriding them. Certainly brings in a whole new perspective.

 

yes you can re- nitrided its done to crankshafts all the time depending on who dose it, the depth of nitrided will vary ive seen cranks with only about .007 of nitriding all has to do with how hot the oven is and how much gas is in there

 

Yeah, SDJ Motorsports can nitride them. You nitride AFTER you lap. I would never lap end plates without nitriding. The old school engins weren't nitrided and, consequently, needed new end housings every ~50K or so (or so I've heard!)...

http://www.sdjmotorsports.com/Engine.htm

 

Is nitriding similar to Molybdenum Disulfide coatings that most ceramic coating places offer?