Cryogenic treatment of metal is not a new technology. It has been around since the second world war. When I took heat treatment and metalurgy in college there was no discussion about cryogenic heat treatment. The process appears to be invalid based on what I was taught. However; my background in metalurgy is fairly "garden variety" and spartan at best. There is quite a bit of information about it on the internet. It appears that after cyrogenic heat treatment, the metal exhibits greater wear resistance and in the case of spark plugs, improved conductivity. After learning a bit about the process, I searched for a spark plug review. One that I found said (in a nutshell) that the cryogenic plugs did exhibit better characteristics but the improvement was just slightly noticeable.

My opinion is that cryogenically treated spark plugs are probably better than ordinary ones but the difference is marginal and not worth the extra cost. I don't think that the technology is "snake oil". I do think that the best use of the heat treatment process is to improve the wear characteristics of tool steel. I am also wondering if the improved conductivity of the spark plug electrode might also make the spark itself a bit weaker.


Carl
Engineer since 1987

 

Cryogenic spark plug electrodes might be more conductive and no doubt wear longer but not 6 times longer to justify the cost. IMHO

 

For all of you smart folks, doesn't heat cause the molecules to move faster? So, it would stand to reason that with axles and such it is a good thing, but with spark plugs, wouldn't the generated heat cause the effect to be nullified?

Mike

 

Thank you Carl for throwing light on this. For me personally, unless there was a huge performance gain, it would not be worth my hard earned money to get the frozen plugs. Now if I was still married to the ex, I could get them frozen that cold for nothing. I could just put them in her..uh.....never mind....she really was that much a frozen biotch. She didn't even like harleys, baseball, dogs or pick up trucks.

Next thread

 

A friend of my sister's boyfriend's uncle tried them and they worked great until he started up his bike. The heat caused the plugs to heat up and the molecules all went nuts and misaligned again. The company he bought them from said they would refreeze the plugs and realign the molecules for a modest fee of $49.99.
The guy never fell for the refreeze fee.

 

Now thats something,,,

Yrs ago I heard that nothing was when U walked into a wall with a hard-@$ and broke Ur nose.......

 

According to a metal engineer friend of mine this is exactly correct - hocus pocus.

 

I heard that cryo treated cheese burgers are better for you......

 

I tried the process on my dick, but now it just looks like a button on a fur coat. lol

 

[QUOTE=Stubby3492;7364296]When I was down at the Anacortes Oyster Run last weekend, one of the vendors there was selling these spark plugs that claim to give you more power, better gas mileage and less emissions. I asked the girl in the booth what is so special about them. She said that they have been "cryogenically frozen" so the molecules in the electrodes are now lined up.

So thats how John Homles, the wad did it....