nitrided crank?

[jdmser]

I dropped the deposit(yes it's costing so much I had to put down a deposit) of at my machinist today and we got to talking about nitriding. The R33 crank I picked up had spun one of the big end bearings and has to be sent of for welding. While it's there the guy who is fixing it is going to nitride it. My machinist says that just by looking at the crank he can tell it's never been done however I've read on other forums that Nissan does it from the factory. What have you guys heard. I'm having it done either way because of the welding I just was curious.

[Darius]

I have read that it comes nitrided from the factory as well, but internet bs spreads like wildfire too so take it with a grain of salt. However, in my experience, most machinists are dumbasses (sorry machinist niconauts). Who knows? How much does nitriding cost anyways?

Copied from the "interlinks":

Principal reasons for nitriding are:

To obtain high surface hardness To increase wear resistance To improve fatigue life To improve corrosion resistance (except for stainless steels) To obtain a surface that is resistant to the softening effect of heat at temperatures up to the nitriding temperature

IMO bearings are already soft enough compared to the crank that nitriding would be unnecessary. Anyone with differing thoughts?

[jdmser]

I would normally agree when it comes to the machinist comment but, this guy knows his stuff. He holds the record for the fastest four cylinder at GIR(8.90@149 and street legal) and is more of an engine builder who got tired of machinist not doing things right. So, he ended up buying all the machining equipment himself. He was going to grind the crank for me but, it was too far out of spec. Anyway, the nitriding is around $100-124. It's kind of getting thrown in as a friend of a friend deal. It's costing me about $500 to have one big end journal welded not including shipping.

[Coolwhip]

$500 to fix a journal? Why not just go ahead and get another crank?

[jdmser]

You have a R33 you wanna sell me for $500 shipped ready to drop in? Usually the ones I see for sale are the R32 so then you have to add $140 on top of that for the crank collar not including how much you pay the machinist to install it. The R33 cranks I have seen were all damaged anyways and people still wanted around $800 for them. I made a decision to send the money and go for the title of highest horse power rb20. I'm also the fastest kid at the special olympics.