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Mike Kojima posted on June 01, 2009 16:30 
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| WPC increases the compressive stress on the skin of the part serveral times over shotpeening. The compressed skin is one of the key reasons why WPC improves fatiuge strength |
WPC advantages
- Greatly improves fatigue strength and stress corrosion fracture resistance
- Improves surface hardness and surface finish for increased strength, reduced friction and improved wear resistance
- Increases in horsepower and engine transient response are seen from friction reduction and improved ring seal.
- Micro dimpled surface will not harm and works well on finely finished machined areas such as seal contact areas, bearing bores, bearing seating surfaces, crankshaft fillets and other delicate areas.
- Does not distort close tolerance parts
- Does not damage soft or fragile parts
- Not easily visible to the naked eye
- Can take the place of several different processes to save time and money, for instance shotpeening, then coating
- Is compatible to and enhances the advantages of other processes such as Ion Nitriding, Cyro Treatment, REM, Mikronite, DLC and other high performance post treatments
- Treated assemblies run cooler
- Can double the service life of a racing or high performance street engine
- No significant drawbacks that we can think of!
WPC Disadvantages
- It’s not free!
- The process is only available in Southern California; parts to be treated must be shipped. However WPC has good service and fast turnaround.
- Parts need to be disassembled and cleaned thoroughly before and after treatment
- Process is secret so you just have to trust them!
A real life example of WPC at work
Compass 360, a leading Koni Grand Am Cup team ran two Acura TSX’s in the ST class. Both cars were equally prepared with one difference; one car used the WPC process extensively in its engine build. Billy Johnson, one of Compass 360’s drivers related to us that the WPC treated car was consistently faster all season.
The team noted the following gains in performance and reliability over the course of the season:
- Higher horsepower
- Faster acceleration
- Better wear on engine parts, the treatment doubled engine life greatly reducing maintenance costs
- Strengthening of parts, failures were reduced to zero in connecting rods and transmission ring gears and counter shafts, these were high failure parts in the past
- A slightly leaner air/fuel ratio could be run with no loss in power meaning better fuel economy a big advantage in endurance racing.
Friday, June 12, 2009 12:31 AM
Now I know why I've missed you, Mike. Just the right amount of information, no cheesy come ons. In an alternative life, I could see me doing this to my daily SE-R. And, anything that keeps road racers out on the road longer(wish Speed would show more) is a good thing. Mark
Friday, June 12, 2009 1:50 PM
I wonder if WPC can be used in an additive way with cryo or if one supplants the other. Or, is one less expensive than the other? What are the trades? Very glad to see you doing this Mike, thank you. Larry
Friday, June 12, 2009 1:57 PM
Yes it does, in the article I explained this and I explained the order things should be done, cryo first, then hard peening and finaly WPC. Cryo and shotpeening are pretty cheap but ultimatly WPC probably does more, if you were to do only one thing, WPC would be it. It is slightly more expensive that cryo and shotpeening though. I am happy you like this place!
Wednesday, June 17, 2009 12:40 AM
Is it possible to have the piston skirt wpc treated and have the dome ceramic coated?
Wednesday, June 17, 2009 7:14 AM
Yes, thats what we are doing on some of our builds right now. We WPC treat the cylinder walls and piston skirts and coat the domes.
Friday, June 19, 2009 3:48 PM
Mike, thanks for your reply. For a budget rebuild, what parts should take priority for WPC treatment?
Friday, June 19, 2009 4:52 PM
Since most of an engines wear and friction occurs in the cylinders, I would do the cylinder walls, pistons and rings. The next area of friction is the valvetrain, so the cams and cam followers, Finlay I would do the crank and bearings. However if your engine has problem areas where failure occurs frequently, I would give those areas priority
Sunday, June 21, 2009 5:30 AM
It seems to me kind of counterintuitive to treat LSD clutch plates with this. This is the one place you desire heat/friction, so while it may last longer because its wearing less, how would it not make the LSD lock up less?
Sunday, June 21, 2009 9:39 AM
Most JDM Salisbury diffs have way to much lock and are way to aggressive for grip driving. We usually deactivate 3-4 clutches per side. Otherwise you can't get the power down on the exit of turns, the car just wants to drift. If the WPC is smoother and reduces this excessive lock, its a good thing. On a Kaaz diff which is the most chatterly and aggressive diff on the market, It locks so hard, a car wanders from side to side with it in on/off throttle and it just doesn't chatter, it bangs, WPC eliminates the chatter and makes it way more drivable. In fact WPC treatment is now a factory option with KAAZ.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009 11:39 AM
Just curious as I'd like to use WPC on my next engine. With cylinder wall finish so critical in many engines how does WPC affect that with regard to ring seal? Thanks, great place you've got here guys.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009 11:42 AM
WPC helps ring seal and life. It improves both greatly.
Thursday, September 17, 2009 11:46 PM
Does this influence in any way the break-in procedure of a completely rebuilt engine? With reduced friction and increased surface hardness of the ring, it would take much more revolutions (miles) for the ring to wear down, and take up the the shape of the cyl. bore, and seal correctly, or am I seeing it wrong? Or is a different, more aggressive hone pattern necessary? Or the treatment should be applied to the piston and ring after broken in? (sorry if this sounds silly, I'm new to the scene) Do you know if WPC treatment is available anywhere in Europe?
Thursday, September 17, 2009 11:50 PM
With some types of rings WPC does take longer to break in but once broken in, it lasts longer and has lower friction. I think WPC is only available in the USA and Japan.
Friday, January 08, 2010 6:58 AM
Will this increase the strength while decreasing the elasticity of the material? What are some of the disadvantages other than the ones listed in that article?
Friday, January 08, 2010 11:16 AM
It mostly increases the fatigue strength, it doesnt change the modulus of elasticity. We havent found any disadvantages other than perhaps that some motors have taken longer to break in. THey wear a lot better though.
Saturday, May 15, 2010 7:08 PM
Mike, do you know if there would be enough benefit to the WPC process if used with a cerametallic coated rotor housing such as that sold by JHB Performance as used on a ~300hp street/mild time attack engine?
Sunday, May 16, 2010 2:33 PM
You mean WPC a turbine housing? I don't think thats worth it.
Saturday, July 24, 2010 4:31 PM
I briefly studied the wpc process on the mechanical properties of steel. From what i remember the projectiles are a steel shot whose speed can be adjusted by the size of the shot. I do remember the speeds were between 100-200 m/s! The wpc process greatly improves ferrous metals such as steel. The projectiles rapidly heat the surface and then the metal cools rapidly when not bombarded. The result is full martensite. So, you are correct Mike when you say it isn't BCC crystal structure, because it's BCT.
Thursday, July 29, 2010 10:03 AM
Has anyone used the WPC process on a Journal Bearing turbo (All the internal friction surfaces)? How much (if any) improvement would there be in spoolup or transient response?
 
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