Micro Blue Technology ®
SuperFinishing & MicroBlue Coating
A Colberg Exclusive
Going Farther In Pulling: FRICTION
When it comes to going farther in Pulling, motors work harder. Higher boost means more load on the piston / rings rod and crank. More rev’s, means more heat and wear. More cam means more spring and more friction… and more friction SLOWS YOU DOWN.
FIGHTING FRICTION:
Pulling is (usually) a lubricated world. Transmission gear surfaces don’t contact each other directly, metal to metal, there’s an oil film between them. The rollers in tapered wheel bearings don’t actually ride on the steel races, there’s a lubricant between them as well. If the surfaces don’t actually touch, where does the heat come from?
In the case of gears, it is created when gears come together and push the oil out from between the gear surfaces. As the oil is pushed out, the peaks and valleys of the gear surfaces upset the flow, resulting in turbulence in the flow of the oil. This turbulence causes the oil to work against itself, creating friction and heat. Reducing the amount of turbulence and improving the flow of the oil will always reduce the amount of friction and heat build-up.
FIGHTING FRICTION:
SMOOTHER IS BETTER
There are a number of isotropic finishing systems that effectively remove the peaks of the machined surface and do so without disturbing the dimensional tolerances. There are three important benefits
1) since the peaks are gone there is less turbulence and temps go down.
2) the thickness of the protective oil film layer has now been increased.
3) because the peaks are gone, hard metal-to-metal contact is virtually eliminated.
Micro Blue Sometimes Even Surprises Us.
During research and development of our new MaxThrottle and FullThrottle racing fuels we really hammered a test engine.
The Hot-Farm Class International DT466 we used for testing went through 165 full on Dyno runs and roughly 50 on-the-track races. Month-after-month.
We had Micro Blued every moving part before we started testing our new fuels.
After all that battering, we completed a tear-down out of fear of a catastrophic failure knowing the pressure we had put on the motor.
To suggest we were surprised would be an understatement. The Micro Blue parts show negligible wear. In fact, many of the key components are going back in the engine.
These are actual bench photos. They have not been corrected or modified – they are as they came out of the engine.
Micro Blue. Truly amazing.
“The throttle plate stop on my tractor, ProPain, has been set at 650rpm at idle for several years. During a recent teardown, I MicroBlue’d the sleeves, pistons, rings, rod bearings and main bearings before reassembly. Without touching the throttle plate stop, the idle after MicroBlue went to 1,000rpm. MicroBlue really is amazing.” -Mark Colberg
MICROBLUE AND SUPERFINISHING
Early in the development of MicroBlue it was learned that when MicroBlue was applied to very flat surfaces, the results were truly stunning. Colberg Tractor now recommends applying SuperFinish and MicroBlue to every moving, loaded and lubricated surface in the tractor – including gears, bearings, races, rings, bores.
MICROBLUE COATING:
The Last Step
The final stage of the Colberg Edge “Smooth and Slippery” program consists of MicroBlue coating all of the polished contact surfaces. MicroBlue results in NO SIZE CHANGE – there is no need to worry about tolerance changes. MicroBlue is the last step before assembly. SuperFinishing and MicroBlue Coating is only available from Colberg Hi-Performance Tractor Repair. Contact us anytime for more details.