[82SC]

Wayne...

i know next to nothing about this but I will let you know what I have found in the past couple months when buying a crank

I did it at EMS on the recommendation of Tom Gould...Great group of guys...I am sure they can answer more stuff...

Plus I was looking at a hot rod book in borders...all america big/small block stuff...but they had about 3-4 pages devoted to explaining the process and had some great pictures

From what I got they add a current and drench the piece in the magnaflux liquid...and with the charge the exciteable ions get pulled into every crevice and crack...

then they pass a specila UV light over it and look for any cracks where the magnaflux has soaked into the cracks...

they also X-ray the crank from many angles since the magnaflux would light up the film when excited by radiation

Also the old school way is to hang it so that it is dangling in the air and striking it with a hammer...supposedly because the metal is a solid piece any crack or inconsistency would mess up the tone...and even when setting down my crank...I can hear a clear ring when it hits (softly) the ground....

That is my layman's 2cents...

If I am in borders again...maybe I'll take notes on what is in that book for ya


MJ