redmill

It has been a suggested to do, especially with older factory parts on a race car.
I did a quick google to see who offered that service locally (central nj), saw that there appears to be a DIY method.

So outside of the block and head, WHAT are you getting magnafluxed and how often ?
Any DIY? share your experience
Any suggestions on WHO can do it reasonably ? Control arms/ spindles etc., Shipping stuff these days seems crazy, NY metro area would be great.

Thanks

Bill Lehman

Magnaflux is very old technology. I used it on parts like conrods and suspension, never on heads or blocks. This is from the 70s.

TXE36

Thirty years ago I had a set of heads magnafluxed when getting a valve job. The machine shop did it before the valve job. Don't remember the cost, but it was economical enough to do to prevent wasting machine work on a cracked head.

I was doing the work in a coworkers heated garage in February. He and his buddies were very active 1/8 mile dirt track racers and their attitude was you do the magniflux anytime when putting money into heads.

Been a long time, but I can't believe the physics have changed. A local machine shop ought to be able to do it.

Matt Romanowski

I only have 1 friend with a magnaflux set up. They work well for checking magnet materials. For DIY, you can xyglo stuff, but it's not perfect either.

Most suspension stuff is visual check. For things like like machined components, it's magnaflux, xyglo, x ray, etc.

Hula

I haven't been magnafluxed in a while.

924RACR

Yeah, I got the materials to Xyglo from McMaster-Carr, not horribly expensive... do have to process a bunch of stuff myself, for my racecar, this winter... will be taking the steel suspension arms to a place locally (sorry, I'm in the Detroit area, can't help with reccs), and zyglo'ing the castings myself...

KevinGross

I sometimes use a dye penetrant kit, made by Magnaflux, to check pinion gears. It's not perfect and no surface check will detect issues inside the part, that is, not on the surface. I've also used a couple local shops over the years who are specialists with high end equipment and skills to do the job.

On an older race car, or really anything that gets beat on, the real thing to do is "life" the part. Big time racers will keep a log tracking the age of critical components. When they've reached the end of life, they get replaced regardless. This may be impractical for older cars and less well financed folks. There sure was a control arm I wish I'd lifed some years ago...

T&T Racing

+1

Cory M

On aerospace type engines florescent penetrant inspection (fpi) is the go to in a shop environment. It's a dye penetrant that's visible under blacklight and great at finding small discrepancies and cracks. The inspectors are trained and certified. Unless the parts are clean and chemically stripped of coatings the results are often inconclusive. In the field, and for home use, a standard dye penetrant is easier to use. You can get them at Grainger, and even some race shops like Pegasus. The dye is usually red and developer a flat white so it's easy to see without blacklight and special training.

993944S2

At the end of last season we broke a front spindle on my RSR type struts. Full racing application. The other side looked perfect but we had it magnafluxed anyways. Found a hairline crack. I considered that as good as a lottery ticket.

931guru

Rumor has it that one of the reasons that Nissan was so successful in their GTP program during the early 90s was that they would replace any part after it had survived half its "life". They zebra striped every part and kept track via computer.

Papamurphdog

Huh? Magnaflux is still used every day in the aerospace and automotive industry, to check just about everything for invisible cracks in high stress parts. If you have concern that you are life-cycling the part in question, Magnaflux is WAY cheaper than a new part! My rule is simple: if the part breaks will I crash/die/? if yes, then new part, unless expensive -- then inspect part before replacing. If the part is ferrous metal then magnetic particle Magnaflux works on ANYTHING ferrous. if not ferrous, then penetrating liquid is used instead, on any other form of metal. in either case the part type is irrelevant. If i was doing a build with used parts I'd for sure Magnaflux the heads or block., the headers, anything previously used. Every decent airplane mechanic shop has the equipment to handle car parts too. Your local small plane airport has lots of shops -- and they dig race cars too.

redmill

Local machine shops were a bust.
I asked a friend who has a plane, and sure enough he knew the shop where the plane mechanics send stuff ( G.Cotter in Springfield NJ), which is very local to me.
They were super friendly, explained the process and did a bunch of spindles and control arms (including blasting) for ~$30 per piece.

Brockoli

I would search local NDT companies. They should have the tools and materials to do it if you wanted someone else to do it for you.

Magnetic particle inspection (referred to as Magnaflux, but really Magnaflux is brand) is fairly easy if you understand how it works. I just completed a fluorescent magnetic particle inspection on a used oil pick up tube for our 944 chumpcar. Luckily I have the tools/materials since we do a lot of it at work. An electromagnet yoke like a Parker B-300 is about $500 CAD. You could use strong permanent magnets which would be cheaper but not as good since the particle mobility isn't as good as an AC yoke.