Here are some pics of a set of lower gears that were Cryo treated. This is the same process that Articfriends and I have been doing for the past season.
This set of gears had 77hrs on them before being treated and had wavy lines on the teeth. (More pics forth coming to show that) and 55hrs on the treated gears. You can see a slight scuffing, but look almost as good as when they were installed.
This was 725hp and ocean running. Very interesting to see the results, I was very impressed.
I am also looking at a variation of this process and another coating process. In the process of adding power to my boat to test these gear treating processes myself.

You and Smitty (Wilbur) send me a couple of those fancy drives with that treatment, I'll test them on my boat for you...FREE!

Thanks for the offer Pantera.. I have had that one before!!

Dick,the gears I "retired" from my lower this year had about 60 hours on them which was 4 times longer then I ever had them live before,looked almost new still even after running 1000 plus hp. I have done over a hundred sets of gears for outdrives with good results 99% of the time. GPM had a set still fail under 5 hours BUT he is running over 1400 hp, I did not personally set up his drive and he was trying a un-proven lubricant. I have done a full regimen of testing this fall on new gear coatings/further processes,with mixed results at the 1050 hp level in my own boat,I will be modifying my treatment program and will continue testing next year,Smitty

Do you also treat the Upper gears?

Yes, I do treat the upper gears as well! The inner bearing has to be removed, but I can do it without damaging the bearing. There is almost always a paste of metal particals hidden below the bearing cage. I remove and clean this area when ever I rebuild a drive.
Still looking to see results from upper gears with hard hours on them. The only ones that have come back were damaged due to other reasons than just wear..

D*ck

Smitty treated 2 sets of Xr uppers for me this spring,
and it finally made it through a year without a
failure

D*ck,
what do you use to get the bearings out with ?

Those gears pictured in the first post are mine. I can vouche for the fact that I had 77 hours of untreated use last year and 55 hours of treated use ( on the same gears ) this season. I run the ocean alot. While I maintain my equipment well, I use my 725 hp everytime out. The process definetly works well. Ofcourse, the process is only as good as the set up. A few years ago, Dick took the time to help me learn how to set up drives. If they are not set up correctly, there is no magic process that will help. Attached is a picture of the gears after the first season of use ( 77 hours ) . Hey, I typed in Dick's name and it didnt get censored!!

One more picture..

That is very interesting stuff. We go through gear sets every 2-3 races. I would love to get 6.