Front Brakes
 

I now need to look at my front brakes. Thery need uprating considerably.

I want bigger discs ideally and 4 pot calipers.

What's the best way to achieve this?

I was looking at the brakes on a skyline today, they looked ideal. The owner suggested they may well fit.

groove your front discs or buy grooved ones and mintex or porterfield pads and then bleed the brakes right though with some decent brake fluid, and get some nice sticky rubber on those wheels and they will be the bollocks. I can lock mine in the dry at 100 ish with toyo tyres. I find my brakes to be prefectly adaquate for a 'fast road setup'

there are other options, use the forum search option

Definitely want to go for 4 pots. Bigger discs would be good too...

Are S14 and Skyline calipers the same?

Locking brqkes up at 100mph is achievable with any brakes. What you want is a set of brakes that can slow you down from 100 in control without losing efficiency ie brake fade.

Try braking from 100mph down to 30, then try it again and you will notice on the 2nd or 3rd attempt they'll fade.

Even if you have really good pads the 22mm discs will heat up real fast, and brake fade is inevitable.

The 4pots will help with the heat issues but at the end of the day the disc will be the first to cop out.

Oh and the skyline discs won't fit.

Thanks for that Martin. :)

So what options do I have as far as upgrading the discs?

I'm now thinking S14a calipers. So need to work out the disc side of it now.

Skyline calipers are for bigger discs, so the offset will be wrong. These discs will work nicely with them though:

http://www.datsport.com/R32Z_CO_DS.html

That is the only true upgrade.

S14/Z32 calipers are designed for 280mm discs so bolt on with no issues. You dont actually need spacers for the thinner discs either.

Other than that, you could go for custom bells/discs that are available for the S13 but the offset of the bell might be wrong, so some measurements of the disc offset will need to be made. You never know, they may be the same.

Ok so if I go for a direct replacement of calipers with the S14 ones, which discs would you recommend?

Are standard S12 discs 280mm?

Who sells uprated 280mm discs?

S12 discs are 274mm IIRC.

You cant really upgrade to anything which fits the S12 hub. The only way is to use say the Apex 310mm S13 kit and hope the offset is correct

So just put the S14 calipers on a good set of standard size discs?

Thats better than nothing but the standard sized discs are still thin.

does anybody make standard diameter discs that are thicker?

Nope but I would suggesting getting the discs I linked to above which are 296x30, and use R33 calipers.

Of course if you converted to S13 hubs and coilovers for the front this opens up a new world of brake and suspension choices.

R33 calipers.... are fitted on which car?

I find all this brake lark confusing, sorry!

R33 skyline? Just a guess:1la

I think the 296mm brakes I linked to uses R33 GTS skyline calipers. You could use S14 or Z32 calipers but anything larger than 280mm than they need to be offset with brackets.

Ok I'm getting this now, lol!

I need:


R33 Front rotors modified for S12 hubs Pair 296mm SnS

R32/R33 Caliper mounting kit to R30/31/910/S12 Pair including bolts

Pair Skyline R33 Calipers


And once I get hold of all those bits, I have everything I need?

if you got the discs the same size as the s14 ones, but those that take bells, i could get the bells made up. deamon tweaks list them.

If you were to go to the hassle of making bells then get 310mm discs.

what is a bell?

If they are just modified discs a machine shop could remachine the centres to bolt to the S12 hub.

A bell is the blue bit in the centre:

http://www.apexperformance.co.uk/cat...t-complete.jpg

If you do some homework you should be able to get them cheaper all in than what Apex sell them for

This is all too confusing for my little brain!

I just want to hand over a credit card number and have everything I need sent to me to bolt on lol

:confused:

Its all kind of simple but if you want to blitz your credit card then I highly recommend going the S13 coilover route

convert to s13 front hubs and struts and get some of Dan_s14a's 315mm M3 discs and caliper brackets (using s14 calipers) MUCH MUCH cheaper than the 310mm bells and rotors route

This sounds a good plan.

Yep
http://www.dansbigbrakes.co.uk/

Martin, what EXACTLY do I need to get to do this?

Gotta shoot out but search for my posts about doing the conversion :)

Martin you seem to take any oportunity to pick at whatever i say, i should not have to cover every angle of a statment i make just to stop you from picking at it like a magpie in a cornfield. :ghey
I never had that much bite on my standard discs and pads compared to how they are now It is a seriously vast improvment on the standard setup and i was reccommending it as it is a decent,easier and cheaper option.I never suffer brake fade from 'fast road' type driving.I only got bad brake fade at Rockinham after doing 120 down to 20 over and over again after about 15 minutes because of some daft chicanes they put up on the oval track.

I didnt find s14 front calipers on std s12 discs to any better whatsover than the setup i use Richard, If you are going to go for 4 pots you definatly need different discs

Yep going for the S13 setup by looks of it. Got some S14a calipers. Just got to work out what else I need...

i've noticed a difference with the 4 pots,but only since they have been installed on my mk2, probely because the mk1 had a leek and was sucking air in.

I would imagine the mk2 is alot lighter than your mk1 too Shaun. Maybe i could have a try on Saturday when we meet up.

my mk 1 was 1240kg with those supra seats.

4 pots look cool tho lol :cool:

Not 'picking', but you seem to forget I've used the same pads as you, and yes they were better, but locking brakes up isn't a performance indicator. Just because brakes are grabby doesn't mean there going to be good for continued use.

RichardK asked for brake options and opinions, which I gave him, from my own experience. Don't see what the problem is.

Give me a ring

If its the same as mountain bikes (and mine was several thousand so its not your halfords jobby) then as martin says locking means nothing really.

Old style cantilever brakes can lock a wheel, but they are useless at slowing you down. You dont have enough control over them, and they overheat so quickly.

V brakes or magura hydralic rim brakes are better with more feel but still not exactly wild performance you can still lock at will.

Disc brakes are soo much better, its odd you can slow down faster on wet slippery mud and roots with a more powerful brakes than less powerful even though you cant use anything like the brakes potential. Hope 6 pot ventilated disc brakes are supposed to be the nuts, yes for a mountain bike! I want some! http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/K...?ModelID=15211 these are drilled, but you can buy a drilled and ventilated disc.

The moral of the story is you can never have enough braking power :D

I fitted 4 pots from the R33 to my bluebird
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d7...l_pcdv0013.jpg

and the S12 I just bought has the Z32 option fitted.

I know how to rate brakes Martin.I havnt forgot you used the same pads, it was irrelavent to my complaint.I used my first statement as an example of improvement in modulation range.I know he asked for other options, That is why i said use the search option as there are other threads about 4 pot brake setups.

Adz has been in my car and can vouch at the vast improvement in brake performance over the standard setup.It was my suggestion,you could have made your own without picking at mine.

I made many suggestions and outlined quite a few options. I like to be as honest as possible with people. I like to see people take the best options possible based on my or others experience

I dont have a problem with that at all.

You guys know that slotted and or drilled disks do not improve braking performance they actually loose a small amount of braking performance.