Looking to Piece together Big Brake Kit, Need Brake Guru's

[hotstang_46]

I'm looking to do a big brake kit. I have the money to go with an off the shelf kit but I prefer to be thrifty and piece something together myself. I find it all rather intimidating because I just can't find alot of info out there and I have alot of questions. If I go off the shelf I like the K sport, wilwood superlite, and stoptech. (it's really the look on those two which has drawn me to them, I'm sure they will both perform great on the mountain roads out here.

I have some questions, maybe some of you guys can help me out with so I can determine if it's a good idea and how to go about piecing one together myself. And I must say I know absolutely nothing and I'm finding it hard to learn anything

For starters....Is there any major concern with buying a used set of calipers? Is it like a tranny where you just don't know what the condition really is?

What size rotors can I even fit with my 18 saleen replica's. If I can do 14in I'd like to do that?

Basically I need education on these calipers too, I have no idea what I'm looking at lug mount, spacing, rotor thickness, caliper mounts... My head is spinning.

Where I think I can save money vs the kit is picking up used calipers and maybe finding some rotors not made by say willwood or ksport. Saving a ton going with ebc or powerslot (or the like) if they would even be compatible.

Any general education you guys can give me or an article you can point me to so I can get going in the right direction would be more than appreciated.

 

[darkside03gt]

First off you can run 14in brakes with 18in rims no problem. The max you can go with 17s is 13in rotors.

I have never been a fan of buying used brakes unless I could confirm what the seller is telling me. However if the calipers are really clean all the way around and the seller says that they have low miles I wouldnt shy away from them. I believer you can buy a rebuild kit for the two most popular upgrades for our cars PBR's (aka cobra,mach1,bullitt brakes) and 4 piston Brembos.

With all that said it depends on what the primary function of your car is.
1. Drag racing: keep the stock brakes and upgrade the pads and rotors to keep the weight down.
2. Weekend cruiser with some auto cross or a few open track events a year go with 13 in cobra brakes
3. Lots of auto cross or open track events I would go with 14in cobra R brembos or something similar like wilwood or stoptech as I am not a real big fan of baer brakes.

As far as the upgrade goes make sure to upgrade the rears to the 11.65in rotors. Yes its a little more work but its worth it, trust me. I drove my car with just my front mach1 brakes installed and then intalled the rears and I can tell you there is a differance.

Regardless of what you end up doing you will love the improvement you get.

 

[hotstang_46]

First off you can run 14in brakes with 18in rims no problem. The max you can go with 17s is 13in rotors.

I have never been a fan of buying used brakes unless I could confirm what the seller is telling me. However if the calipers are really clean all the way around and the seller says that they have low miles I wouldnt shy away from them. I believer you can buy a rebuild kit for the two most popular upgrades for our cars PBR's (aka cobra,mach1,bullitt brakes) and 4 piston Brembos.

With all that said it depends on what the primary function of your car is.
1. Drag racing: keep the stock brakes and upgrade the pads and rotors to keep the weight down.
2. Weekend cruiser with some auto cross or a few open track events a year go with 13 in cobra brakes
3. Lots of auto cross or open track events I would go with 14in cobra R brembos or something similar like wilwood or stoptech as I am not a real big fan of baer brakes.

As far as the upgrade goes make sure to upgrade the rears to the 11.65in rotors. Yes its a little more work but its worth it, trust me. I drove my car with just my front mach1 brakes installed and then intalled the rears and I can tell you there is a differance.

Regardless of what you end up doing you will love the improvement you get.

Thanks for writing back. The brakes aren't so much for a specific purpose. No particulair reason other than they could stand to be better in both looks and performance. They more than anything will see some spirited mounatin driving with some hard consistent scrub offs when headed down. My corvette just makes these brakes feel sooooo darn slushy.

And I know the cobra brakes would probably be fine for me. I'm just thinking that I want the looks of some nice 14 rotors and high tech calipers. I'm running out of things to do to this car.

And as for the rear I've been thinking about that too but of course know nothing about them either. I guess by 11.65 your suggesting the cobra/brembo set up. There too I would like to put maybe a 13 with a nice wilwood caliper but maybe do my own kit. I think the darn rotors that come in the manufacturer kits cost a fortune. I think I could definatately save few bucks by going with good, but cheaper rotors like powerslots. The question is the mounts.

 

[hotstang_46]

For example, I just found this.... http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Big-...ptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories

I'm sure that would haul me down in a hurry, certainly better than stock and probably better than a cobra set up, not to mention look nicer. I looked up the company that makes the kit. Revolution LLC....they're out of OR and it looks like a darn fine product.


Any obvious flaws or reasons I shouldn't save the probably $700+ vs going with a wilwood factory kit that has the wilwood rotor?

 

[darkside03gt]

With the type of driving your describe honestly I would save the cash and go with a cobra,mach1,bullitt setup and call it a day. Year the wilwood calipers look bad ass and all but IMOP the added cost just is not worth it because you will never use these brakes up to their potential. Also keep in mind the cost of buying replacement pads and rotors for a 14in setup.

I have 13in brakes up front and 11.65 in the rear and absolutely love the stopping power. I also get on it in the moutains and on curvey roads and I have never once had them fade even when the pads got down beyond %50. For the money I dont think they can be beat. Keep in mind that when you swap the rears over you get to re-use your old calipers you just need new rotors, pads, anchor plates and anti moan brackets.

As for the rears I dont think I have ever seen a 13in rear setup for our cars.

The kit looks good but I am always leary of cheap rotors especialy if the are cross drilled because they have a high probability of cracking. You can also piece togeather a Brembo setup for less then that.

 

[darkside03gt]

Here is some pretty good reading. Keep in mind this is a cobra forum so these guys are talking about stock cobra brakes.

Consensus best brake options for our car

 

[hotstang_46]

Thanks again for the responses......I completely agree with you about the cobra brakes but I want the bling and performance of a nice 14 if I do ever take the car to the track... + I can spend the $$ to do the 14 set up.

Thank you for the heads up on the rear brake stuff. I haven't decided what I want I want to do back there....as far as the 11.65 vs larger wilwood

Just in case you wanted to see the rear 13, here is the wilwood offering.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/WILW...r_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item439e4ba5bc



For anyone intersted in seeing the revolution thing here is a link to their company. They make a good argument for not spending the extra cash on the factory rotors.... I am going to try to find some info on their company.
Revolution Brake Production Big Brake Kits

 

[Dark04GT]

Those willwoods are really nice and definitely have the bling factor. I agree with the post above about the three levels of brakes. If the extra bling is worth the extra $1k+ than I would say go for it.

For me the money was an important factor so I pieced together my cobra front upgrade for less than $500 with all new parts (the rears are still stock sized).

 

[darkside03gt]

Those willwoods are really nice and definitely have the bling factor. I agree with the post above about the three levels of brakes. If the extra bling is worth the extra $1k+ than I would say go for it.

For me the money was an important factor so I pieced together my cobra front upgrade for less than $500 with all new parts (the rears are still stock sized).

Take the time to upgrade your rear brakes, trust me. Even with how nose heavy these cars are you will notice a differance.

 

[hotstang_46]

Take the time to upgrade your rear brakes, trust me. Even with how nose heavy these cars are you will notice a differance.

At minimum I will be doing this on the rear. Then I would just simply paint my stocker to match

1999-04 Baer Rear 13 inch Brake Upgrade Kit

 

[darkside03gt]

I really think you need 14in brakes up front in order to run that kit.

 

[hotstang_46]

I really think you need 14in brakes up front in order to run that kit.

I'm 100% going with a 14 in the front. I'm working with the a guy at Revolution LLC, the company I listed above to put together a kit for me. He told me that I can do a 14in wilwood kit in the rear if I want to as well. Just don't know if a 14 would look good though. May limit that to just 13.

Regardless.....I'll be doing something within the next week or two....So I'll post up some pics within a month or so when things go on.


I can't believe no one with a wilwood, brembo, bik brake kit etc has chimed in. If you have something let me know and tell me if you like it/ what your experience has been.....it would be very helpful.

 

[hotstang_46]

So I just got off the phone with the guys at Revolution Brakes. Super nice and spend alot of time on the phone with me explaining the differences between their kit and a straight off the shelf wilwood kit.

After educating me about rotors and hydraulics and whatnot I see no need to output the money for the wilwood kit vs the Revolution kit with the wilwood caliper.

We also got into discussion about the superlight vs the superlight forged. Although a little prettier the superlight will not be as good of a choice for a street car. The superlight forged is a much stiffer unit and should perform better for me on the street. I will be going with a 14in in front.

For the rear, we had alot of discussion and what I really want is a matching wilwood in the rear if we can come together on price. What I really wanted was the same caliper in the rear as in the front. I do not like the wilwood parking brake/ rear caliper. Doesn't have near as much eye appeal as the superlight forged.

So he's going to be putting together prices for me on a 13in and 14in rear kit with a superlight forged caliper.

On an important side note..... with that set up I will have no parking brake. I could put up an extra 500 for a two caliper set up with a dedicated parking brake but I see no need. There may some legality issues not having a parking brake but that's obviously no the main consideration. On a manual there really is no "need" for a parking brake other than some very rare situations like if the hydraulics failed and I needed the e brake to stop.

So with that said I should get some answers tonight from the shop and post some stuff up for you guys to see.

On a side note, what color calipers should I go with? I have a white car with hypercolor saleens. I know some of these colors are out of the norm but for what I'm spending I want them to pop. I'm thinking Orange, Yellow, or White. I know what you guys may be thinking with the white but I won't drive the car very much and there's plenty of space to get in there to clean. I don't think the brake dust will build up too fast..... what color should I go with??

 

[crazystang25]

I think blue would look good with your car if they offer it.

 

[blubullett]

AHHH, what do I do now? I was going to buy kayaks with my tax return but those are some great prices for really nice brakes. Baer has a burnt orange that would look awesome with a white car, I don't know if Wilwood has a similar color.

I would go with a seperate parking brake caliper. They don't look too bad and if you are already spending that much then just spend a little extra and do it right.

I am planning on turning my car into an open track car and have been reading a lot of old threads on corner-carvers.com. There were a few brake failures on NASA AI cars last year on cars using fixed calipers and non-OEM rotors. They were claiming the failures were because with the fixed calipers you need the flexibility of floating rotors. The rotors broke at the hat where the hat meets the friction surface. I have no idea if they are right or the racers just had some cheep made in China rotors.

 

[hotstang_46]

AHHH, what do I do now? I was going to buy kayaks with my tax return but those are some great prices for really nice brakes. Baer has a burnt orange that would look awesome with a white car, I don't know if Wilwood has a similar color.

I would go with a seperate parking brake caliper. They don't look too bad and if you are already spending that much then just spend a little extra and do it right.

I am planning on turning my car into an open track car and have been reading a lot of old threads on corner-carvers.com. There were a few brake failures on NASA AI cars last year on cars using fixed calipers and non-OEM rotors. They were claiming the failures were because with the fixed calipers you need the flexibility of floating rotors. The rotors broke at the hat where the hat meets the friction surface. I have no idea if they are right or the racers just had some cheep made in China rotors.

If you have questions about their system or the rotors give them a call. They are super friendly and will surely take time to talk to you. The guy I've been talking to is Kevin. I think he runs the show over there, he always seems to be answering the phone too.

I really love the idea of orange brakes. I think that's the way I'm leaning... Wilwood does not offer the color..but the guys at the shop deal with a powdercoater that I will use. I'm pretty sure I'm going to do some shade of orange.

On another note, I've had another conversation with the guys over there. They can in fact make me a rear kit with the same superlight forged caliper. They can do a 13 or 14in for the rear as well. 13" is like $950 ....... 14"is about $1050 (i'm going to do 14) I thought from a looks standpoint this would be excellent. But had questioned the functionality of it. Thinking there would be waaaaaay too much braking power in the rear. He said absolutely not. All they do is brakes and they have an engineer on the team that would come up with the solution. The guy basically runs all the formula's...does what he does and specifiy's different piston sizes and what not to change the braking power of the caliper. So they (for lack of a better way of putting it) they can tone down the clamping power to make a perfect balanced braking system front to rear. And....then that leaves me with large, identical, nice looking calipers front and rear.

So I'll be ordering soon. The car is actually in Chicago right now. It's being transported to my home in CA this coming week. They have sent me a template that will mimic the mounting of the system front and rear. They need me to take a wheel off, use the thing and make sure there is no contact.

I will keep you guys updated for anyone that's interested..... and of course put up pics as things come in and go on. If any of you guys already have a big brake on please post up, I'd love to see some pics.

 

[blubullett]

So around 2g for high quality large rotor 4 piston brakes all around. The price can't be beat. Now how do I convince her the stang needs more money thrown at it...

If balance isn't perfict you can throw an adjustable proportioning valve on it to fine tune it.

Post pics when you get them.

 

[crazystang25]

Ya I'm interested in pics when they come in too!

 

[hotstang_46]

I will update this thread with progress for sure....Just waiting now to see if my dad can do the template thing to make sure the brakes won't hit the wheels. If he doesn't do it I will when the car hits CA next week....and order then.

 

[crazystang25]

Ya I went and looked at the site myself and saw they had rear brake kits for 9 inch rear ends as well which is nice.