albertz
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| posted on 16/1/06 at 11:37 AM |
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Brake upgrade
I fancy upgrading the brakes on my car for an impending trackday and possibly a sprint or two later this year.
At the moment up front i have the standard MK4 Cortina solid discs, callipers and pads, at the rear i have the standard MK2 Escort drums.
Is that going to be of any use on a trackday/sprint? if not what is the cheapest and/or most effective upgrade that can be done on a fairly tight
budget? I am thinking mainly along the lines of standard parts as far as possible.
Is there much to be gained from using a high performance brake fluid? i am using standard stuff at present and it has only covered a couple of hundred
miles.
By the way, i am using the standard Toyota master cylinder, with no servo.
Any advice or recommendations appreciated.
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flak monkey
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| posted on 16/1/06 at 11:46 AM |
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EBC Greenstuff or Mintex 1144 pads on the front would be a very good upgrade (£35). Its not worth upgrading discs so I was told, but you can get
Mintex slotted and drilled discs from Rally Design for about £50.
On the rear, not sure. Bearing in mind it only does about 30% of your braking anyway you probably wont notice much difference with an upgrade.
If you upgrade your brake fluid, be careful as some of the high performance ones are silicone based, and you then need to always use the same type of
fluid to top up on. (Think i have that the right way around)
David
Sera
http://www.motosera.com
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02GF74
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| posted on 16/1/06 at 12:14 PM |
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my suggestion would be try your set up on the trck to see how you fair; better spec brake fluid is a cheap/easy upgrade.
you are carrying about 1/2 wieght of the donor vehcile brakes so should be ok.
You can go to 9 inch drums on the back, cheapest until you start looking at disc conversion.
Dunno about the front.
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albertz
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| posted on 16/1/06 at 12:34 PM |
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yea, i remember reading a post months ago about the brakes being up to the job due to the lower weight, but i couldn't find it when i searched
though.....typical.
Anyway, i was thinking that that maybe the case for normal road use, but obviously track use is a lot harder on the brakes.
Anyway, I might just go with what i have for the trackday and see what like they perform and then maybe consider doing the mods you advise.
Thanks for your comments.
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britishtrident
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| posted on 16/1/06 at 01:55 PM |
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Sprints generally don't put thatmuch heat into the brakes, track days can be a different matter.
Unless you have a massive engine you should have too many problems with the front brakes.
As flak monkey says the first step is higher temperature rated pads and shoes ---- EBC Greenstuff should be just fine on the front.
Changing to a different fluid is pointless, fresh standard fluid to DOT4 is all that is require It is important that brake fluid is changed regularly
--- all conventional brake fluids absorb water so it is important to change the fluid at least every two years.
As long as the fluid is "dry" the brake pads and shoes friction coefficient will have faded long before the fluid temperature gets
anywhere near boiling point.
Racing brakes fuilds when new do have a higher boiling point BUT are much more hydroscopic and hence have a very short useful life.
http://www.xs11.com/tips/maintenance/maint1.shtml
If you have "baby" Escort 8" drums you can fit "harder" brakes shoes but you also want to think about fitting Capri
9" drums first.
[Edited on 16/1/06 by britishtrident]
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albertz
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| posted on 16/1/06 at 02:43 PM |
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Some sound advice, thanks guys.
I honestly dont know if i have 8 or 9 inch drums, will check tonight, i know where there is a complete capri ready for breaking!
I might consider changing the pads as advised. I am just trying to think ahead of myself with the first trackday etc. The other thing i am concerned
about is the tyres, at the moment they are just plain road tyres, i suspect this will be a problem. I am watching the recent threads covering the
different tyres though.
Thanks for the tips.
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awinter
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| posted on 16/1/06 at 02:46 PM |
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Be carefull with the greenstuff pads as I have seen a few people warp disks with these pads. The mintex 1144's in my opinion are as good and
don't warp disks.
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britishtrident
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| posted on 16/1/06 at 04:36 PM |
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If they have been installed properly (ie making good thermal contact with the hub )and aren't grossly undersized generally it is driving habits
that warp disc ---- some drivers can warp the discs on any car. The main reason is uneven cooling of the disc when stationary --- the bit of disc
covered by the pads stays hot.
Never park a car up with stonking hot brakes.
Never hold a car on the foot brake at the traffic lights if the brakes are really hot.
With race cars when the car returns to the paddock and parked up always push it fowards a couple feet after a minute or so.
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