Brake cooling options

[olderthanme]

I just upgraded to the 79-85 toyota claipers and crossdrilled/slotted rotors from MSA (ripped me off on the price of the conversion kit: remanufactured calipers from any parts store and ss brake lines...$150 of stuff for $3XX something) so I was driving My Z hard on this really curvy road and after about 10 minutes of hard braking and acceleration my brakes began to fade. I want to add sone sort of cooling and Ihave seen some of the ducting on NASCAR and roadracing cars and to me all of that ducting looks like 4in. dryer vent ducting. I have the standard polyurethane air dam with brake cooling ducts and would like th know if this dryer vnt stuff would last or be of any use. I think it would work very well since the box of ducting I have says "fire resistant aluminium duct" it seems to be VERY thick aluminium foil in two layers with a wire spiral form to give it a "frame".

let me know if you think this could be a possibility...I am sorta poor but I want to spend the $$$ where it counts...ie. roll bar, camber plates,etc...instead of little stuff that is expensive.

[John Coffey]

If you are running solid rotors then the Toyota brake upgrade doesn't get you much, as you're learned. What you most likely experienced was fluid fade. The brake fluid itself started to boil a little bit causing a spongy feel in the brake pedal which required more effort to get some braking. Gas fade is almost non-existent today so cross drilling and slotting are pretty much a waste of machining time.

Solid rotor brake systems put a lot more heat into the caliper then vented rotors. Taking away mass from the rotors (by slotting and cross drilling) makes the rotors run even hotter and puts that much more heat into the calipers. You need to upgrade your brake system so it can tolerate higher temps.

1. Get rid of the slotted/cross drilled rotors and go back to the OEM style. You need all the mass in the rotors that you can get.

2. Upgrade the pads to a type that can tolerate higher sustained heat. Hawk Black, Porterfield R4S, and Carbotech Panther are all good upgrades. Be aware that these kinds of pads and less effective when cold. When you first start driving they won't bite as well until they get up to temp.

3. Upgrade your brake fluid to something that has a higher wet boilding point. Motul 600, ATE551, or Castrol SRF work very well. Compeltely drain all the old brake fluid out of your system and replace with one of these.

Do this first before trying to get air to the front rotors. Dryer venting won't work (its too fragile) and with a solid rotor you need to make a special duct that routes air to both sides of the rotor surface.

[olderthanme]

well it looks like like I bought myself into a hole...My Z is not going to be my daily driver anymore but a weekend warrior/autocross car. I am now running 15X8 Diamond Racing Wheels and am running some pretty tall tires...225/60

and I am about to install my coilover stuff and renew all the rubber with polyurethane and new balljoints.

I have notced a good bit of braking difference because I could have the brake pedal to the floor and it would not lockup anything...with 215 width tires...now I have really shortened my braking distance with the new brakes and wider wheels/tires.