Enough Already on the Brakes

Busy weeks after Skankaway have keep me from blogging, but it does not mean we have kept completely idle. By my standards Skankaway was a complete success. A lot of (self imposed) car drama (well not so good), heroic runs to bail us out for parts, the fixes to get us running, two cars running, four checkers flags, great food, lots of smiles, and good times with friends. So, thank you all. (For the scorekeepers the cars came in a happy 70th with 263 laps and 77th with 251 laps).

Now on to business. We have found the D to be a stout little car. We have little time to work, so any big moves will need to wait. At this time only safety upgrades and maintenance will be attempted. We might look at car setup and alignment to optimize the car since we have some good data points, but that is about it for Arse-Freeze in two weeks.

The Z is another matter. At Skankaway we develop a bad trend. Sears Point always has pushed the braking systems to breaking point. However, this last run with the increased wheel size we simply blew the brakes apart. This is evident, by the carnage that was wrought. We went through four sets of brake pads, four different rotor combinations with various warping and cracking, replacement of the front calipers, replacement of the master cylinder, all on hand brake fluid used up, reviewed the brake booster just in case, and (a first for me a first) a warped brake pad. Enough, I got the picture. Brakes are a problem.

So, a plan to upgrade the brakes is a foot. The plan is to replace the entire wheel braking system with a mixed match of calipers, brake pads, and rotors to either better handle the heat and/or reduce the heat.

• Calipers- Looking around at our options the current Z31 style calipers are limiting in both capability and brake pad choices. I am finding it harder and harder to get the pads to run. To address this a standard upgrade is to go with the Z32 calipers. In this group Centric has nice four piston front and dual piston rear calipers setup.

• Brake Pads- By changing to the new calipers the brake pads increased from about 4 square inches to 6 square inch. However, more importantly several additional options for Brake Pads open up. I still think Hawk is a good option for the price, so I would like to try the HT10 set. I saw these before, but it was not offered for the Z31 system, but is for the Z32. Also the Hawk DTC60 for the fronts only care some intrigue, but for balance I think to starting with the HT10 at Buttonwillow will work. For more information here is a good spec sheet from Hawk Performance.

• Rotors- Looking at the choices I see a problem with the Z32 rotors. They do not change much from the Z31. They only get thinker which is good for heat transfer, but I do not think good enough. The other problem is availability and price. Like the current Z31 rotors, they are getting harder and more limited to get. In the process I noticed Z32 rotor prices exponentially increases for little gain. So, I looked around and found a possible answer with the Z33 systems. The Z33 car (or 350Z) runs a similar thinkness rotor as the Z32 but is up to an 1" more in diameter, cost 20% less for similar Z32 series rotors, and has a wide variety of options available. All of this points me in the direction to see if we can fit the larger Z33 rotors on with the Z32 calipers and brake pads. (Note: I did look a Z33 calipers, but Nissan seems to have stepped backward and OEM Z33 calipers. THe baseline caliper offered is a single piston affair. For more $$$ multiple pistons are available but did introduce some additional mounting issues.) As for our setup, last weekend, Throw Rod and I mocked this new concoction up on the car. We found that with some machinist's help in making a spacer, to mount the cailpers and turn the hubs we believe can make it all work. So, in the next two weeks we will see.

After all this one big problem does arise. This whole brake process massively violates the KISS standard that I hold improvements too. The violation is clearly shown when the completed project will have us running a modified 1986 Z31 hubs, with 1994 Z32 spec cailpers and pads, and 2008 Z33 hat rotors. What could be simpler? However, on another accord the focus is on more reliability and cost effectiveness. My goal with these upgrades is to get the brakes to last the worst torture test we run (Sears Point) for a least an 8 hour run and possibly a weekend run (in my dreams) without needing to changing the brakes. The increased effectiveness of the calipers, rotor leverage, and brake pads coupled with increased mass of the calipers and rotors, and heat tolerance of the brake pad hopefully will make barking the least of our problems. Well, that is at last the plan.

Muddy