Brake upgrade for V8 260Z

[wally57]

Guys, I know there are several threads on brake upgrades, but as yet I haven't found a definitive answer to my problem, and I was hoping someone may be able to help. The engineer I am using for my engine transplant wants the car fitted with 4 spot calipers on the front using a ventilated disc and two spot calipers on the rear. While the car the discs themselves come off is not important, he has suggested it will make the certification process much easier if I can use front and rear calipers, and the master cylinder off the same brand and model of car, it would also be  good if I could use the matching booster, although not essential.  Just to make it a bit more difficult I only want to use 16" x 8" wheels with no flares so they will have to fit under them.

 

Wally

[Brabham]

You could try AP Racing brakes. Don't know if they will fit but they are good.

[Zeddophile]

I would have thought the Brembos off an R32 or R33 skyline (GTR?) would have been the obvious answer...

 

I've got 4 pot Brembos off an Integra Type R on my Alfa, inside 16" wheels, and they take the same brake pads as the Skyline Brembos.  From what I've seen (fitted a few sets of calipers to race cars lately), most of the Brembo calipers are pretty much the same, regardless of whether they were originally fitted to an Alfa 147 GTA, Mitsubishi Evo, etc etc.

 

The discs I'm using are 305mm, don't think I could go any bigger with the wheels I have.  The clearance on the inside of the wheels is always the biggest factor.  They may all be 16 inch, but the inside shape and dimensions can vary hugely.  Whilst trial fitting some 305mm discs up for someone the other day, we tried about 6 different 15inch wheels over some AP racing calipers, none of which fitted without needing about an inch of spacing out.  Then someone dug out the ugliest wheel we'd ever seen, but the bloody thing cleared no problems...

[garvice]

I would have thought the Brembos off an R32 or R33 skyline

Different hat height, 5 lug not 4, 324mm disc, smaller centre hole but with some fab work and different rotors I'm sure they will work. At least I am hoping they will.

[Ben]

The R33/34 or Brembo upgrade is the obvious choice here in Australia (R33 GTST hardware is dirt cheap, and it's been done before).

 

Otherwise you could go for something like this:

http://www.modern-motorsports.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=60_61&products_id=55

http://www.modern-motorsports.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=60_61&products_id=58

 

But I expect that the cost difference would weight heavily in favour of the Nissan stuff, including the cost of brackets and re-drilling the discs.

[NZeder]

My last 240z I did the VT commodore brake upgrade that others have done too. Worked great and I am sure they are upto the task of V8 power too I used the Police spec pads which worked great on the road and track.

 

I forget the place I got the rotors from but they were VT items that were blanks drilled to our 4x114.3 stud pattern (out past Fern Tree Gully in Vic if I recall) and fitted over the hubs and the VT calipers bolted up to the stock ears with new holes drilled in the cast part of the caliper mounting. The original holes were welded up and the engineer was happy with this solution.

 

So it does depend on the usage of the car etc but I figured if the VT stuff is good enough for V6 V8 powered 1700KG car then it will be good enough for a zed at 1100kg.

[Scando]

I'm running R33 GTS-T callipers front and rear, works brilliantly.

[nat0_240_chevZ]

mmm just make up what works and massage the truth to what they are from,

its just your engineer being lazy, using an already approved solution, calcs are realy not that hard and can be confirmed by him/her, in a matter of 2-3 hours.

as for booster etc, rbz_260 had used essentially stock r32 gtst items all round (excepth the callipers on the front were RX& items, but almost identical to the nissan ones as they are all made by sumitomo exc brembo....)

give it a whirl, or else try Z31/32 items, but not 4 pot, and as N zedder said, try commy, as even the V8s came out 2 pot calipers right up now pretty much.

nat0

[GV260]

I'm running R33 GTS-T callipers front and rear, works brilliantly.

 

How did you go with the handbrake - is it cable operated? If not what did you do as this could impact on legality of conversion given Z's are cable operated.

[zed240au]

Ive been happy with my hilux 4 spot conversion use falcon discs works a treat

Without spending big bucks reckon u will find it hard to find twin spot rear calipers with handbrake included in caliper

[Whittie]

The zed is not a heavy car, you don't need brakes that big.

 

I too have the Commodore (VT?) brakes on the front, 2 spot, with single spot R31/280zx on the rear and THAT is overkill!

 

Both are DEAD simple to bolt up and you can have the whole conversion done for around $1000. I have a VERY heavy 2-seater (1200kg dry) and run with this setup on the track without a single issue. I was doing 245kph to 80kph stops at Bathurst for up to 6 laps at a time and didn't go anywhere near overheating the brakes.

 

The whole conversion can be bought new from any reputable disc brake shop, you can even get slotted discs. Get blank discs and have them drilled to 4x114.3 at an engineering shop. The Calipers on the front are Commodore/FPV 2-spots and on the rear is R31 skyline. Then buy/make the 'Maxima Disc Brake Caliper Bracket' <- forum search for that one, and you're off with a brake setup that fits under 14" standard rims and has a working handbrake. Yes, that's right, 14" standard rims! See my photobucket site and or build thread if you don't believe me.

[Scando]

How did you go with the handbrake - is it cable operated? If not what did you do as this could impact on legality of conversion given Z's are cable operated.

 

I don't have one

 

When I got the engineers certificate for the engine conversion I had RX7 4 spots on the front and R31 brakes on the rear with the handbrake working.

I've done the R33 conversion since with 326x30 front rotors on custom hats and some rear discs I had given to me.  I think they might be off an R31 sillhouette.

 

If I wanted a handbrake now I'd probably use the little seperate Wilwood mechanical handbrake calipers you can get.

[luvemfast]

I know we can't, but why can't you use a hydraulic handbrake? they work better anyway

Whats the ruling there?

[garvice]

I have always thought of a handbrake as an emergency brake, when your hydraulic brakes fail you can always pull your mechanical brake. I probably think of it as an emergency brake because of dodgy past cars. HA.

[NZeder]

I have always thought of a handbrake as an emergency brake, when your hydraulic brakes fail you can always pull your mechanical brake. I probably think of it as an emergency brake because of dodgy past cars. HA.

These days they have rebranded them per-say they are called park brakes and no longer emergency brakes. You even get little buttons that start/release an electric motor that pulls the cable for you these days (I believe invented for disabled drivers first off but now on most high end cars)