snarpee Posted July 12, 2008 Share Posted July 12, 2008 Hey there all, Well, Im now far enough along in my front brake design to start buying parts, so I thought Id share it with you all. Now keep in mind, I'm a little eccentric on some things in this design but bare with me please. Im using: 280z front steel 5 lug hubs Wilwood 12.19 x 1.25 Thick curved vein rotors Wilwood superlight 6 piston calipers Vintage wheel works 9.5" wide wheels 7" coil over sleeve (for 2.5" springs) The pros with this set up are: Steel hubs (no striped studs) 5 lugs (5 x 4.5) 6 Piston feel / modulation Heat dissipation will not be a problem (CFD / FEA modeled) 16" / 17" wheels not a problem Height adjustable suspension (I know, I know, one day I will section them) Weighs less than stock setup. The cons with this set up are: The front track will be pushed out about 5/8" (new hub would correct it) FEA shows a little more stress farther out on the spindle (due to 5/8" offset)(reasonable though) OK, no the car is a 1971 240Z with a SBC in it. Main purpose is spirted street driving, but I will be tracking the car in several road course exbition events for fun. I have done a lot of racing in the past, I wont brag, and say that I was great, but you stick me in a car with 30 other drivers and I would typicaly finish in the top 8-12 no problem. So Schumacher I'm not, but a racer with the appreication for the nice stuff I am. So this is why I doing this to the front of the car. In the past I have played with some brake systems and always had such great feel / feedback with the 6 piston claipers, cant explaine it, its a foot thing!!! Any how, I'll shut up now, I just wanted to share the progress I have made on the front brakes / suspension I have been designing and building over the last few months. Enjoy!!! P.S. Im going to try and attach a 3d drawing viewer to this post so that you can open it up and spin it around, and hide things for a close look. You may need to install the 3d CAD viewer to open it up, go to http://www.edrawingsviewer.com/ and click on the green "DOWNLOAD" box an dit will walk you through it. Cross your fingers I hope it works. I'll post pics too!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
h4nsm0l3m4n Posted July 12, 2008 Share Posted July 12, 2008 Hi, your design looks like it would work very well, and your model is very thorough... I was actually just starting on designing a similar setup for my Z car as well. Wilwood seems pretty good about including technical drawings on their website for modeling (looks like you use solidworks?). Did you have to basically reverse engineer the model for the hubs and spindles? Also, I am still trying to decide which size rotors and calipers to get, Wilwood has a LOT of choices. I do not think 6 piston and 12" rotors are necessary for my application but I am curious how you arrived at the decision to use 12" rotors. Hmm, what else.. oh, the hats you are using with the rotors, are they standard Wilwood hats or will they need to be custom machined? Lastly, are you planning a similar setup for rear brakes? Thanks for posting this thread, definitely got my mind thinking more clearly about my setup! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snarpee Posted July 12, 2008 Author Share Posted July 12, 2008 h4nsm0l3m4n vbmenu_register("postmenu_910999", true); , I went 6 piston, because of my past experiance with them, and how they feel on the track. Yes, I'm using Solidworks as my design tool, and Cosmos for my FEA package. Yes, I have to re-engineer the factory Z car strut and hub, I just used calipers, mic's, and a height gauge for that, no fancy CMM stuff. Yes, I'm using all Wilwood stuff, I have past experiance with their brake parts, and are pretty good, not the best, but dam good for the money. Yes, I am planning on using Wilwood parts for the rear too, as soon as I get to that point, heheheh The 12" x 1.25 rotors were parts that I came in to, so my design started there, If I had to do it all over again, I would of certainly went with 11.5" or even 10.5" rotors, and much thinner than mine which are 1.25" thick. The reason, weight. My current 12" rotor weights about 12Lbs, the 10.5" rotors are only 8lbs. So my 12" rotors have added 4Lbs of unsprung weight to the car, but still less weight than the factory setup, so I'm dealing with it. I have toyed with selling my rotors and calipers and getting smaller rotors an six piston calipers that fit the thiner .81 rotors Wilwood offers, but I think I will loose much $$$ in that deal, so Im still contemplating that move. Any how, hope this helps in some way, and good luch on your project, might you have some pic's / screen shots / etc...??? Pete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
h4nsm0l3m4n Posted July 12, 2008 Share Posted July 12, 2008 Working with what you have makes sense. I dont really have anything other than a napkin sketch of the design. I said I was "starting", but I probably should have said I was "I just drew a napkin sketch and did a search on the internet and realized it would be a fun project to do." Maybe in the next couple days I can come up with something in Solidworks that would work and run it through my company's SLM machine someday down the road to see how it all lines up. I was thinking of using Willwood UL or ULHP series... the 10.75" x .81" you mentioned looks ideal. Calipers I would go for a 4 piston since my car is less so for the track...not sure which model, but something light and on the cheaper side. I will probably use my stock 260z hubs I'd need to design a custom hat for the rotor to fit the hub. Cost is more of a driving factor than outright performance for my design. I would, ideally need to widdle the cost of everything down to below the prices of comparable brake kits from Arizona Z, etc. Especially since my stock brakes work fine. This would be more of a design excersize, something cool to put on my car that I designed myself. Anyway, thanks for the idea. I'll see what I can come up with Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted July 13, 2008 Share Posted July 13, 2008 What hubs again? 280z's have 4 lugs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snarpee Posted July 13, 2008 Author Share Posted July 13, 2008 I think they are from a z31 (does that sound right???) Steel / 5 lugs. Im not certain of the exact year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
240zchevyv8 Posted July 13, 2008 Share Posted July 13, 2008 hey guys just like to say i think its really good when people design there own things rather than pay top dollar for someone elses ideas. And end up building something better as well, keep up the good work:2thumbs:, its people like you that make zeds a better car regards 240zchevyv8. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snarpee Posted July 13, 2008 Author Share Posted July 13, 2008 240zchevyv8, Thanks for the vote!!! Im not sure where my new front brake kit will lead, who knows I may be able to bring a new front brake it to the market place for poeple to try. Would be very hard to compete on proce alone, because others have wholesale agrements in place with big national supply chanis, etc..., but you never know!!! Any how, thanks for the kind words, take care of yourself!!! Pete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snarpee Posted October 16, 2008 Author Share Posted October 16, 2008 Guy's, I just finished machining my new front brake claiper brackets, I thought Id share my pictures of them, there are pictures of them off and on the car. I made 3 of each bracket, I start with a 6 pound piece of steel stock, then machine 5 of the punds out of it to revel a sweet little caliper bracket. The cnc program started out by taking almost 2 hours to machine, but I now have it down to 50 mins. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silver Mine Motors Posted October 17, 2008 Share Posted October 17, 2008 Doesen't arizona z car make that exact kit? So what do you plan on making for the rear brakes? Do you care if there is an e-brake? From my experience the rear brakes are by far harder to design then the fronts becouse of the e-brake. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snarpee Posted October 17, 2008 Author Share Posted October 17, 2008 My front kit is itself a bit of a hybrid (hehehhe), Its a AZC front kit with 1.25" thick rotors, and the 6 piston wilwood calipers, but Im using 5 lug steel hubs from a 300z turbo. I refuse to use aluminum hubs and caliper brackets, way to scary for me bro, I have seen way to many aluminum caliper brackets bend / break give enough time (my car is a street 1st track 2nd car). I know race cars run hubs and brackets made from 7075 because of its fatige strength but its expensive, and even the top level race teams thro their cars away after a season or two. Anyhow, as for the rear, I will be working on a rear kit in a few months from now, that will use the new Wilwood rear brake calipers with a mechanical parking brake lever on the caliper, Wilwood rotors, and MMS billet steel rear 5 lug hubs, Im not sure yet about the rotor hats just yet (could use the Wilwoods, or make my own). I'll keep everyone up to date with my progress once I get started in afew months, right now, I have to finish the fronts, I still need to powder coat the brackets, and get some custom oil seals made. Best Regards, Snarpee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
junglist Posted October 17, 2008 Share Posted October 17, 2008 Would your custom brackets work on a stock 4-lug hub to mount the wilwood calipers on a bigger rotor? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snarpee Posted October 17, 2008 Author Share Posted October 17, 2008 They would work as long as your using a 12.19" rotor, and the 6 piston wilwood calipers. A larger rotor requires the caliper to be farther away from the center of the spindle. Best Regards, Snarpee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silver Mine Motors Posted October 18, 2008 Share Posted October 18, 2008 so your rear brakes will be single 1.5 inch pistions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snarpee Posted October 18, 2008 Author Share Posted October 18, 2008 Baja, Yes, the rears will be single 1.5" piston calipers. I was told by a Wilwood engineer that the front 6 piston calipers Im using, and this rear 1.5" calipers together with their master cylinder will be the same exact parts they offer for their late model road racing mustang brake kits. My goal was to have a top notch roadracing brake system (but still affordiable, Im not buying 6,000$ Brembo calipers, hehehhe) that is still great for the street as well. Hope it works, hehehehhe Snarpee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snarpee Posted October 18, 2008 Author Share Posted October 18, 2008 Guy's, Here is a quick pic of the bracket I am using, just for referance, the two post are where the caliper bolts in to. Snarpee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snarpee Posted October 18, 2008 Author Share Posted October 18, 2008 Almost forgot to share a pic of the bracket installed by itself Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zcarnut Posted October 20, 2008 Share Posted October 20, 2008 You are using the 1987-89 Z31 Turbo front hub and not the 280Z one. Somewhat hard to find in the junkyards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snarpee Posted October 15, 2009 Author Share Posted October 15, 2009 Life gets in the wya, but I made some progress over the last few months (yes, I said months, hehehhe lolololol). I attached some pictures, for you guys to check out. Same Z32 hubs, but I've redesigned everything to work with off the shelf and easy to find parts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted October 15, 2009 Share Posted October 15, 2009 I like the slip on rotors. Don't know why more people don't do that, certainly makes maintenance easier. I did weigh a stock rotor at 12 lbs, and I know the 12.2 x 1.25" rotor is 12 lbs, plus you have the hat, so I think you might be wrong on your setup weighing less than stock. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.