Ducted stainless backing plates to cool the Arizona Z Car Wilwood brakes

[bjhines]

I have been messing around out in the cold cold shop looking for something to do lately. I figured I would make some ducted backing plates to fit the new Arizona Z Car big brake kit I just installed.

 

While looking for a good way to accomplish this, I thought of the typical duct-hose Zip-tied to the strut like most people do. I really wanted something that would take advantage of the nice curved vane rotor's ability to move air. The opening in the rotors is 8.5", that does not leave much room to get a duct to blow directly into the center of the rotors. I already made some nice 3" airscoops to fit the back of the airdam. I really wanted that air forced directly into the cooling vanes of the rotors. As it is, I have half the 3" duct blowing into the center and half blowing on the disk suface. I left very little clearance to the disk surface so not much air will escape the overhang.

 

I think I figured a pretty good way to accomplish this with some blingy stainless-steel fab work. This is still a work in progress as I have 2 duct hoses going to each front wheelwell. I am using the 3" hose from the airdam to feed the backing plates. The second hose is smaller(2.5") and it will be mounted to blow directly on the caliper. Overkill??? maybe... maybe not?

 

Anyway, here are the pics so far. 20g stainless sheet, bead-rolled for stiffness, thinwall stainless tubing, tig-welded of course.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[Dtsnlvrs]

I wanna see pictures of the scoops you made for the airdam

[Nelsonian]

I wanna see pictures of the scoops you made for the airdam

I'm with Dtsnlvrs, looking forward to seeing those scoops. I can't imagine all of this will weigh in at that much at all.

[clarkspeed]

Have you ran the car with the AZC brakes yet? You may find the ducts provide too much cooling. I felt the initial bite of my pads was too soft when running cooling ducts so I ended up plugging them off. I've never had a problem overheating them and my car weighs 2650 lbs and tops out at 135mph on the track. The big rotors soak up a lot of heat already and barely wear at all.

[bjhines]

Burst my bubble why don't ya there.

 

OK FINE! I will make a cooling duct and shroud for my alternator instead.

[cygnusx1]

You can just run "colder heat range" pads to take advantage.   Dave at AZC told me that the brake kit should be good on a Z that reaches up to 150 on the race track, or about 500hp, if I recall correctly. 

[junglist]

Those look really nice. Subscribed, so I can see the pics of your airdam scoops also.

[clarkspeed]

Not trying to bust any bubbles. They do look great. Just relating my experience when using race pads on the track.

[JMortensen]

You can just run "colder heat range" pads to take advantage. � Dave at AZC told me that the brake kit should be good on a Z that reaches up to 150 on the race track, or about 500hp, if I recall correctly.�

Wow. They've really been downgraded. Back about 10 or 15 years ago the 4 piston setup was advertised as (paraphrasing here) for Z cars that regularly see 200+ mph.