Review of Wilwood 1" bore brake master cylinder

[wheelman]

I took the plunge and decided to go with a Wilwood 1" bore brake master cylinder.

After searching for a decent priced 15/16" unit from a 280ZX and not finding any I gave up and bought

the Wilwood unit from Jegs. The price was Ok ($113.00) considering it included the reservoirs and it's a "Wilwood".

 

Anyway, the fit is acceptable but the mounting holes need to be elongated as reported in this thread:

http://forums.hybrid...-grabby-brakes/

 

The poster in that thread reported he used a larger 10" booster and it worked well.

I don't know which booster I have but it wouldn't be possible to install a larger one as the clutch master would be in the way, so maybe I have the 10" booster.

I did replace the original several years ago during the build but can't remember if I got a larger one or not.

 

Here is the bad with this "Wilwood" unit:

1. The bleeders are aluminum and one was crushed in my unit when it arrived. It was very difficult to bleed the master.

Took me a while to figure this out, fortunately my other master had brass bleeders so I swapped them.

2. The valve in the outlet for the rear brake circuit was bad. Couldn't get fluid into the rear circuit.

Again it took me while to figure this out and a re-install once I swapped the one from my other master.

3. The outlets it came with have SAE threads.

This wasn't really a problem, just the way they are, I was able to swap the ones from my other master so didn't need to bend new pipes.

The outlets included with it were also aluminum so it's a good thing I was able to swap them for the brass units.

 

The bottom line in this so far is I was surprised at the low quality parts included with the Wilwood but once I swapped in working parts from my old master it seems to work well and doesn't seem to be too large for the calipers I'm running.

 

This process just re-enforced how much I HATE working with brake fluid.

Being forced to remove the master after trying to bleed the system only to find no fluid going to the rear brakes was extremely irritating, especially considering this was a brand new unit.

 

Once I have some track time I'll add more info to this thread on how the 1" bore size works out.

Edited May 1, 2011 by wheelman

[wheelman]

I promised a follow up after I got some track time, attended the first auto-x event since the upgrade so here goes.

 

I have the following setup:

FRONT

86-88 S12+8 Toyota Calipers (not the larger piston S12W units)

84 300ZX vented front rotors

Basic street quality pads

 

REAR

84 Maxima calipers and mounting brackets (even the parking brake is usable)

84 300ZX solid rear rotors

Basic street pads

 

Wilwood 1" bore master cylinder

Adjustable prop valve found on eBay, not a "brand" name unit

Steel braided flex lines at all 4 corners

Valvoline DOT 3, 4 synthetic brake fluid

 

The brakes worked great, very linear, easy to modulate and actually slowed the car rather than locking the fronts.

It is possible to lock the brakes but it takes a very quick, hard stab on the pedal to do it.

 

Statements have been made that a 1" bore is too large, I disagree.

For street use the pedal effort may be a bit higher than some folks like but for auto-x I feel this is pretty close to an ideal setup, road racing may benefit from larger rotors that provide better cooling.

 

Bottom line, the 1" bore is not too large and once you take care of the quality issues it's a good fit with the Toyota calipers and rear disks.

Edited May 24, 2011 by wheelman