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700 brake upgrade options

S

sb765t

New member
Joined
Sep 21, 2004
Location
Raleigh, NC
Folks,
It's been discussed, and I'm probably bringing up common information, but for the dunce at the back of the class, this is kinda what I know...

RX7- no clue about.
Wilwood - currently what I'm planning on doing, but haven't heard much talk about
S60R - heard rumors about them, haven't seen much done with them.

I'll have some more HP soon, and I'd like to get a set of brakes that was really competent on the street, and will handle some track time as well. I'm an aggressive driver. I'm currently running stock Volvo 740 brakes, cross drilled rotors, SS lines, EBC green stuff pads. I do not have ABS, and do not intend on putting ABS back in.

Pads with great modulation therefore are appreciated. Any real world experience with these options - or others???

Thanks
 
Very cost effective option is to go with 302mm 850/V70I disks and calipers (+brackets). Grab from the JY and go. This way you also have a good choice in pads. Seems though like you want fixed calipers, and not the floating ones like on a 700/800/900.

You only need to produce 6,3mm thick spacers and buy longer hex bolts.

Picture:

P5144160.jpg


P5144154.jpg


P5144161.jpg


You do need 16'' wheels (hydra's fit when you grind a very small ridge of the 850 caliper).
 
There are a number of cars running Wilwoods. I've got them on the front of my 744T. Nathan (500+hp) has them on his 940. Mike (TLAO) is running them on his car. There are others.

I've got Q compound pads on mine and have noticed they don't dust nearly as much as the BP-10s I had before. Either one would be fine for street or track.
 
Yeah,
I'm looking for a serious brake upgrade. Really the only thing I've seen around is the Wilwood kits that 245gti offers (and thank you very much for doing so...I have a suspicion I'll be placing an order within the next few days).

I"m beyond the capability of stock pads and rotors at this point... I want something with real stopping ability. My brakes are about as good as you're going to get stock, but they could be a LOT better. Working on making them excellent.
 
Ive got Dales kit....quality parts he makes, and the Wilwood stuff is top notch! I didnot follow the proper break in procedure, and guess what, I just scuffed it all up and am headed out for the punishment, and severe headache associated with this, HA. They worked great before, I can only imagine how theyll work after this.

Ill report back.
 
Well Im back.....things seem to feel better....not that they were bad before, its just that my rotors would start to rust very quickly, and I wouild get a shimmer of brake dust. Dale explained that there was no pad transfer onto the rotor, and once bedded in properly, my issues would go away. Well, I need to wash my car later so well see. But with the brakes I have now, I can dont have enough steer tire. I have 215/40/18 fronts....I can lock them up, but not after halting this heavy pig down from speed. Initial breaking feels the car slowing, then its like whamo....Ill stop you now Sir! I Like it.
 
What do you mean you dont' have enough steer tire? Are you still running ABS?? Progressive braking, and a decent threshold before lockup would be nice, given the lack of ABS.

Current wheels are 16", with 225mm rubber all around, but that will probably have to get upgraded in order to do the Wilwood upgrade??
 
Our Wilwood kit will fit under some 16" wheels. We don't have a lot of 16" wheels at our disposal but they will fit under Hydras and my TSW Blades. I've also got a set of Enkei RS5 (I think) 16" wheels they fit under. Again, no guarantee they will fit under all 16" wheels, but they've fit under what we've tried.
 
Good to know Dale. I've got a set of Mille Miglia's, but I'm probably going to get a new set of wheels for the car. I'd really like to get some 255's out back, just for traction purposes. I don't think a 255 is gonna fit on my current rims (16x7.5, IIRC).... Yeah, looks like not. Hmm. Wheels and tires...decisions, decisions.
 
Turbosteen said:
Very cost effective option is to go with 302mm 850/V70I disks and calipers (+brackets). Grab from the JY and go. This way you also have a good choice in pads. Seems though like you want fixed calipers, and not the floating ones like on a 700/800/900.

You only need to produce 6,3mm thick spacers and buy longer hex bolts.

Picture:

P5144160.jpg


P5144154.jpg


P5144161.jpg


You do need 16'' wheels (hydra's fit when you grind a very small ridge of the 850 caliper).
Click to expand...

Bitchin!
 
I'm also running some 4 piston wilwoods on the front of my wagon with the Avalanche adapters. They are top notch. I suspect the issues Nathan is describing above are very related to the pad compound he chose. The nice thing about the Wilwoods is there are probably 10 different pad compounds you can buy. Many different companies make pads that fit these calipers.

I was running some custom made pads in my stock 740 calipers for track days a couple years ago. And those pads were completely unstreetable. But they did make the car stop well on the track. Even with the small brakes. But now I run a more street friendly pad in the wilwoods and it is a decent all around setup. I never had to do anything special with break-in and they stop fine when cold too. I would still probably put some racier pads in them for a road race day. But I haven't done that in a while.

One of the issues with really aggressive race pads. They will feel a little "greasy" when cold. And then they start to bite when you get heat into them. So if you are driving along on the freeway and jab the pedal, you get an odd feeling for about 1-2 seconds until a little heat builds up and then they start to bite. That doesn't reallly happen on the track because they just stay hot.

But pick the pads you like, and experiment. Pads are plentiful for Wilwoods.

sb765t said:
What do you mean you dont' have enough steer tire? Are you still running ABS?? Progressive braking, and a decent threshold before lockup would be nice, given the lack of ABS.

Current wheels are 16", with 225mm rubber all around, but that will probably have to get upgraded in order to do the Wilwood upgrade??
Click to expand...
 
I'm also running the Wilwood Superlite's with some S60R rotors (330mm) and custom adapters. With the BP10 pads in em the feel when you're NOT abusing them is normal, feels like the car did with the stock brakes. When you do start abusing them, well, your head will hurt, but the power there is great! I've made use of the 225's as well a few times and even with the ABS kicking in, it still pulls you down HARD.

Without modding the proportioning valve, I checked temps after light use and the fronts and rears were right about the same temp. After repeated hard stops for a few minutes, enough to get them really hot the fronts were actually cooler than the rear's by a decent amount. This is based off both caliper temp and rotor temp.
 
qwkswede said:
I'm also running some 4 piston wilwoods on the front of my wagon with the Avalanche adapters. They are top notch. I suspect the issues Nathan is describing above are very related to the pad compound he chose. The nice thing about the Wilwoods is there are probably 10 different pad compounds you can buy. Many different companies make pads that fit these calipers.

I was running some custom made pads in my stock 740 calipers for track days a couple years ago. And those pads were completely unstreetable. But they did make the car stop well on the track. Even with the small brakes. But now I run a more street friendly pad in the wilwoods and it is a decent all around setup. I never had to do anything special with break-in and they stop fine when cold too. I would still probably put some racier pads in them for a road race day. But I haven't done that in a while.

One of the issues with really aggressive race pads. They will feel a little "greasy" when cold. And then they start to bite when you get heat into them. So if you are driving along on the freeway and jab the pedal, you get an odd feeling for about 1-2 seconds until a little heat builds up and then they start to bite. That doesn't reallly happen on the track because they just stay hot.

But pick the pads you like, and experiment. Pads are plentiful for Wilwoods.
Click to expand...


Also, the Wilwood racing pads will eat your rotors for lunch if they're not REALLY HOT; not for street use.
 
Speaking of the Wilwood racing pads, if ANYONE wants a set, I have a set of 15A's and 15B's that I'll let go for cheap. Might be good for mockup or testing/rotor killing...
 
qwkswede said:
One of the issues with really aggressive race pads. They will feel a little "greasy" when cold. And then they start to bite when you get heat into them. So if you are driving along on the freeway and jab the pedal, you get an odd feeling for about 1-2 seconds until a little heat builds up and then they start to bite. That doesn't reallly happen on the track because they just stay hot.

But pick the pads you like, and experiment. Pads are plentiful for Wilwoods.
Click to expand...

I've got some custom Hawk pads in the S40 that I need to install pad heaters into if I'd ever want to drive the car in under 50?F weather. In anything cooler I can't retain enough heat for any kind of consistent braking. In my case, 'greasy' isn't really the right word. More like 'glassy' as the harder you push on the pedal the slicker it gets. Hell, in 90? weather I initially need to drag the brakes like a quarter mile to get enough heat for everything to work.
 
I have the 330mm discs they are bolt on so no problem there, then i have special adapters from sweden for the front and rear calipers, the hardest part was to (you have to) cut thread in the original caliperholder "eye?s"(dont know the exact word). took me an hour and a half for 4 holes size 14mm 1,25mm i have pictures of it but i dont know how to post em..... and i have 18" wheels because it otherwise wont fit, or perhaps 17" but i havn't tested that yet.
 
Last edited:
Mats... Where did you get the adapters?? It would be really sweet to have the R-brakes peeking out from under a 700/900...

Still might do Wilwoods due to availability of options of pads...but...nonetheless, I'm all for knowing *every* option available...

Thanks
 
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