jkuamoo

A quick background: So the S2000 brakes are already known to be pretty a pretty good setup, and I was perfectly fine with them until I supercharged my motor. While I was driving on the track but then the moment I would pull off the the brake pedal would sink right into the ground. It really freaked me out for a bit, but after it sat for about 5-10 minutes it was back to normal. I bled my brakes real quick before my next session and went back out. Low and behold it did it again after the session was over. This is when I came to the conclusion that I probably needed to expend the heat out of my brakes better than I already had.

I looked into a big brake kit, but the issue was that not only is the initial investment for the big brake kit expensive, but the price of the rotor rings which often needs to be replaced was also just ridiculous. I also looked into the Spoon Calipers, but they are pretty pricey for what they are.

That is when I decided on a custom brake setup. My buddy had a set of buddyclub big brake kit that he was going to install and I measured everything out. It looked like the caliper should not have a problem being used with the stock rotors as long as we can get the offset of the caliper to correctly match up with the stock rotor position. I found out that the Buddyclub calipers are pretty easy to get a hold of and they are relatively cheap. Calipers alone cost me about a little less than a grand. I took the proper measurements and I had a machine shop make me a couple sets of these caliper brackets to mount up to the stock uprights and work with the stock rotors.

The cool thing about the Buddyclub caliper is that they just take the Ford GT40 or Dodge Viper brake pads and it works perfectly (does not overhang the rotor) and you have a ton of Pad compound options to choose from. And of course the best part is when you run through your rotor, its only 20-40 dollars a piece for new stock s2k blanks. Rather than the 300-500 dollar rotor rings you would have to pay depending on the big brake kit.

Sure enough the cooling became significantly better. The abs obviously still works, and the the brake pedal pressure has not changed from stock. I have 17x9 +63 offset wheel and Im running a 8mm spacer in there to make space for the caliper.

I figured it would be a good setup for those of you guys that want an inexpensive brake upgrade.

odb812

I would keep an eye on how low and evenly you wear your pads. That caliper is meant for a 28mm thick rotor and the stock ones are ~25mm servicable down to 23mm. You don't want the pad to get low enough it allows a piston to come out of the caliper.

Secondly, I'm not sure how much changing just the caliper would help in reducing temps. Most people who go for a BBK to address brake temps are more interested in the larger, two-piece, directionally-vaned rotors than the caliper. How did you measure that they are cooler with the new calipers?

When your brakes went out after your track session and you bled them, did you replace all the fluid? If so, how did you do it? It sounds like you boiled your fluid the first time and either didn't replace all the old fluid, or picked up some air in the system when you bled your brakes.

06Estukay

Sorry, this seems like a pointless upgrade... The problem with our brakes is with the rotors, not the caliper. The OEM sized rotor does not have enough heat capacity for track use. Anyhow, cool bling mod if it's a street car

Croc

i would disagree.
sure the rotor is still a wek link - but bigger pad and caliper size would definitely help with fade resistance.
1000$ for this? i'm not convinced that it worth it.

but we better her from the thread opener what are his track impressions.

06Estukay

Disagree all you want... My car sees 95% track, 5% street. I've played the OEM brake disc game before. Like I said, for a street car, these calipers look cool. However, there will be no improvement in rotor life, especially not on the track.

MMisencik157

OP- what fluid and how old was it in the stock calipers and what pads were you using?

billios996

I'm with the others, it sounds like you boiled some old dot3 fluid.

jkuamoo

The way I bled was the old fashioned way with a buddy pumping the brakes and I messed with the nipples. lol.

The fluid I use is the Valvoline synthetic (the gold bottle which I heard was discontinued).I know there is better fluid out there, but again it has never been an issue for me and I have a box full of them. What I was told was that the bigger caliper does indeed cool better because there is more fluid in the caliper to dissipate heat. Also the increased bite from the 4 piston calipers. The pads I was using is the PMU HC800.

After a little bit of track testing I can say this, the rotor does seem to get beat up a little more, but there is no heating issue. I am hypothesizing that it is because the added bite. It just takes less energy from my end for the same amount of clamping force. I am fully aware that braking distance is not going to be any better considering you can only stop as well as your tires can grip.

The stock caliper is totally sufficient for the track. I had an issue with my brakes and I custom made a little setup that happens to work so I thought I would share it. That is all. I could be wrong here, but I dont see much of a difference between this and a spoon calipers (in fact it makes life easier, because the pad size seems to always be available, and you dont need to mod the studs on the pads to make them fit).

yamahaSHO

Ford GT40, or just GT (there is a difference); In the latter case, it'll take STi and Evo pads as well.

FWIW, my 3R Wilwood brake setup (which is in the same ballpark of price) not only improves the caliper, but also a larger, thicker, directionally vaned 2-piece rotor where rings can be had for
$50 and pads are extremely cheap.

rhouck

What tracks are you testing at?

Should have gone to better fluid and pads before this. Do you have brake ducts? I don't see how you can say the fluid has never been an issue when you described having massive brake fade

DRY:527F -- WET:347F --- VALVOLINE SYNPOWER DOT3 & DOT4

versus

DRY:635F -- WET:430F --- PROJECT MU G/FOUR 335 ($45.00/1.0L 33.8 OZ)

Not even comparable.

How much for pads for this setup?

As for expensive rotor rings... I have 16 days (and counting) on my Urge Essex AP Racing bbk and they are still going strong (and I am supercharged as well). I would expect similar results of Stoptech, etc. Where did you hear they "often need to be replaced"?


Maybe if this was $500... but for $1000+ this is not what I would recommend. They certainly look blingy though, so a worthy upgrade for the boba parking lot.