[QUOTE]Originally posted by spider
[B]

Yeah, but it will be just two little tiny drops of welding.

 

Very interesting approaches to cooling the brakes . Here are a few facts :

2

 

While I see the front dust shields as being of only minimal importance because they really only need to shield heat from the ball joints and steering boots, the rears are another matter. You really don't want to let much heat radiate to your outter cv - unless you plan to replace the cv boot and rebuild the joint ever few months.

 

I see no problem with either . The heat radiating from a rotor face travels in a straight line , perpendicular to the rotor face . The boot and CV joint are not in this line of sight . Because of the lower temperature of the center part of the hub this area will have less radiation . If you are really worried about the CV joint and boot , cut the dust shield so the face of the rotor is no longer covered only.


Brad

 

If my S2000 was a dedicated track car, I see no problem with removing the dust shields.

However, much less than 1% of my car's use is on the track, the only time that the brakes get hot enough to worry about. So the concerns of the >99% use gain some importance. Like keeping dust, debris and water out of the braking pieces. I'm not convinced yet that these issues can be safely ignored.

 

The dust shield is designed to keep the brake dust off your wheels . Water is not sealed from your brakes or brake parts by this piece of metal . Water and most any thing can go through the open spokes of the wheel . I am sure that some thing might flip up off the road and be deflected by the dust shield , but most of these objects would just bounce off the brake rotor . The only item it does protect is the steering arm boot from the radiant heat coming off the rotor face . This area is easy to protect , while still removing the shield to allow brakes better cooling.


Brad

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by dwb1
[B]The dust shield

 

The dust shield creates a negative pressure behind wheel drawing air through the wheel , pulling brake dust in that direction . If you look it does not protect many rotating parts. The slits in the front of the shield do try to move some air through the rotor center . You will find much more air moving through the rotor with this shield removed , also it allows both rotor faces to run the same temperature . The inside rotor face temperature will match the outside with shield removed.

Brad

 

With the help of this thread, I was able to put together my homemade brake ducts. Well, almost...

The air pump bracket was bent forward about an inch to make room for the 2.5" brake duct hose.

 

Where'd you get those nifty flanges from? I made some over the weekend, but yours are prettier.

Also, what kind of rivets are you using? The rivets I have have one side that's all nice and finished, but on the other side, it looks like a little bulging terd thing that sticks out like 1/8". Where can I get rivets that flare out on the other side and sit flush?