big brake upgrade questions

[Paul_]

if i do the bbu all around, what are the largest rotors i can get that will bolt up to pre 03 lx sport rims? secondly any performance calipers out there? and what are the differences between cross drilled and slutted rotors? i've heard cross drilled rotors are bad. this true?

if i'm planning on going 100+ i wanna be able to stop better. i wanna stop better anyway, but it comes in handy after breaching mach 1

[texasvic]

and what are the differences between cross drilled and slutted rotors

The slots and drill holes remove surface area from the rotor and thus hurt braking performance. Since you're going to larger rotors it may even out, but plain rotors should work just fine. Just get good calipers and pads.

Slotted rotors were useful at one time though. When brake pads were made out of asbestos they would glaze and just slip on the rotor, not grab it. The slots helped remove the glaze.

[Paul_]

good to know.

i was planning on some super heavy duty calipers, big ass rotors, ceramic pads, and redo all the lines with stainless steel lines

[HwyCruiser]

Check out TCE's FAQ:

http://www.tceperformanceproducts.com/FAQs.mgi2

I've got gas slotted rotors, non-drilled. I chose the slotted for improved wet weather performance.

There's a lot to consider when selecting a high performance brake package, bling being (or should be) the least important. Wander around TCE's website, this guy knows brakes.

[Fairmont Kevin]

Todd @ TCE is a good guy. We've been kicking around ideas about Panther brakes on Corner-carvers.com with Todd, hoping one of the 12" rotors would fit a Mustang for a race class w/ 12" max rotor diameter.

Nothing is a direct fit, unfortunately. Which means the zillions of Mustang brake upgrades won't fit any year Panther either.

Once you have the 93+ spindle, the correct offset rotor can be gotten easily thru Todd or other sources. Add a caliper to fit and make a bracket to attach it, and you've got a brake upgrade!

If you have the LX Sport wheels, Todd can tell you how to measure them to determine what brakes they will take.

kevin

[DuceAnAHalf]

i am going tp use the 4 piston Wilwood superlite calipers on a 12" rotor

[Mercmarquis]

From what I understand the purpose of drilled and slotted brake rotors are mostly to aid in cooling and to release gasses that can cause a portion your pad to ride on a cushion of air when you hit the brake instead of the rotor, hurting braking performace drastically. This mostly only happens when the rotor becomes EXTREMLEY hot. Like in F1 or Lemans (ever seen the rotors glow at night?)
You should cosider what your planing to do with it, If your just cruisin the streets you should go with regular or if you desire slotted then those will be fine. If you plan to race or run autocross then I would consider drilled or slotter or both. But I really havent heard of them reducing performance as a result of less surface area but i might be wrong.

[Blaze86Vic]

Yeah they are pretty much for heat dissipation now a days. They do decrease ther braking force a marginal amount, but if your going to compare the two, compare them when it matters. When it comes down to it the solid rotors will lose braking force as they heat up and the non-solid will stay cool and outperform the the solid ones by a large margin. But like he said, if you aint driving with a purpose, then just go with the solids, you'll be fine.

To put into perspective the amount of braking it takes to overwhelm the PI solid rotors on my Vic, a 125 second run on a heavy braking road will drop there performanc by about 20% based on my fealing. At 45mph the road takes about 4.5minutes to slide on through it. So, if it is worth the trouble to you you'll notice it even on short spurts.

[p71towny]

I've got drilled all around on the towny. The carbon metalics warped my stock rotors. So far these are holding up. BBU was too expensive for me. Wet braking is way better and less brake fade, but I try to be easy on my brakes anyway.