Brake upgrade Feeler for B13 and N14
I'm currently working on a prototype brake setup for the R. I was unhappy with the current R brakes, and if you have ever driven then on a road course or auto cross you will know what I mean. The ad22vf's stop a sub 2300 lb nx or sentra decently, but the awd system and turbo add a solid 400 lbs to our cars, and when you start driving a course, you notice.
I am currently running a EBC brake setup on stock brakes with Yellowstuff racing pads, and slotted racing rotors. With shipping from UK was ridiculous. It stops good for a street car better than stock.....but not good enough for me.
So began my quest for better brakes. Unfortunately the n14 (or b13) chassis is extremely handicapped in terms of braking choices. You have the AD22vfs.....and that's it if you want to stay with an OEM solution. If you wanted you could try to fit a b15 front caliper onto a Gtir caliper bracket, but you would have to keep the same pads and rotor, and effectively would only change the pressure bias from front to rear, and actually make your brakes less effective. Fade would not be reduced, and brake torque would only be slightly increased because of the increased front pressure bias, in turn brake force would subsequently be reduced in the rear, for the same pedal effort so you are in a losing battle.
Then I looked at the aftermarket kits and found the fast brakes kit with the wilwoods and the 11" rotors. 4 piston calipers, bigger rotor, bigger pad, it was looking good....$695! I wasn't really looking to spend that much. The other downside is that I want to be able to run a 15" wheel. Much bigger, and the R starts to look weird, and you are losing a lot of tire. Theoretically that kit should fit under 15" wheels, but the 4 piston caliper means trouble as the spacing between the front of the caliper and the rear of the wheel spokes becomes an issue. On top of all this the 11" rotor they use is a pitifully thin 22mm rotor. Our stock brakes are 26 mm thick which is why sentra guys say they get rid of all brake fade!! I decided to look elsewhere.
To make the brakes have better brake torque, the best thing you can do is move the caliper away from centre of the hub, think of leverage. So I looked at the fastbrakes kit that just spaces the stock caliper out. This seems like a good option and at $260 it is a great price, but it must have a 16" wheel or larger. Scratch another one.
I started looking at other nissan options like s14, r32, r33, 300zx, and j30 but all these calipers have a bracket that has 100mm bolt spacing. Our hubs have 130mm bolt spacing. You can switch out your hubs for b15 front hubs, but then you must deal with issues like, bolt pattern, wheel bearings, steering angle, rotor size all things that can be solved, but requiring more work and fab.
Long story short I found a solution that met all of my criterea:
Bigger thicker rotors for better brake torque and more heat capacity for less brake face on the track
Bigger calipers, to take advantage of increased piston force (only ideal if the rear is matched, but I'll work on that in the future)
Bigger pads for more swept area
Fit under most 15" wheels
Bolt onto our hubs
Here is the kit:
Front J30 dual piston calipers. ~20% more braking force from the same pedal pressure, both pistons are inboard so no wheel clearance issues
Front J30 caliper brackets, milled to have the proper offset
Front PT cruiser Turbo rotors. 280 mm or 11" 28mm thick, no hubcentric spacer required, must be redrilled to 4x100
Custom caliper bracket for proper spacing to rotor diameter and to adapt bolt spacing
Things you need:
Pads of your choice, anything listed for a j30 or q45 will work I can include OEM style pads with the kit just add $40
Stock brake lines work, stock hub works.
Cost is looking like $425.00 depending on shipping.
This is for interest. Works for anything n14 or b13. When the prototype is done, I'll post pics and firm up pricing. Obviously the more people the cheaper it gets. I might consider selling the brackets separate, but You would also need to get your caliper brackets machined so I'm not sure how advantageous it would be for you to do that. The brackets are the majority of the cost on this anyway, and I'd be selling the Calipers, Rotors etc for what I pay for them.
Discuss!
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