Brake swap

[gabezilla275]

Will the Four piston calipers from a 300ZX bolt onto a non brembo 350z. And if they do will it increase brake performance. Same question for the rear two piston calipers. Im just wondering cause I can get a set of refurbished calipers for alot cheaper than buying the factory brembos
Modified by gabezilla275 at 10:41 AM 1/1/2010

[dasoupdude]

Im sure they would fit with the proper brackets, although it probably wouldn't be an upgrade performance-wise considering the fact that the factory 350z brakes are already bigger than the 11 inch rotors of the z32 sports brake.

I'd sugguest finding used brembo's, 370z akebonos, or even the factory 06-08 brakes. Unlike the 03-05 the 06-08 came with dual piston calipers.

[audtatious]

Yeah, I highly suggest 370z/G37 akebono upgrades > Brembo. The Akebono installation is easy but does require a custom bracket and adjustments to the heat shield. You would need the calipers, bracket, rotors and pads for this. Not cheap but well worth it.

Installation instructions for Akebono on a 350z: http://www.370zcoupe.com/how-tos/instal ... 0z-or-350z

[dasoupdude]

I was able to find a complete used 40th anniversary set on ebay for only $1500. Which is a steal, even came with the 350z brackets.



My wheels are 18 x 9.5 +20 R +30 F. I needed a 10mm spacer in the front to clear the huge calipers.

[jerryd1987]

http://www.conceptzperformance.com/Cart ... 91.126.178
can get everything brand new for $1650, or $1900 for stoptech rotors, stainless lines, and motul fluid. personally i recommend brembo at best or wilwood, the only thing you gain from the bigger diameter rotors is better heat dissipation which i doubt very many people need much better then the oem brembo. in essence you are greatly reducing performance for no benefit, you gain heat dissipation but if you dont need it then that pro is null, which leaves the negatives of increased stopping distance, poorer suspension performance, and slower acceleration from the additional unsprung and rotating weight.
i can tell you i have made multiple(5+) high speed slow downs(135+ mph) and have had 0 issues with brake fade on oem 03 enthusiast brakes, not even brembo. a 6th run might have been too much and only reason ill be going to brembo or wilwood 13 inch since its unlikely ill even need that its more of a safety issue against fade.

now you ask but it had bigger rotors, bigger pads, and bigger calipers it must work better!? this would be false, those systems(minus mayby the akebono which is designed for a slightly heavier car but 27 lb rotors is absurd imo thats 40% more then my 18x10.5 wheels weigh.) are all designed to have the same piston volume, sure more pistons but they are all smaller, this means that your pressure at the caliper pre pad is identical to oem or within a margin of error as to not effect brake performance, this means you have a larger pad biting on the rotor with the same pressure resulting in lower clamping force. to demonstrate this imagine pushing on a 1 square inch brake pad with 1 pound of force, the clamping force is 1 psi, now imagine keeping the 1 pound of force but increasing the brake pad to 2 inchs, you now have .5 psi clamping force. the additional friction surface will help negate this some but at the very best your going to have less performance then just putting a racing pad in a oem system, similar to how a 6 puck will always outperform a full face with the same materials and pressure plate. now the larger pad WILL last longer but its not helping your performance at all, if you want better performance get sticky tires i guarantee you will hit the limit of your tires before you hit the limit of your brakes. if you find the limit you need to do a custom setup off a heavier car that has a larger piston volume then the 350z, like the gtr or m5.

[StockAsFuhZ33]

im doing the 06-08 dual piston upgrade..great alernative to the not very big factory brembo setup..if i go big brakes it'll 8 piston

[audtatious]

The only reason you would need to go to a 8 piston setup would be for racing purposes. Otherwise the Akebono and Brembo options would work fine....and they would still be fine for light racing as well with the proper fluid and SS lines.

[dasoupdude]

Yeah I'm seeing people run bbk's for the cool factor (guilty) nowadays instead of performance.

[BusyBadger]

Yeah I'm seeing people run bbk's for the cool factor (guilty) nowadays instead of performance.

Poser. You just need to drive faster so you have a proven need for the upgrade.

Maybe you could start a tofu delivery service with nightly runs out to Marathon.

I know what you mean though, I rarely need the repeated stop capacity the Brembos give me, every now and then (The Dragon, Blue Ridge Parkway and other local mountain roads that shall remain unidentified for the safety of my driving record) I'm thankful that they don't fade, but for daily driving they're overkill.

And still I'm looking at some upgraded rotors.

[dasoupdude]

Exactry.


Most douches don't understand that an oem brake system will stop just as good as a 57 pot caliper in daily driving situations.

Even if your Z had 500hp and its only use was putting it through the 1320 the oem system would STILL suffice with oem pads.

I <3 oem brake pads btw.