I have had stock 280mm brakes on my S13, then a wilwood 330mm front setup, then added the Z32 rear setup (easy on an s13, it is the same e-brake system).

Using big front brakes gave the feeling the car would stop much better ... but after some testing it showed it was quite the same, if not worse.

Why ?

because upgrading the front means you change the front/rear balance. The front will still brake as much as your tyres allow it, but not the rear.

since i upgraded the rear, it is another world. the car does not "jump to the front" when braking, and brakes shorter.

The real benefit is that i can now brake an unlimited number of times without experiencing brake fading, which was my major concern with OEM setup. I would have had the same braking power with just uprated pads ( but S13 rotors are too thin for this, they cant cope with the heat)

So ... either upgrade font, rear AND BMC, or just fit better pads front and rear and stick with OEM sized calipers and rotors. Changing just the front "looks cool" and make you feel you brake better ( i had to change my suspension settings as on my first big braking attempt i rubbed the front bumper on the ground), but it just does not the job.

^^ Good input! Thank you!

I think my plan is to start with the Z32 fronts. I'm waiting for a quote back from NICO's powder coater. I'll probably send out the calipers soon.

What I'm debating is if I'm going to do Z32 all around right away or just the fronts now and rears later. My rear brakes need to be replaced as they are almost out of pad, and the rotors are in rough shape. I'd like to just do cheap oem rotors and pads for the rear for now (slotted rotors on ebay are like $50 shipped, plus another $50 to $60 for hawk HPS pads). Then I can slowly collect the necessary parts for the Z32 rear upgrade and do that in a year or so.

I do not have ABS by the way.

hey so i want to let you know i have all the ebrake stuff for the z32. i wont be using it on my car. im doing a hydro handbrake setup. you may want to check out my thread on it

diy-hydraulic-handbrake-t490029.html

If anyone needs ebrake stuff, contact motoman ^^ He's a really good guy and will give you a great deal!


I wasn't really planning to do the Z32 rears, but I managed to find a set of Z32 NA rear hub assemblies with all the ebrake stuff for $150 shipped. So I bought them. Looks like I'll be going Z32 on all four. I'm just not sure how long it'll be for me to accumulate all the parts. I really am tight on cash, so maybe I'll pick up some rotors next month and lines the following and pads after that.. It won't feel like so much money if I buy them all at different times right? lol..

I've decided I'm not going to powder coat the calipers. I took a good look at the them and they are in really nice shape. The pistons are really clean, the seals around them are in great shape, so I don't really feel like I need to rebuild them. I actually don't want to take them apart at all. So, I got a bucket of soap water, some rags and wire brushes and a bottle of brake cleaner and spent 90 minutes cleaning them up this morning. I'm just going to paint them! I'll get a high temp caliper paint kit and just do it that way.

Still have to decide on color... I'm not going to do white. I've been thinking about it, and I just don't want to mess with cleaning them every day to keep them nice. White will just get too dirty too fast and look terrible.. So... Dark titanium with some metallic shine? Maybe blue with white Nissan lettering? Red and white seems to be most popular, but I'm thinking with the blue accents on my gramlights, blue calipers might be cool. But then again a dark gunmetal might be cool too??? We'll see... Anybody want to vote on it? I'm always glad to hear opinions.

Eikon wrote:If anyone needs ebrake stuff, contact motoman ^^ He's a really good guy and will give you a great deal!

hey thanks for the kind words!!

I got a Fedex delivery today..



They are from a 91 300zx NA... I should have been able to just direct swap them, but one of the wheel studs is busted, so I guess I'll replace all of them just to be safe.

So if I use the S14 knuckles, I have to drill a hole for the ebrake cable?
If I use the Z32 knuckles, I have to get new rear shocks? Just trying to understand what I'm reading...

Can anyone confirm?

Thanks

oh nice man. hey let me know if you wanna get rid of the 5 lug from your s14. just shoot me a price, and ill see if my buddy wants to pic them up. thanks and good luck with the brake swap.

Yeah, let me figure out what parts I'm going to use and which I'll not need, then I'll let you know.


So above I asked about using the S14 knuckle... I think I read things wrong... I think the ebrake cable hooks into the hub and has nothing to do with the knuckle, so I should be able to use the S14 knuckle and just put the z32 hub and ebrake on and I should be good to go?
Right???

Anybody?

ya i think that is right. i remember pulling the ebrake cable out of the backing plat and not the knuckle. i will double check tomorrow if you dont get a positive answer.

Pulled the trigger today on brake lines. Got a set of 4 Techna-fit lines.. $89 shipped on ebay.. not too shabby.

Still need to buy rotors and pads, then I'll be set.

wow that is a deal on the lines. i never saw them for that price. i havent looked in a long time though. good deal!!

[quote="motoman399"i would get the (i think its) maxima rotor and z31 brake bracket upgrade for the rear. [/quote]

That;s what I'm gonna do with the Z32 fronts. Should balance things out.

DMan II-40 wrote:[quote="motoman399]"i would get the (i think its) maxima rotor and z31 brake bracket upgrade for the rear.

That;s what I'm gonna do with the Z32 fronts. Should balance things out.[/quote][/quote][/quote]

i think it would help balance things, but i dont think its going to be perfect. hell i doubt the full z32 setup is "balanced"

in my girlfriends s14 i was in the rain screwing around locking up the stock brakes. i was noticing that the fronts would lock up way sooner than the back, and when i would use the e brake and slam on the brakes i would stop a lot sooner.

I just ordered the last major parts for my brake upgrade.
rotors - $125 shipped.. PowerStop Kinetic brand from an ebay auction by BrakeMotive out of Chicago. Maybe not up the par with Brembo and the other high end stuff, but I think I'll get a few years use.
pads - $100 shipped... Axxis Ultimate.. on sale/clearance from a site called ImportReplacementParts.com. Also got a set of spark plugs and SuperBlue brake fluid.. all for $100 shipped.

So my total so far:
Calipers - Free (well, paid $130 for them a couple years ago).
Hubs and Ebrake assemblies - $150 shipped
Stainless lines - $90 shipped
Rotors - $125 shipped
Pads - $100 shipped

I think the hub and ebrake assemblies were from a 2+2... I've read that some people have gotten them to work on an S14.. so we'll see what happens on those when install time comes.

Post pics when you do the swap ^^

I'll take some pictures for sure. I don't think I need to do a "how-to" because there are multiple on the net already. But, I'll certainly take some pictures as I go.

The rotors arrived today.. look nice.
Got one set of the pads.. rest should be here tomorrow along with the fluid.
Gotta finish cleaning the calipers.. I wasn't happy with the first go.. I think I'm going to put some air in the compressor and use a pneumatic wire wheel on them.

I was kind of hoping I could get this done prior to Carlisle, PA, which is this weekend, but no dice. If the last of my stuff won't be here until tomorrow, I certainly won't have time to get everything done. At least not with school still going on, and having my kids at home with me.

So now that all my parts arrived, here is the customary picture of the parts collection:
Z32 NA 2+2 rear hubs and ebrakes and cables, drilled/slotted rotors, calipers, conversion stainless brake lines, pads, and fluid.


And the build process begins:
Step 1 cleaning up the calipers... used brake cleaner and a wire brush, then gave up and decided to fill the air compressor and used a wire wheel attachment... Much better!!!
Step 2 - taping up the pistons and seals.


Step 3 - Trimming the tape.


Step 4 - base coat of silver. Planning to tape up the raised lettering and paint the rest blue


Day 2
Step 5 - base coat of blue. Decided it was stupid to do all the work to tape off the raised lettering.. since the base aluminum on the lettering shined up nicely anyway. So I just shot the whole thing blue and then used an exacto knife to peel away the paint off the raised lettering. Then I shot them with 4 coats of VHT Clear Engine Block enamel to bring out the shine!!! Sadly no sunlight today to show off the shine.


So my prep work is done... Nothing more happening today, or for the next week actually. I have to study for finals, which are next week. Plus, I'm heading to NICO's meet at Carlisle, PA tomorrow morning. So, I'll probably start doing the actual install next weekend.

they look good man. did you install them yet?

Thanks!

No still haven't installed. I picked up a set of KYB AGX shocks over the weekend. I want to do all the work at the same time, so I'm going to take a day or two and clean up the shocks. They are used, and a bit dirty, so I'm going to buy a spring compressor today at the auto parts store, then take the springs off, clean them up nice, spray paint them blue to match the calipers, then put new springs on them.

I'd like to start working on install this week. I'll do one wheel at a time - brakes, suspension, and tc rods in front.

The only hitch i'm going to have is rubbing the rear tires.. I need a fender roller or to swap to smaller tires.

Anyhow.. I'll post an update when i start install on the brakes.

My progress on this project is of course very slow. Even now that I'm done with school for a couple weeks.. I still can't seem to find much time to work on the car.

But, I've made a little more progress.. I'm pretty close to actually jacking the car up and starting in on it.

I acquired a set of KYB AGX shocks from a local guy for $200. Not too shabby... They are certainly used, and quite dirty...
This picture is after a thorough cleaning..


I'm trying to keep this car as clean as possible, so I decided even cleaned up a bit, there were still pretty nasty looking.
I had a can of gunmetal metallic alloy wheel paint sitting in the garage that I decided to use on them. They look much better... The camera doesn't really catch the metallic sparkle very well... and I suppose buried under the car, they never will show off much... but at least I feel good having them look nice.


I picked up a set of espelier springs a month ago for $110 shipped.. I guess they had only a few miles on them and the guy decided to go with coils for a lower stance.. These are 1" rear and 1.2" front drops.. plenty for my taste.






Next project.. reassemble these bad boys...


But first... Must clean hardware
Before:


After:




They aren't perfect, but much cleaner than before. I feel better about putting them back together with decent hardware.



Next step... pad and hardware assembly. I stared at them for a while trying to figure out how all those parts go back together.. Finally decided it was worth pulling the FSM for correct instructions.
Here is the FSM picture for future reference for anyone else who might need it.

wow those springs and shocks came out nice. i did that once with some kyb gr2's i had for the rear. they had like over spray and a bunch of grime on them. they turned out looking real nice. about 6 months later it looked like i never touched them lol. hope i didnt bust your bubble but i wont be doing that again. lol

i have never heard of the springs before. are the a decent brand?

lol.. yeah, I'm not expecting them to stay pretty for very long... haha.. They will look nice for my install pictures at least. I didn't spend anything on the clean up project (well.. $3 each for the dust boots).. I already had the can of paint in the garage, so no big deal if they get nasty again soon after putting on the car.

The dust boots were a very necessary and worthwhile job though.

Espelir is a pretty high end spring what i've read. They were almost $300 new I guess. I've read some good reviews online about them. I guess I know for sure in a little while. lol.

I got the pads installed into the calipers. I didn't have the foresight to compress the pistons back in before I painted them, so I got a few scratches on the paint.. no biggie... But advice to anyone else... force the pistons back before you paint so you don't have to put a c-clamp on the paint and scratch up the pretty new paint.

Anyhow.. rainy nasty day here today.. While I do have the car in a garage, I still don't enjoy working on cars much when it's gloomy out. We'll see, maybe I'll jack up a corner and get started.

i compressed the pistons by hand after i took them apart and cleaned them. i have big bear hands though lol. sometimes i hit like 6 keys at once while typing j;klfasdvfeds oops

Aargh... damn rusty bolts. My front TC rod bolt is very stuck. My impact gun won't budge it and I can't get it to budge with a 24" breaker bar and a hammer.. I sprayed it down with PB Blaster and I'll take another crack at it tomorrow.

Those bolts don't thread backwards do they?

Fun fun!
Stupid bolt.. all I managed to get done today was removing the front right brakes and strut.

no they are normal thread. that sucks i thought stuff over here on the west coast rusted bad but s***. we dont get rust like that for about 20 years.

I think I gave myself bad karma.. I was thinking to myself how nice it was to work on a '98.. a "newer" 240.. Because the rest of the bolts I pulled off were pretty clean and easy. If I hadn't thought about it, I probably would have had no issues. Oh well.

late to the party, but :

I'm running 300zx 30mm's up front with stock rears(new rotors and pbr ultimate pads on the rear). I"m using a 15/16 bmc.

Junkyards are your friend. My bmc cost me ~10 bucks and looks like it had been replaced fairly recently before the car got sent to the parking lot in the sky.

I still have to get my used rotors turned before I put on my hawk hps pads, but even with stock z32 pads its awesome.

Damn TC Rod front bolt!!!!! I rounded it off trying to wrench it loose. Now I'm going to need a replacement for it because I'm going to have to cut the bolt. Grrr!

I decided to put off the TC rods for another day. I didn't have much time to work on the car today, but I did cut off the dust shield on the front pass side and got the suspension in, the rotor on, the caliper bolted on, and the brake line installed and tightened down. So one corner almost done. Still need to bleed.

Am I better off putting all four brakes on and then bleeding the whole thing at one time, or should I bleed them one at a time?