Ready to buy brake (big) rotors!

isaiah3g

isaiah3g

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Hello to all! i havent posted in awhile cause ive been real busy with work...but thats besides the point.
I have my money saved up now and im really ready to buy some good lookin brake rotors!
i'd love to go big,but im having a hard time finding someone out there who makes big brakes for my mark. I know of R1 Concepts and they sell slotted an drilled brakes for th car,but they are same sized. I WANT BIG! and i know ima have to spend big too. But like i said i have the money now. And whatever i dont have moma nd dad said i can borrow from them and ill repay them later. (im still a teenager) :D
And i know ill need calibers also...So any help would be greatly appreciated!
 
Do a search on "Cobra Brakes" The only way to go larger is to switch to mustang cobra brakes, which means mustang hubs, calipers, brackets, rotors and all hardware. You would also have to get different wheels to accept the new bolt pattern of the mustang hubs.

The are a couple of guys on here who have gone a step further and installed large brembos, but this is also include mustang hubs, and wheels.
 
thanks for the info guys! I did a search last night and found that alot of guys were in fact switchin over to the mustang hubs and such.but that means i would have to get new wheels,which i dont want to do.
I'll keep looking around,and let yall know what im doing. thanks again
 
When you go bigger rotors, you are going to have bigger calipers, and that puts limits on what you can do with stock 16" wheels. Fitment is key. If you want to go BIG like 13" then you will have to go to 18" wheels to obtain clearance. And pay attention to your wheel offsets to make sure you do not rub on the inside or outside. Take your time, do not be in a rush (hard to do when it is exciting to do an important upgrade, we all know!) but it will save you that hard earned money.

Your first step is to determine what is the largest you can do with your stock set up. It may be that you are there. If so, determine whether you can get a kit that will allow you to apply a larger surface area pad on your existing caliper to get more bite. And look for a somewhat more aggressive biting compound on the pad. That is a lot cheaper than getting new calipers. And certainly than getting new wheels and a full blown BBK.

Also, look to swap out your existing rubber brake lines for braided stainless steel lines, and go to a DOT-4 brake fluid.

Price that all out and it is thousands less than getting the BBK. In my personal opinion, (which means you can toss it out if you don't like it without concern!) there is no reason to go to a 13" rotor and new big calipers UNLESS you change wheels to get more rubber on the ground (brakes do not stop the car, TIRES stop the car), and you do suspension mods. (stiffer sways in particular, but also possibly the shocks component). Otherwise, you will not be able to use the newfound braking performance on the car.

Think about this...all the brakes do is stop the wheel from rotating. The small stock rotors DO have the ability to apply thresh hold braking on the stock 225m wide tire tread to do that. (Once you lock up, you are not at optimal braking of course because instead of the tire gripping and slowing you, you are sliding.....having exceeded the adhesion limits of the tire). Contrary to a basic perception, a BBK does NOT materially improve one's 60mph to 0 braking distance. What it does is stand up to the heat issues of repeated high performance braking, such as on a track or very aggressive canyon/mountain test. SOOOOOOOO, if you are not racing, you may be able to materially improve your braking performance without necessarily having to go blow a ton of money on a BBK. Be smart......put your money where you get the very biggest return on performance. BBK looks neat, but rotors are cheap. You can get a set slotted, or if you want cross drilled, and paint the calipers with a proper heat resistant coating or powder coat them, and you will lots of attractive "bling" but without the empty wallet.

If you go to a much wider tire tread, and softer/grippier tire compound, you will brake shorter with no other change. Look into a "plus Zero" sizing on your existing wheels for your next set of tires, so you don't blow your money on new wheels either. Shorter aspect ratio for the sidewall, stiffer sidewall blocks in the design too, and of course the softer compound.

With that change alone (plus zero sizing, smaller sidewall, softer compound, stiffer sidewall modulus, braided stainless lines, DOT 4 fluid, bigger pads with more aggressive bite) you will get very material gains in braking without dropping another couple of grand on the BBK, and inevitably another grand on bigger wheels.

Use your brain instead of your wallet, and you will be WAY AHEAD on this one. You will never recover the sunk cost on the BBK on resale either.

Just my nickel's worth.

Have fun with your car!

Another point. You notice that I have AP Racing Brakes with 13" rotors. But I put 255mm tires on 18" wheels all around, totally redid the suspension, and put in urethane bushings. I am also older, have more disposable money for my car toy, and have a road racing car on the side, so I get use out of the mods put in. IF you were my son, I would do the recommended approach, and save some dough for the babes. (that is only worth 2 cents, by the way ;-)
 
hey man,thanks for all the info! wow..and info it was! lol
You were talking about wheel sizes,I am currently running 18'' BBS Moda R1 wheels,with 240/45/18 in the front and 245/45/18 in the rear, I wanted the ''hot rod'' look with the fatter rear and wider rear also,not much difference,but a car enthusiest would notice. (yeah i know its spelled wrong) ;)
As far as inside/outside clearance,im vey sure i have enough.My dad owns a custom paint/body shop here in louisiana,so we arent out in the dark when it comes to the "knowing" of clearance and performance of things.
The tires are Nitto NT555 Extreme which are also run-flats. I got a killer deal for themguy was going out of business. I previously had Yokohama's on the wheels and they would spin like crazy,not its a softer compound and grips way more than i ever expected. So from a stand still,it only spins very very little.
The car has been lowered so the handling of the car increased dramatically,and body roll...what body roll?? :)
What it all omes down to is this....I've done some prioritizing and when it comes to he sizing,well i think I'm just going to get drilled and slotted brakes. Theres other things i would like to do for the car to make it look good...and go fast!! lol
You were talking about painting the calipers,we used some automitive PPG paint to paint them with and hey have held up just as good as any "special brake heat resistant paint" can do.
The reason i put the ( ) around big was because it was a considerable option,not a definate,thats why i did that. im going to get the rotors that i had orginally planned on getting.
Thanks again for the info man,i appreciate it
 
isaiah3g said:
...As far as inside/outside clearance,im vey sure i have enough.My dad owns a custom paint/body shop here in louisiana,so we arent out in the dark when it comes to the "knowing" of clearance and performance of things.
The tires are Nitto NT555 Extreme which are also run-flats. I got a killer deal for themguy was going out of business. I previously had Yokohama's on the wheels and they would spin like crazy,not its a softer compound and grips way more than i ever expected. So from a stand still,it only spins very very little....
Click to expand...

The Nitto NT555's are not run-flat tires.
 
They're not??? LIARS!!! they told me they were..owell,im the one who got th deal,480 for a full set :D
 
isaiah3g said:
They're not??? LIARS!!! they told me they were..owell,im the one who got th deal,480 for a full set :D
Click to expand...

Nope, the NT 555 Extreme is not a run flat. It is a very good tire, well priced, and made by the sister company of Toyo Tire & Rubber. Toyo just put a new plant in Georgia, just outside of Atlanta, and it will be making a lot of well priced tires for the American market. The pricing is competitive with the BFGoodrich G-force TA KDW NT in the 18" size, another excellent performance/value street offering. The tread design/siping on both will handle the rain and wet that you well have down there in Louisiana, where a lot of high performance summer spec tires will not.

Have fun with the project!
 
lol ^^

Well i have been doing some searching on the webo and came across a pair i really like, its these right here http://ebcbrakes.iwebcat.com/_Members/lookups/partdetail.asp i hope that works for ya.

They say the size is 11.6 in diamater, i know the cars diamater is 10.9 My question,will it work? I know everyone hates that question but i wont know unless i ask :D

thanks for any input guys!
 
alright i tried to click on the link i posted up and it didnt work for me,so i did another one, its the one that says USR7026 part number. I found it on summit racing and decided to check the site out. The brakes are EBC
 
Eagle1 said:
Nope, the NT 555 Extreme is not a run flat. It is a very good tire, well priced, and made by the sister company of Toyo Tire & Rubber. Toyo just put a new plant in Georgia, just outside of Atlanta, and it will be making a lot of well priced tires for the American market. The pricing is competitive with the BFGoodrich G-force TA KDW NT in the 18" size, another excellent performance/value street offering. The tread design/siping on both will handle the rain and wet that you well have down there in Louisiana, where a lot of high performance summer spec tires will not.

Have fun with the project!
Click to expand...

Yes, I should have added that too that they are a great tire. I've got a set of 555's on my car as well. So far they have been an excellent tire, great all around grip, and well priced.
 
Isaiah3g, if you are going to go with a bigger rotor, and presumeably you are going to be changing calipers too, and you have 18 inch diameter wheels..................why drop all that dough for only a .7" increase in rotor diameter? You can fit 13 inch rotor diameter under an 18 inch diameter wheel, with proper offsets and spoke clearance. Once you are spending the money on calipers, the differential cost of going the biggest you can go is very marginal. I don't know what your fitment clearances are, and don't want to get into specifying your parts, but if you are going to BBK upgrade, I would get the biggest you can fit under there.

Also, remember that between 70-80% of your braking is on the fronts. That is where you can put the dough. ON the rears, just consider getting a cross drilled rotor for bling and the kit for extending the pad size for some more biting surface. Throwing some 13" rotors back there would actually serve to degrade your performance as the bias would be too strong on the rear and potentially cause the car to lose control on hard braking. More is not always better...sometimes it is just "more". Just some additional things to consider.

Spend the time researching as you are, I applaud the effort and sharing that you are doing here and elsewhere! The more you learn the better your purchase decision will be as it will help refine what you really need. And then when you get them on and can report on the tangible improvements and your satisfaction, we will all share and rejoice in your having really done it well, as all of us want each other to attain the gains they want, for the absolute best possible price available.
 
Here is the parts list for what you see in the pictures below. I replaced the rear calipers with stock bits from NAPA, and the front and rear wheel studs were replaced with hardened ARP racing studs.

IMHO, big brakes are worth every penny spent. There are clearance issues when going with Brembo's - even with 18's. I have also attached a link to the wheel specs on my Mark when going with Brembo's. Good luck! :)


http://www.injectedengineering.com/forum/mark-viii-thunderbird-custom-wheel-specs-t-86.html


M2300X Ford Racing/Brembo 13in 2000 Cobra R Front Brake Kit

136-2261002 Baer Eradispeed Extreme Plus 2 piece Front Brake Rotors for 1999-2004 Mustang Cobra

DP31031C EBC Brake Pads for 2000 Cobra R/Brembo Brakes

9904HABA Front Hub and Bearing Assembly for 1999-2004 Mustang Cobra

136-2262001 Baer Eradispeed Extreme Plus 2 piece Rear brake rotors for 1999-2004 Mustang Cobra

YR3Z1109AA Rear Hub for 1999-2004 Mustang Cobra IRS

E9DZ1215A Rear Wheel Bearing for 1999-2004 Mustang Cobra IRS

BR57B Rear brake pads for 1994-1998 Lincoln Mark VIII

Big Ed's Caliper Relocation Kit

Classic Tube SS Brake Line Kit





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Mike, your Mark VIII is a tuners dream Mark VIII, you have modified it in every way with the best parts possible. Every time I see pics of your gen 2 I drool.
 
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