Brake upgrades....

U

unity

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Ok, so yes I searched and there are hundreds of Cobra upgrades done.

But what is ideally a decent brake upgrade. The 20s are going on soon so I want something to fill the space up, so to speak.

Physics 101 says bigger brakes can mean less control in wet conditions since they bite the hub better. So I will probably go with drilled and slotted to compensate for that.

But thats about all I know :) Never did anything past stock. Should I do the Cobra route since its been done so many times or are there other cheaper routes I could take. Again, this is less about gaining braking power - which I am sure I will get a little flack for! :)

Ceramic pads will be a must though. I had them on prior Marks (they were factory on my 73) and really appreciate the lack of dust.
 
bigger brakes dont really bite any better,unless you have calipers with greater pad area and more pistons, they just fade WAY less. actually a lot of BIG brake kits makes braking time longer, UNTILL they get hot.
 
bryantaylor said:
bigger brakes dont really bite any better,unless you have calipers with greater pad area and more pistons, they just fade WAY less. actually a lot of BIG brake kits makes braking time longer, UNTILL they get hot.
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Pads can make a big difference in this as well. And I think a lot of your increased braking power will be soaked up by the extra rotating mass of those 20s
 
The cheapest big brake way is the Cobra stuff.

Baer makes some 3-piston calipers that would be kewl to have, and will fit where most any Cobra setup does.

Once getting into the 4 piston and more stuff, the price goes up and it really depends on the wheels if they will fit, as they have pistons on both sides of the calipers. I was going to put the Brembo 4-piston setup on mine with my 20's and they still didn't have the clearance to fit! It was off by 2mm!

I guess the part your mainly worried about is the rotor sizes to fill those 20's up.

Most kits that are more than 13" for the front use the bigger 4-6 piston calipers, so you'd be in the same vote as above, plus a big price jump. I do think there is a Mustang kit with 14" rotors that will use the Cobra calipers, but I never looked into that much, but I do know that the bigger rotors can get costly, espescially once you get into the 2-piece stuff...

I'm only changing my brakes to fill the wheels a bit too cheaply...
I'll be running Cobra front and rear rotors (PowerSlot slotted only) with Porterfield R4S race pads front and rear, Cobra 2-piston front calipers and relocated oem rears, with stainless braided lines f+r. I'll let you know how it works out as everything hasn't shown up yet... I figure I'll get this setup as it will both look and perform better, and not cost a fortune like the 14"+ brake kits that most won't fit behind my rims anyways...

Long story short, The Cobra 13" stuff is the cheapest and easiest way to go, unless you know the Brembo 4-piston calipers will work, then you may be able to find them for roughly the same price (well, within a couple hundred) ;)
 
Roush makes a 14" big brake kit and it will set you back about $1400 bucks but they stop like you would not believe, 1 of my friends had the on his 04 cobra. but like the guys said the cobra brakes or kvr would be the cheapest.
 
I ebayed my cobra calipers and bought the rest of the necessary parts from rock auto for under 500. Along with hubs.
 
Ok, just so I know. What size is a stock rotor and what would be the ideal Cobra size?
 
Front is 294 mm (11.6") stock, nominal thickness 26 mm (1.024")
rear is 258 mm (10.16") stock, nominal thickness 18 mm (.709")
 
no slack here. if you can hit the stock brakes and kick in the abs on dry roads, then why would you need more?
 
I think it is one of those upgrades that you can talk yourself into as they definitely can look good, but so can't a stock setup that has been painted with VHT. The stock system we have does a damn good job handling most of the chores in the braking department (some one had a comparative post on the variuos systems/cars). For the type of driving I do I couldn't come up with a good enough reason for them, but I did get a frame stiffening kit I am going to install.
 
crownvicjim said:
no slack here. if you can hit the stock brakes and kick in the abs on dry roads, then why would you need more?
Click to expand...

For stock tires yes. but put 265s on the front and try to lock them up with stock brakes. Its alot harder.

Larger rotor and better caliper = less brake fade.
 
I hit up R1 Concepts to see what they might have. Otherwise the Cobra route it will be!
 
Icarus said:
...Baer makes some 3-piston calipers that would be kewl to have, and will fit where most any Cobra setup does.
...
Click to expand...
This should have read:

SSBC makes some 3-piston calipers, not Baer... sorry for the mistake :)
 
the taller the rotor the better the leverage on that extra rotating mass you're adding via the bigger wheels. Larger rotors mean less foot to brake pedal pressure for same results, and, less brake fade.

Ideally I'd like a set of custom hats with mark friendly offset to bolt a set of viper 14" rotors to. On the highway it's not uncommon for me to make 130 mph bursts and when the fuzz and laser jammer go off those brakes would come in handy.
 
Ive got a question, can I used braided cobra brake hoses in the front or do I need the ones that classic tube(i think thats the name of them) makes for the mark?
 
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