Cheap & easy brake cooling mod

SeattleLion

I have read all of the brake cooling threads here that I could find. I could use a little help understanding what really might help. It's obvious that our brakes overheat, particularly the fronts. After my first day at the track you could smell my brakes for 100ft. So there is no doubt our brakes could use some cooling.

When I look at other sports cars, I see massive vents front and rear to ventilate the wheel well. As others have pointed out, a small flex duct from the fangs seems like a relatively small amount of help.

That brings me to my question. If we can add some marginal cooling, like a duct from the fangs, will that be noticable in HPDE? Also, if we upgrade the pads to Carbotech, etc., will the upgrade just make the heating issue worse?

I am not an automotive engineer so I have no real basis to draw conclusions. It does seem to me that Nissan performed a balancing act between power, coefficient of friction for the body, and braking ability. I have the sport with the Akimbo brakes, which certainly should have plenty of power to stop the car. In my short track experience, they do a good job. Clearly the more aggressive I get, the more likely they will overheat and fade.

This is a classic mod issue. If you increase performance of any system, do you risk introducing unwanted effects in another? In this case, is there a practical way to reduce brake heating enough to improve performance? Does just giving the brakes more stopping ability (pads, rotors, caliper changes) really improve the car's performance over a 30 or 60 minute track session?

So, if I understand this thread (and others) correctly, I can dramatically improve brake performance by trading the stock pads for high performance pads designed to work at very high temperatures. I can also reduce the risk of brake fluid boil by trading out the DOT 3 for DOT 4 or DOT 5.1 brake fluid. I can increase pedal response with SS brake lines. I get all that. But if I do make the brakes more aggressive, do I reduce the time I can safely use them? After 10 hot laps will the brakes fade dangerously? Most importantly, has anyone figured out how to keep the brakes cool under hot lap conditions?

Thanks for you help.

cossie1600

All brake ducts do is that it keeps temperature down. It doesn't increase brake effectiveness unless you are going past the operating temperature of the brake pads. It doesn't hurt to install ducting to the wheels, but everything comes at a price. It's a matter if you want to spend it or not.

SeattleLion

That's the question. Will ducting to the wheel well make a real difference?

ChrisSlicks

To the wheel well? No. The air has to be directly directly to the hub so that the rotation will pump it through the center of the rotor and cool it evenly. It's not a magic cure, but it will lower rotor temperatures by 150 degrees or so which makes quite a difference.

Honestly if you are just a casual HPDE driver I wouldn't get too worked up over it for now, just run the best pads and fluid you can and things will hold together. When you start pushing the car really hard then this is an upgrade you will want.

__________________
Hotchkis ARB | Stillen CAI | Art Pipes | Berk CBE | Stillen AP Racing Brakes | AE Performance Oil Cooler | BC Racing ER Coilovers | Doran Control Arms

cossie1600

Only problem is we try to upgrade the brakes, f-ing ice mode kicks in

ChrisSlicks

Stick with low friction pads. The pads I'm trying out next weekend have a co-efficent of friction of 0.46, where as the XP10's are like 0.6+. The pads will have bite but not so grabby such that they mess up the ABS. That's the plan anyway.

__________________
Hotchkis ARB | Stillen CAI | Art Pipes | Berk CBE | Stillen AP Racing Brakes | AE Performance Oil Cooler | BC Racing ER Coilovers | Doran Control Arms