Re: Girling 60 conversion. Long

["Pat Martin" <mardkins@email.msn.com>]

Bob says incredulously:
>Something went terribly wrong on his install then. All things being
>equal (weight of cars, driving style, same pad compound etc) the G60
>conversion should have easily out braked OE 4000 brakes. Just look at
>the swept area and the clamping force. Twice the pistons, twice (approx)
>the swept braking area. A correct G60 install on that car should suck
>your eyeballs out.
>


With all due respect Bob what in an install could be wrong?  Its really a no
brainer.

Test conditions.

Track day 1:  Me: Stock 4kq brakes with Metalmasters and drilled rotors.
For fluid we had fresh castrol lmx dot 4.
Pete: G-60 calipers with 11" drilled rotors.  Same fresh lmx dot 4 fluid
changed the same day.

Track: Bremerton. Temp:~80 Dry.  For those who do not know Bremerton is an
old airport strip in Washington.  Turn 1 is slightly down hill braking from
~120 to 40 followed by a short stretch from ~80-90 down to 40.  Then some
chicanes and another short chute and braking zone 80 down to 30.  Track is
very grippy and tends to be on the warm side.  Needless to say it is fairly
hard on the brakes.

While Pete did have better braking for a while his went to sh*& after 4 or 5
hard laps.
Some reports say flames were shooting out of his nice open mesh BBS's.  This
required moderate driving to keep them at a decent level of cool.  However
at that level they had no more braking force than mine.  My brakes exhibited
the same fade after the same # of laps.  They also became flame throwers if
I pushed it hard.  We did switch cars and he agreed with my assessment.
After the shock of it all we tried to figure out why this would be.  Then I
remembered picking up a g-60.  Those damn things are heavy.  This may be a
reason they tend to fade so bad.

Track day 2:
Me: Stock brake calipers, drilled rotors, 2 week old Porterfield R
compounds,  Motul fluid.
Pete: g-60's with 2 week old Porterfeild R compound, drilled 11" rotors,
Motul fluid.

Track: Seattle International Raceway.  Again a very grippy track.  Temp ~75.
Turn 2 is a braking zone from about 120 down to 40 around a very long
sweeper.  This leads into a short, very steep down hill braking zone from
about 80 down to 30.  This is VERY hard on the brakes.  This leads into some
various medium braking zones into the last corner that is from about 90 down
to 35.

1st thing is THESE PADS ARE AWESOME.  No more 80 lbs of pedal pressure on
the 1st stop of the day.  They do dust a bit but I am more than willing to
put up with that.  On the roads Pete and I both noticed the braking
performance gap between the 2 cars had diminished substantially.   On the
track the porterfields could lock up the tires on my car at about 70.  Petes
were about the same.  Either car can stop just about as short as the tires
will allow.  After 20 hard continuous laps the cars exhibited NO fade and
stopped the same every time.  In fact I had the problem of locking them up
into turn 9 and sliding through the corner.  During the whole day I had no
fade problems.  Pete also had no fade problems. We did switch for 2 sessions
and again the cars were very similar with the only exception of his
requiring a little less pedal pressure on initial braking.

All in all a very good test condition.  Same days, very close cars, and we
did switch to get subjective data.

IMO braking mods should be done in this order.
1: Good pads. IE. Ferrado "for the street and light track use".
Porterfield's, Hawk, Pagid, and any other pure carbon pad for the track.
2:  Adjustable proportioning valve. This can be done when the famous 4kq
valve goes TU.  Very helpful in getting more braking power to the rear.
Badly needed on any modified car.
3: Drilled rotors.  Note:  Drilled rotors do perform a little better than
slotted.  There is some cracking on drilled as they get very worn down.
4: Wildwood or equivalent caliper with an 11 or 12" rotor.
5: Alex Neckas specials 13" alumimum rotors with Large brembo calipers.
6:  You will not need to go there.

HTH.  Ask any questions you like.

Pat Martin
864000csq turbo, 2 1/2 cat back, H&R-Boge, MC and loving it.  Drilled and
stopping it. Koenig Cobra 16x7 with Yokohama A520's turning it,  K&N and
uh..., Soon: Hella's lighting it.
84 4000sq  AKA: The beater.
95 subaru legacy
Bothell, Wa