Grinder's OBP

Spamby

Meat Product Toy
That's the story of my life. Anytime I order something it is always on backorder.
Hopefully your a patient person? Otherwise I'll just spam this thread with big brake pics until you go insane! Lol
 

Grinder34

Track Monkey
Im patient, but Stoptech (not the vendor) took the total wrong approach.

The stated lead time on these is 4-6 weeks. However, Stoptech initially told us that it would be filled within a week. YAY! Excited, right. Then they said, it would be another week. Ok, still good, but I'm a little disappointed. Then they came back and said, actually it'll be another month.

If they'd told us 4-6 weeks from the begining (even thinking it would only take a week) imagine how happy/surprised i'd be if they came super early?! Instead, I got my hopes up, only to be let down several times by them. PS, their current estimate at 7 weeks from the time the order was processed (almost 8 from when it was placed). UGH
 

Grinder34

Track Monkey
P1000108_zpsed608bf5.jpg


P1000109_zpsec9e9812.jpg


Everything I need for a brake upgrade!

In that first pic on the right is some premium parts from Home Depot Racing, but they'll be the brake duct inlets...

The BBK has:
Front Calipers, incl mounting hardware
Front Rotors
Front SS Lines
Front Street Pads

I also got:
High Temp Brake Duct Hose
Brake Duct Inlets
Rear SS Lines
Quantum Backing Plates (not pictured...d'oh!)
Vibrant Washer Tank (not pictured...need to relocate stock washer tank for the ducts)
ATE 200 (same stuff as Super Blue, just amber, so you can see when you get to fresh fluid)
Hawk DTC-60 Front Pads
 
Last edited:

finallymysti

New member
looking good. but before you do the brake fluid I highly recommend going with motul instead of ate. it made such a huge difference for me. with ate blue I would bleed the brakes during lunch, now with motul rbf600 I can go a full day or more, depending on weather and how i'm driving that day.
 

Grinder34

Track Monkey
Well, i've already got the ATE, and I'll have a LOT more cooling and heat dissipation this time around. For my next change I'll look at upgrading.
 

Grinder34

Track Monkey
I have been SUPER busy lately. I havent even had time to finish my tune (George....sorry, so so sorry!).

We'll see when I can get around to installing them. I'm REALLY not looking to taking off the brembos, i've heard horror stories about the caliper bolts. Anyone got any tips?
 

finallymysti

New member
soak the bolts with some pb blaster or other like product. do this multiple times, maybe add a little heat once or twice. and cross your fingers
 

Spamby

Meat Product Toy
Galvanic process. Good luck and get a breaker bar and a cheater. Heat and and spray, as was suggested, will help. Remember to add some type of preventative coating to the threads to help prevent this in the future... Not anti seize but a coating for this duty.
 

Grinder34

Track Monkey
Well, they're on!

sti_zps02e44172.jpg


Not everything was super smooth.

First, the quantum backing plate DEFINITELY rubs on the rotor. I'll have to figure out how to deal with that situation, but for now I just removed them. I also could not, for the life of me, break the rear brake lines free of the hard lines. The nuts were going to round well before they broke free, so I passed on doing the rears. On a related note, there may be a set of rear SS brakelines up for sale really soon!
 

IGOTASTi

System Operator
Staff member
I'm coming to your house now to steal your brakes & rotors. :)
 

Grinder34

Track Monkey
Yesterday I did some more work on the brake ducts. I tried again, unsuccessfully, to get the backing plates installed without rubbing. I must've spent 45 min on those F-ers without any luck.

Then I did the intake silencer delete and I removed the washer bottle from the driver's side. I've got the 1.2L Vibrant washer bottle as a replacement, but I'm not totally sure where I can fit it or how to mount it. I am toying with the idea of keeping it in the same place (below the battery) and either fitting the factory filler tube to the vibrant bottle, or just making the fillup procedure a PITA. We'll see!
 

Grinder34

Track Monkey
The windshield washer bottle is in. It took longer than it should...but its hard to make something when I have 0 tools for fabbing, and just a sawzall...not exactly meant for precision cutting on small pieces.

In the mean time i've been working on my brake ducts. The quantum plates are EXTREMELY finicky with a BBK. I've been working on just one side, and had to trim the duct plate so it could sit further back and not rub the rotor. Then, i had to play with spacers (washers) for both mounting holes. The slightest change in thickness (eg 3 thick washers to 2 thick washers and 1 thinner one) makes huge differences to how far the "wings" stick out and if they rub.

Pre-trim.



The first thing i tried was notching to fix the rubbing that way, but no-go. You can also pretty clearly see where the rotor was rubbing from a previous installation attempt:


Here's after the trimming side-by-side:


Installed with a trial run for some brake ducting. I dont know if that will rub at full lock. I didnt have time to test:



The far side of the same picture. I'm holding up the hose so you can see how it would wrap. This obviously requires removal of the front subframe:



A somewhat redundant pic, but this is where i'd cut a hole for the duct to snake through the plastic and attach to the fog ducting I've already got setup.

More pictures (and probably a how-to) in the future!
 
Last edited:

Grinder34

Track Monkey
I just got back from two days at VIR. Wow, what a weekend!

To start, I got to crash in one of the villas. If any of you have seen the Top Gear episode where they go to VIR....that's where they stayed! A front row view of the "Climbing Esses", RIGHT on the track. Anyways, i started off the next morning with a rude awakening. It was supposed to be in the 70s and sunny, but instead we were greeted with 50s and cloudy. I didnt even bring a coat, and just had a sweatshirt as an afterthought! When we got down track-side, I got a ride in a buddy's track-prepped STI with some sticky rubber (one step below Hoosiers...whatever brand/model i forget). He was trying to heat-cycle his tires and bed in his brakes so he was "only 60-70%" but WOW was it eye-popping. He's got a mighty quick car and its a fun track.

So for my first run I had an instructor (especially since it's a new track to me) and tried to find the line. I ran into some overboosting problems, so for most of the session i was only doing about 50% throttle to keep my boost at maybe 10 psi. There are some corners on there where you can carry SO much speed and never expect it, and I was having trouble trusting my tires. So my instructor invited me for a ride along in his Miata. We were hauling ass around the corners and falling miserably behind on the straights. On maybe our 6th lap around through the climbing esses we got a little loose and did a nice spin into the grass in spectacular fashion. Spins are less scary than they seem, although i was glad we were going in the direction of field rather than a wall.

To keep this rambling story short, I got a new tune overnight (thanks George!!!) and put down some MUCH quicker laps. I was a few seconds faster than a new friend in a tricked-out Outback, and he was doing 2:25 by the time we parted ways, so i think that puts me at maybe a 2:21 or 2:22 with several places I KNOW I can get more speed. My instructor was teaching me the Miata line, and the "school line" but by the end I was trying the racing line and could go faster--i just didnt get enough practice by the time I had to leave.

I look forward to going back to VIR and will try to post up some pictures/videos soon.
 

IGOTASTi

System Operator
Staff member
Glad you had a great time. I can't wait to see some pictures/videos!
 
Top