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Brake rotors are usually your basic gray crummy cast iron. Rotors for production applications are almost always sand cast, and do have some built in stresses from uneven cooling- the automakers really are primarily focussed on cost, so the quality of these guys is pretty marginal. They are usually overweight to compensate. They have sand inclusions, bubbles, and porosity. They almost always exhibit quite a lot of core shift, which leads not only to balance problems but also to premature warping (due to one working surface heating more quickly than the other). This is worsened in brake designs where the pads are asymmetrical, so the heat loads differ on the two faces of the rotor. The aftermarket rotors available for racing applications (Brembo, and other vendors) are usually a better class of materials, some of the ASTM high temperature cast irons are the norm. The best of these are usually vacuum degassed to eliminate porosity that can lead to cracking. These are also designed to run on a separate hub adapter (the hat), which eliminates one major source of stresses and also cuts the heat transfer to the hub and wheel bearings. The best way to keep rotors alive is to keep them cool. Massive quantities of air ducted right into the rotor eye, and kept there with a blanking plate that more or less fills the eye, is the ideal. The vanes will pump the air through the rotor and help with the airflow. Wheels that help exhaust the hot air outboard help as well. Keeping the rotors cool will also pay amazing benefits in pad life. My finding has been that pad wear, even with carbon race pads, goes up exponentially once rotor temps reach about 400C. The next best way to keep rotors alive is to heat-cycle them very gently. If you're on the street, and intend on some heavy driving, heat them gradually. An absolutely guaranteed rotor killer is to do a max-effort high speed threshold braking maneuver on cold rotors. Cast iron's thermal conductivity is really pretty poor so the surface will go up to insane temps, with the vanes between the faces still dead cold. The thermal stresses are immense, and the stock low-quality casting won't take it. Surface heat checking is the best you can hope for! I refer to this kind of stop as the rotor giving its life to save yours. Drilled and milled rotors are great, if done right. Drilling can aid in cooling, and aids in fade control by providing a place for the high temperature gases to escape to, but can lead to warping and cracking much earlier if the car is seriously under-braked. The holes need to be drilled and chamfered in such a way as to avoid creating new stress raisers, and I have never figured out how to do that very well. Milling consists of cutting a shallow groove in the rotor face, also to provide a gas escape. I like this better, since it creates less in the way of a stress raiser if a radiused groove is used. IMHO, for an under-braked car on stock rotors, drilling or milling is a waste, you'll be throwing them away very soon, and the removal of metal is almost certain to make that sooner. Hope this helps

Do you have an aftermarket suspension? If you have lowered your car and not altered the camber, this will happen. If you haven't lowered your car, take it to a suspension mob and get the 4 wheel alignment and camber checked.

I just did a forum search man and found all this. It's been covered many times before. Search is your friend. HICAS issues link

I would be more inclined to go with JustJap. The feedback is brilliant so your chances of getting a good product is better.

Mitchell thanks you and hi 5's back.

Yeah I agree, but I went with stainless anyway. The mild steel one will start to spot, then turn a disgusting shit brown, and then will start to flake. The stainless won't. In the words of Borat - " It's a nice, I like!!!"

I had a mate who gave a cop shit after being pulled over for throwing his thickshake at a stop sign. He had an immaculate EH Holden and we were doing the disco pig in the back seat at night with the lights flashing behind us. The cop didn't like our attitude and we knew that he couldn't get canaried because like I said, the car was immaculate - completely rebuilt from the ground up and fully complied. Anyway, because we pissed him off, the bastard labelled him for a dusty indicator globe. They can do whatever they want, whenever they want and you can't do a thing about it. Complaining and lodging grievances with control bodies won't do shit because you have to prove intent. You could have a fully complied vehicle with permits and they can say that they believe that you swapped the complied part for another and there is nothing that you can do. It all comes down to the inspector. Again, some are complete and utter arseholes and some are really good blokes. I had great experience with one once (shit, that just sounded gay........) and he told me that if I had any more issues to go back to him. So as far as getting a lickie for the brake light, it can happen. It just depends on the cop you get at the time. If you want to chance it, you can, and we all do every time we make a modification on our vehicle. It's just part of the game and the risk we take for the car we want to drive.

It's a possibility man. Mine was doing something similar to this and when I changed to Splitfires, the problem was solved. Mine was breaking up above 4000rpm on 7lb, and at 3500rpm on 22lb of boost, and she was spewing a shitload of black smoke. Whether your issue is the same or not can only be discovered through a process of elimination. I have seen many questions asked regarding this through the forums and there have been several different courses of action taken. Some have had ECU, TPS, spark plug etc issues. Do a search and you will find what the other guys were discovering, and that will help you to get to the root of your problem.

Yup. I made a call to a mate whose brother is in the game. He specialises in fibreglass for speedway and drag cars. He reckons no more than a litre will do it. Like I said..... I estimate. I should have made the call first. Sorry man.

I would estimate 2 litres. Give it a few coats so the thicker paint will help hide the smaller stone chips.

Live with it for as long as you can because you will do it again. As far as repairing and touching it up is concerned, that's up to your own abilities. Some can...... Some can't. The finished product is what you need to be happy with. Try it. If you're not happy, get it done professionally but make sure you're finished trashing it first. The eye level brake light is an ADR requirement for post 89 vehicles. The only thing I can suggest is to remove it, clean both surfaces and then reapply some more high quality (3M) black double sided tape.

Once you hit your target man, I'll bet me left nut you'll be wanting more and will kick your own arse for not getting the PowerFC.

Heat wrap works a treat.

They aren't a bad little unit for a stocker.

Interesting night. I'll resist the urge to invite the Leyland Brothers on your next one Rhys. It all went pretty good regardless of the missing penguin etc, but it's just like the bacon to rattle someone's cage..... Typical. I wonder how they'd like it if we took down their undercover car's regos and created our own database....... I am looking forward to your next one man because now that you've had your first, you'll know how to make the next one better as you've mentioned earlier. Well done Scott for the entertainment.....................

Dude.................................................C'mon.................................................Really.................. ............................... Are you taking the piss or is this for real? If you aren't then I suggest you find a gearhead in your area who is approachable and ask for help. Maybe a carton of piss in exchange for some knowledge. It's as easy as the manual says. Cut the wastegate actuator line and insert boost controller. Then set the boost using an aftermarket boost gauge, not the stocker. Don't go beyond 12psi. If you don't get it yet, ask for help or pay for professional work before you kill the car.

mmhg is millimeters of mercury. 1 millimeter mercury (@0°C) = 0.00133322 bar, or 1 mmhg = 0.019336721 psi.

The one on the right is the bastard that lines your intercooler and plumbing with oil. This is the one that matters.

Dude, got any more of those drugs you were on?????? They sound freakishly funky!!!

It's easy. The hose to the right after the U shaped bend on top of the head is where you plumb into. This is the one that returns the vapour to the intake. Plumb the can into this. If you have troubles and live in the Perth area, let me know.

Yeah, this will remove the "stiffness" and make it lighter to operate.

It's on the first line dude. "This will make the clutch pedal lighter to operate. "

This will make the clutch pedal lighter to operate. I have the standard cylinder with a 1200kg pressure plate and me left leg looks like one of Arnie Schwarzenegger's. A short shifter won't help as it decreases the amount of throw required by on average 30%. If anything, I would recommend adjusting the clutch pedal if you have a "soft spot" when you first put your foot on it. By this I mean you go to engage the clutch and the pedal feels easy for a few centimeters then gets harder after this point. You can also bleed the clutch or drain the fluid, then bleed the clutch. The fluid may be cactus, but I doubt it. No harm in trying by eliminating possibilities. That's where I would start.

Don't give your car to a tosspot who thinks that the stock dump pipe is a quality item. The next thing you know, you'll be parked on the side of the road with a 500m long oil slick in your wake, with parts of the engine scattered all over the place because he thought you could advance your timing 40 degrees with 35 lbs of boost on regular unleaded whilst using the quality stock injectors. Dude, really......................... Find someone else.