Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

Hi All,

First time in the Suspension, braking and tyres section - no doubt the last time.

I want to upgrade the brakes on my R33 GTS-t and have been doing a little research on options.

The car will be used for street and track - hopefully more track, depending on my ability... he he

So the options are:

* DBA Slotted Rotors, quality pads - braided lines (legal ones) - Least cost option

* As above but GTR Bremblo Calipers on the front (source second hand) - Med $$$

* AP Racing or Wilwood - This option is the whole nine yards - big $$$

So - which is the best value (not lowest cost , I already know that) - which one will stop me better for the best $$ ?

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/26278-best-value-brake-upgrade-for-gts-t/
Share on other sites

Depending on wheel size i would suggest you get the biggest best quality rotors to go with the braided lines, pads, and fluid.

The std caliper is good enough not to justify replacement. 4 good size pistons, decent size pads and you already have them.

Some 330mm (approx, fits in 17" rim) DBA 5000 series rotors are what i wish i had of got in hindsight. I have 330 x 30mm one piece slotted rotors that are a rough equivelant to DBA 4000.

If you find you dont have enough brakes once you have the bigger/better rotors (i would be very surprised) then you can always then upgrade to aftermarket calipers.

I have seen plenty of quick Skylines at tracks using std calipers, especially GTSTs

And one more thing, my experience is the improvement in braking is more in feel and consistancy, not outright stopping distances. The car may wash off speed a little better, but it will definitely do it lap after lap with more pedal feel.

After my brake upgrade a friend was surpirsed that the car didnt stop noticably better (he was in the passenger seat at Eastren Creek) but if only he was drivng.

My thoughts are to reduce stopping distances you have to look at tyres used & suspension setup, calipers/discs wont do it alone, but a disc upgrade will give you fade free fun at the track.

I'd go with something better than DBA for the likes of you Brendan.

Something like Apex rotors with cast in slots (not the machined slots like on DBA rotors). I'd stay away from drilled rotors.

Good pads like the Endless NA series + a brake cyl. master brace and MAYBE some new braided lines.

T.

Try the rotors/pads/lines first, they should be good unless you have a very powerfull car. The new DBA 4000 series rotors are very good, much lighter than the older ones, and work well.

If you wont more i suggest looking at CSC, ther were advertised in HPI a few months ago, the price is just over 2k for a set of large 4 piston calipers with 2 piece discs, 343x32 from memorey, this is only a little more than a gtr brembro setup and is much better and all new.

Brendan, the GT-R upgrade may be the one to go for using the following formula:

bang for buck/hard road use*, where *=no. of track days

otherwise, the DBA 4000s with Ferodo DS2500 or Pagid pads (as recommended by DBA) and good quality and condition brake fluid and braided lines may be fine.

I tend to agree with Roy, consistency is as important as outright stopping power.

Agree with you Roy & Dino - What I should have said was " which one will stop me most consistantly on the track - for the best $$ ?"

I seriously doubt that I will be driving as hard on the road to warrant a brake upgrade over the standards R33 brakes - So I suppose after thinking about this, it is all about the track !

Cheers for the help peeps.

What about these

Something like Apex rotors with cast in slots (not the machined slots like on DBA rotors). I'd stay away from drilled rotors.

I can almost guarantee that if your referring to the slots in the face of the rotors, then the Apexi discs have been machined as well.

.GT%20Brake%20Rotor.jpg

You dont get that sort of finish from a casting woithout a lot of machining

Roy - I think those DBA 5000 Series are for GTR so would need Bremblo calipers to go with them.

I've seen GRT Rotors and Bremblo Calibers for sale on this forum for about $1600.

DBA 4000 upgrade will be about $1000 minus 15% members discount (w00t)

Brainded Lines $550 (with members discount - double w00t)

So Option 1 = ~ $1450 pus pads

Option 2 = ~ $2200

Option 3 = well over $3500 I'd say.

Hmmm if I get the Bremblo's I could put the 4 pot GTS-t calipers & rotors on the Gloria ! Hmmmmmm

Don't forget B-man, as you get more power, braking power required increases by far as well. And it sounds like you'll have a fair few extra ponies ;)

Another factor is quality of your tyres, the better they are the less you need to brake as you can take the corners faster in the first place.

Third factor really is the number of full on laps you'll do at one time. I go a bit over the top sometimes, if you give the brakes a lap to cool down after every 5 its much easier on them.

I'd be taking option B, you can always trade them back in again and upgrade if you're still having problems...

Roy - I think those DBA 5000 Series are for GTR so would need Bremblo calipers to go with them.

If you are going to be opting for using larger rotors then an adaptor must be used with the std caliper to allow for the increase in rotor diam. Basically offsets the caiper mount.

The R33GTR/GTST & R32 GTSt all used 30mm thick rotors std, so the R33 caliper wont have any trouble running the DBA R33 GTR rotor which is also 30mm thick.

Im guessing but havent looked that the DBA rotor for the R33GTST is around the 296mm diam as DBA rotors are typically bolt on replacements, and a change in diameter means they aint no bolt on proposition. So if you want a bigger rotor, you have to run GTR re-placement rotors.

The reason i like the 5000 series over 4000 series, is they are lighter & dissipate heat better. The added bonus they look horn behind the wheels.

ha ha - thanks for pointing that out - goes to show you how much I know about brakes - Lucky for me there are ppl in this forum that know more than me about stuff.

Cheers,

PS Don't you think Bremblo sounds better then Brembo

Cheers,

Brendo :(

Simonster, I tried greenstuff and was *very* unhappy. They are great for dust, but they fade horribly under hard use. Not what I expected at all. Bendix Ultimate are half the price and fade much less, dusty as hell tho :D

I have found the Bendix Ultimates (F&R) pretty good so far with the 4000series DBA rotors (F&R). They withstand the 7 lap sprints around Queensland Raceway no problem, and they are cheap. Which is why I got them, I had run out of money with the other mods, but they are the single dustiest pad I have ever used. Have to clean the wheels every week now, and I only do about 200-300km a week. And my wheel are not the easiest to clean!

I would try quality slotted rotors, braided lines, quality fluid, GOOD pads, and master cyl brace first. brembo callipers as well if you can just throw them on.

track quality pads/rotors/fluid make a big difference when compared to normal or standard items.

  • 7 months later...

Reviving this thread from the dead after I got brake fade (at wakefield) on my Std brakes with SBS pads. Was scary stuff in my car.

UAS are working on a high quality adaptor for std calipers that will allow me to run the DBA 5000 slotted rotors. Now that seems like a good first step. The rotors are re-usable with the Brembos or AP Racing calipers in the future if needed.

So if I go the rotors, braided lines and good pads - I can see how that goes - if I need more, I can take the next step.

My question is - Since the DBA5000s are larger than the standard rotors, will the standard calipers/pad have enough surface area for the larger rotors ?? I understand that mounting the calipers with the adaptor will mean the everything fits - but will the pads miss out on some nice juicy rotor ?? (Means if I put larger rotors on later, the rotors will have worn uneavenly maybe ????)

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • Thanks, I removed the fuse and the relay from the car and made my own circuit with them to test them with a test bulb.  I will look for the wiring diagram and go from there.
    • Jdm DC2R is also nice for a FF car compared to the regular hatches of the time.
    • Now that the break-in period for both clutch and transmission is nearly over I'd like to give some tips before I forget about everything that happened, also for anyone searching up how to do this job in the future: You will need at least 6 ton jack stands at full extension. I would go as far as to say maybe consider 12 ton jack stands because the height of the transmission + the Harbor Freight hydraulic platform-style transmission jack was enough that it was an absolute PITA getting the transmission out from under the car and back in. The top edge of the bellhousing wants to contact the subframe and oil pan and if you're doing this on the floor forget about trying to lift this transmission off the ground and onto a transmission jack from under the car. Also do not try to use a scissor jack transmission lift. You have to rotate the damn thing in-place on the transmission jack which is hard enough with an adjustable platform and a transmission cradle that will mostly keep the transmission from rolling off the jack but on a scissor lift with a tiny non-adjustable platform? Forget it. Use penetrating oil on the driveshaft bolts. I highly recommend getting a thin 6 point combination (box end + open end) wrench for both the rear driveshaft and front driveshaft and a wrench extension. These bolts are on tight with very little space to work with and those two things together made a massive difference. Even a high torque impact wrench is just the wrong tool for the job here and didn't do what I needed it to do. If your starter bolts aren't seized in place for whatever reason you can in fact snake in a 3/8 inch ratchet + 6 point standard chrome socket up in there and "just" remove the bolts for the starter. Or at least I could. It is entirely by feel, you can barely fit it in, you can barely turn the stupid ratchet, but it is possible. Pull the front pipe/downpipe before you attempt to remove the transmission. In theory you don't have to, in practice just do it.  When pulling the transmission on the way out you don't have to undo all the bolts holding the rear driveshaft to the chassis like the center support bearing and the rear tunnel reinforcement bar but putting the transmission back in I highly recommend doing this because it will let you raise the transmission without constantly dealing with the driveshaft interfering in one way or another. I undid the bottom of the engine mount but I honestly don't know that it helped anything. If you do this make sure you put a towel on the back of the valve cover to keep the engine from smashing all the pipes on the firewall. Once the transmission has been pulled back far enough to clear the dowels you need to twist it in place clockwise if you're sitting behind the transmission. This will rotate the starter down towards the ground. The starter bump seems like it might clear if you twist the transmission the other way but it definitely won't. I have scraped the shit out of my transmission tunnel trying so learn from my mistake. You will need a center punch and an appropriate size drill bit and screw to pull the rear main seal. Then use vice grips and preferably a slide hammer attachment for those vice grips to yank the seal out. Do not let the drill or screw contact any part of the crank and clean the engine carefully after removing the seal to avoid getting metal fragments into the engine. I used a Slide Hammer and Bearing Puller Set, 5 Piece from Harbor Freight to pull the old pilot bearing. The "wet paper towel" trick sucked and just got dirty clutch water everywhere. Buy the tool or borrow it from a friend and save yourself the pain. It comes right out. Mine was very worn compared to the new one and it was starting to show cracks. Soak it in engine oil for a day in case yours has lost all of the oil to the plastic bag it comes in. You may be tempted to get the Nismo aftermarket pilot bearing but local mechanics have told me that they fail prematurely and if they do fail they do far more damage than a failed OEM pilot bushing. I mentioned this before but the Super Coppermix Twin clutch friction disks are in fact directional. The subtle coning of the fingers in both cases should be facing towards the center of the hub. So the coning on the rearmost disk closest to the pressure plate should go towards the engine, and the one closest to the flywheel should be flipped the other way. Otherwise when you torque down the pressure plate it will be warped and if you attempt to drive it like this it will make a very nasty grinding noise. Also, there is in fact an orientation to the washers for the pressure plate if you don't want to damage the anodizing. Rounded side of the washer faces the pressure plate. The flat side faces the bolt head. Pulling the transmission from the transfer case you need to be extremely careful with the shift cover plate. This part is discontinued. Try your best to avoid damaging the mating surfaces or breaking the pry points. I used a dead blow rubber hammer after removing the bolts to smack it sideways to slide it off the RTV the previous mechanic applied. I recommend using gasket dressing on the OEM paper gasket to try and keep the ATF from leaking out of that surface which seems to be a perpetual problem. Undoing the shifter rod end is an absolute PITA. Get a set of roll pin punches. Those are mandatory for this. Also I strongly, strongly recommend getting a palm nailer that will fit your roll pin punch. Also, put a clean (emphasis on clean) towel wrapped around the back end of the roll pin to keep it from shooting into the transfer case so you can spend a good hour or two with a magnet on a stick getting it out. Do not damage the shifter rod end either because those are discontinued as well. Do not use aftermarket flywheel bolts. Or if you do, make sure they are exactly the same dimensions as OEM before you go to install them. I have seen people mention that they got the wrong bolts and it meant having to do the job again. High torque impact wrench makes removal easy. I used some combination of a pry bar and flathead screwdriver to keep the flywheel from turning but consider just buying a proper flywheel lock instead. Just buy the OS Giken clutch alignment tool from RHDJapan. I hated the plastic alignment tool and you will never be confident this thing will work as intended. Don't forget to install the Nismo provided clutch fork boot. Otherwise it will make unearthly noises when you press the clutch pedal as it says on the little installation sheet in Japanese. Also, on both initial disassembly and assembly you must follow torque sequence for the pressure plate bolts. For some reason the Nismo directions tell you to put in the smaller 3 bolts last. I would not do this. Fully insert and thread those bolts to the end first, then tighten the other larger pressure plate bolts according to torque sequence. Then at the end you can also torque these 3 smaller bolts. Doing it the other way can cause these bolts to bind and the whole thing won't fit as it should. Hope this helps someone out there.
×
×
  • Create New...