Wilwood Brake Kit

[Lived4eva]

I was digging around on the UK ebay and found a decent looking big brake kit. Has anybody used this kit or similar calipers before. For that price delivered they are cheaper than G4/D2 brakes.

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi...e=STRK:MEWAX:IT

[75coupe]

Ive never looked at the price of Willwood before but thought for sure they would be up there in price, definitely not that cheap, like thats easily affordable as a brake upgrade... I was almost expecting AP caliper prices...

thanks for posting that one....

[JimmyRickard]

Amazing price. Wonder if they're legit?

[Lived4eva]

I have purchased other items from this seller and had no hassle at all so I have no reason to doubt them. Now is also looking to be a good time to buy as our dollar is pretty good against the pound. Would be interesting to see how they compared to the GTR brembos.

[Beelzebub89]

Any details on the calipers? Maybe they are only 4pot calipers instead of the usual 6/8 in the other big brake kits. Still looks like and awesome budget upgrade for those of us with the standard brakes.

[Ryno]

I use Wilwood callipers on my car... The callipers in that ad are the entry level cast 4 piston callipers, where as the ones I run are 6 piston Billet Superlight Callipers. I believe the 4 piston callipers wouldn't be much better than your stock ones, but the increase in Disc size would be worthwhile.

[Neil]

If the pic is anything to go by,,,check out how much disc is never going to used and while you at it compare the width of the pad to the disc.

I think they are selling a missing matched kit.

Neil.

[Lived4eva]

I have asked for more info about the calipers. As best I can tell from the photos they looks to be Forged Superlite calipers. These calipers are all 4 pot calipers, take a 330mm rotor and can range in piston area quite a bit.

http://www.wilwood.com/CaliperList.aspx?subname=Forged Superlite://http://www.wilwood.com/CaliperList....orged Superlite

The calipers with the 1.62" pistons would have a piston surface area similar to Brembo f40 calipers (53cm squared). Anything above that would put out the bias of the brakes by quite a bit. The small 1.38" calipers would probably have a piston area too small (38.5cm squared).

This is just best guess as far as I can tell. I will update once I am given some definite info.

[juggernaut1]

Ckeck out this link re wilwood brakes.

http://www.arizonazcar.com/240sxbrakes.html

[Roy]

Willwood make some nice gear, but this isnt it Nasty kits. The one above cant even assemble the kit properly for the catalogue photos

[Ryno]

Ckeck out this link re wilwood brakes.

http://www.arizonazcar.com/240sxbrakes.html

This is who I bought my brake setup from, except I purchased the 300zx kit. Awesome package for the money.

The only issue with the install, was having to get some longer brake lines made up.

Given the size of the calliper and rotors is much larger, I was surprised to find they actually turned out to be the same weight as the stock R33 GTS25t brakes they were replacing.

Don't worry about Roys post above... The quality of the Arizona Z car kits are awesome, and Dave is great to deal with - if you go down this path, you won't be disappointed.

Edited March 25, 2010 by Ryno

[Roy]

I was mostly referring to the ebay link. A few things...

If they are not telling you the caliper number or what model the Brembo rotor is for/off then its a bit of a gamble. The more typical Brembo rotor sizes are 324 or 332mm. I am sure they make 330 but would need to check what model car it is off and find out if its a 28, 30 or 32mm thick rotor, curved vane? Ditto what others have said you would want to make sure that the pistons sizes are correct for your car. Based on the price I would be assuming (another thing to check) is that the pistons sizes are the same, so you dont get the advantages / trend to go smaller on the leading piston for better pad wear and less rotor hot spots.

So thats the compilation of components questions, no doubt great value, and could be a good performing kit....but its a leap of faith without the answers.

The reason for my stay away comment, is Wilwood make calipers for many applications. Thats why they are great and so popular. But, that model of caliper is about the cheapest 4 piston caliper they make. These 4 pots are 30-50% of the price of the 4 pot caliper that you would generally be wanting in your kit. Effectively they are no different better then the std Nissan 4 pot caliper. You are basically changing calipers which is costing you money and limiting the range of pads you can run for no benefit

The Arizona Z kit is a much better bet. They run the nicer Billet range of Wilwood caliper (6 pot or 4 pot , makes no difference to me they are both nice calipers) They run a chunky, probably Nascar based rotor with curved vane and greater width then you get in majority of kids. So a much better kit, but still be concerned about the custom hat and the hardware they use to mount the hat and rotor. How do they stack up with some kms on them? Do they get noisy, slack and bang up the hats with some kms??? Its not a method i have seen before?!?!? They did still mount the rotor backwars in the mock up pics

So, as Ryno said, its only my opinion...and could be wrong. But the above is the thinking behind my comments, If Ryno can confirm he has put lots of kms on his setup and the hats have not become noisy or damaged at time of rotor replacement then they are great value. I still dont get why the Arizona kit spec it all together the way they have and go lug mount instead of radial...radial is better for so many reasons

[juggernaut1]

I've seen the Arizona Z kit on two cars at Barbagello which is why I mentioned them. Kingcorps s14A which recently set an IPRA lap record, and Steve Myburgs very fast 550wrhp RB powered 180sx which I believe runs in the sports sedan category. I've previously pm'd Kingscorp and he advised that he has yet to change a set of rotors after about 2 or 3 seasons of racing. He informs me you can get them locally anyway.

None of these guys have problems under brakes, and in fact based on their various youtube videos, they seem to consistently outbrake or at the very least are on a par with their competition.

With the $A/$US exchange rate at the moment.....is there a better value brake package out there than the Arizona Z kit?

Edited March 30, 2010 by juggernaut1

[JimmyRickard]

What sort of coin would I be looking at to install the 6 piston Arizona kit?

Looks pretty decent for the money.

[juggernaut1]

From Arizona Z site:

Front US$1,395

Rear US$ 795

Total US$2,190

At say ~ 90 cents ex rate = A$2,433 plus delivery plus possibly customs duties and GST. Also their pricing may include local transaction taxes which may not be applicable to exports out of the US.

Edited March 30, 2010 by juggernaut1

[JimmyRickard]

Would the rears be necessary? Its for a track r32 GTR.

Also I was referring to actually getting the kit on the car, seeing as its not a direct fitment. I've emailed the guy about it so hopefully he may have some insight.

[juggernaut1]

Can't really answer your fitment questions......however,logically.....the rears may be necessary in order to maintain the correct front/rear bias via the caliper piston sizes with your stock bmc. That is the Arizona Z front/rear kit may be matched to suit stock bmc's otherwise you may end up with bias issues.

These are questions Dave at Arizona Z will surely be able to help you with.

[Ryno]

Would the rears be necessary? Its for a track r32 GTR.

Also I was referring to actually getting the kit on the car, seeing as its not a direct fitment. I've emailed the guy about it so hopefully he may have some insight.

Hey mate,

I have installed the Arizona Z car 300zx kit on the front of my R32. The kit bolts up directly, the only issue you will have is the front brake lines not being long enough. I got new braided ones made up for about $100.

The brakes cost me around $2000 Aus (incl shipping)... so add $100 for lines and $20 for fluid.

I have not purchased the rear kit yet, as they do not use the standard cable handbrake - as my car is a daily driver I wanted to keep this. Dave has almost finished his new setup for this though, which includes an additional small billet calliper mounted on the disc for the cable handbrake setup.

If you have any more specific questions on the install, I'm happy to help

Ryno

[JimmyRickard]

Thanks for that mate, for $2000 it seems like an excellent buy compared to the chinese stuff.

Have you tracked your car with these brakes? Do you think the rears will be necessary?

[Ryno]

Thanks for that mate, for $2000 it seems like an excellent buy compared to the chinese stuff.

Have you tracked your car with these brakes? Do you think the rears will be necessary?

Yeah that was the same thought I had. I was actually looking at paying around the same money for R34 Brembo's, but these seemed like a much better buy.

I haven't taken the car to the track, but I'm sure they would be awesome. During the bedding in process, they were still wanting to lock a front wheel on the 10th stop from 100 kph.

I personally don't think the rears will be necessary, as the fronts do most of the work.

I also wouldn't worry so much about the possible brake bias change, as that is set by the Brake master cylinder anyway.

If I do go for the rear kit later on, it will mainly be for the look, rather than the performance.