Wilwood Big Front Brake Kit Group Buy!

[PM-R33]

Hey guys

Here is a new group buy to kick the start of the year off if people are keen (and have a bit of cash left over from Christmas burning a hole in their pockets).

The group buy is on a front Wilwood brake package specially put together for our Nissan Skyline family. It will be an upgrade over the factory calipers and rotors for an overall improvement in braking efficiency. We based it off of the US 240SX/300ZX kits that they make and simply upgraded it for our needs (better calipers, larger rotors). The kit is being supplied by Revolution Brake in the United States.

I put up an interest thread a few weeks back that some of you may have seen here to gauge interest and to discuss the suitability of the kit. There seemed to be some positive interest with a few key points brought up that I will try to cover the best that I can.

I realise this package isn’t for every one but as an overall setup, for the money, I don’t think you can beat it. There are a few different kits around for this money however I wanted something that was going to bolt straight on without causing issues with brake caliper brackets and proper calipers and proper sized rotors. A lot of kits around (including some of the Wilwood kits) used their entry level cheap calipers. While they may look good in a picture (big and shiny), it is all the specifications of them that must be looked at; hence I will try to cover everything in sections.

Wilwood Front Brake Kit Contents

• Wilwood Billet Superlite 6 Piston Calipers

• Wilwood 332mmx32mm two piece rotors

• Wilwood Street/Track brake pads

• Wilwood Nissan caliper mount brackets

• All fitting hardware

CALIPERS

The heart of the kit is Wilwood’s most popular Billet Superlite 6 Piston calipers. Each caliper is precision CNC machined from high strength billet to create a very light weight caliper. These have a total piston area of 4.04”. GTST calipers run a total piston area of around 3.9” this means a good braking torque upgrade is received with a nice bias. The calipers are powder coated in a very nice modern black finish (no gay rainbow type colours!).

ROTORS

A pair of Wilwood directionally slotted two piece rotors measuring in at 332mm (13.06”) in diameter and 32mm in thickness will work in harmony with the calipers. A lot of your cheaper brake kits will offer large diameter rotors however the thickness is sometimes thinner than from factory. The thickness of the rotor plays a key part in heat absorption and dissipation. Aluminium 5x114.3 pcd black Wilwood hats lower overall weight, offering high strength and low unsprung and rotating weight. Traditional rotors of this size are extremely heavy due to being solid iron so the two piece setup lowers weight substantially.

PADS

The pads chosen for the kit are Wilwood’s Street Performance/Racing pads. These are of a medium friction compound with low noise and low dust with low to medium wear rates.

BRAKE LINES

The kit does not come with any brake lines as they don’t carry ones for Skylines and also they would not be ADR approved. Instead I can supply Hel braided brake lines or you can supply your own (a lot of you may already have some). I believe the GTST brake lines should suit every one however if they don't I will simply get Hel to make us custom kits.

All in all the kit will look like this once put together:

FITMENT

The kit will fit all Nissan models that use the same hub setup. Out of all the Skyline models - GTS/GTST/GTR/GTT - I believe it is only the R34 GTR that uses larger caliper mount holes. Others such as the S14/S15 and Stagea models will also fit but please check for yourself.

Now from what I have been told, 17” rims may fit however to guarantee fitment I would recommend 18” rims. I will however try to fit some 17” rims over them once I have my kit to see how they go. So if people with 17” rims would like to get some, possibly hold off until I can confirm fitment and then just go into the next batch (If there is enough interest). Also make sure your wheel offset will be fine for larger calipers or you may need to use a small spacer to get the clearance. You can view the dimensions of the calipers here to check:

http://www.wilwood.com/images/Caliper/images_dimensions-lg/Billet_Superlite_6-cm-lg.jpg

ISSUES

The main issue that has been brought up is the fact that Wilwood (as a lot of others) don’t use dust boot seals around the pistons in the calipers. Here is what they have to say about it:

Many people are curious about the 'street-ability' of Wilwood calipers since they don't have dust boots. Do they have to be 're-built' after driving through the winter or when changing pads? The simple answer is "no".

Wilwood calipers are built to such high tolerances these days that road grime will not get in between the piston and caliper housing. With some simple care provided when changing pads, Wilwood calipers can run indefinitely without needing rebuilding. All that is necessary when changing pads is to spray the exposed pistons with brake cleaner and wipe off with a clean rag before pushing the pistons back into the caliper. This simple step is actually why many big brake kit manufacturers have dust boots on their calipers; they believe their customers are too lazy to do this simple task.

Some people are also curious as to why Wilwood does not provide dust boots on most of their calipers. The reason is pretty simple. Wilwood calipers are designed with ultimate performance in mind, i.e.: they expect their calipers to be used hard, which means high temperatures. Dust boots turn to a gooey mess or turn hard and brittle when exposed to the temperatures of driving events/track events and in either case, loose any of their effectiveness to keep road grime off the pistons. When you stop and think about it, this could actually cause a dangerous situation. If you run dust boot equipped calipers very hard (to the point of corrupting the dust boots ability to keep grime off the pistons) and then push the pistons back into the caliper without cleaning them, you could unknowingly compromise the piston/caliper seal and possibly cause a brake fluid leak or total failure.

As a final point about dust seals, we have been providing our big brake kits to 300ZX, 350Z and G35 enthusiasts for over 8 years now with customers all over the world and have yet to have a customer need to rebuild a caliper.

All in all I spoke to my engineer about this and it really wasn’t an issue as some may make it out to be. I will be getting my car mod plated for the brake upgrade as it is a legel requirement to do so. If you have any concerns, simply speak to an engineer about it and see what they have to say.

REAR KIT

If the group buy goes ahead and there is enough interest in a rear kit I will put one together. It will compromise of Wilwood’s Billet Superlite 4 piston calipers and the same size rotors and will be cheaper than the front kit.

REPLACEMENT PARTS

Replacement rotors and pads are easily obtained from the US and the pad choice varies from street to high performance track pads. Costs are very good with most pads ranging from $80-$280USD a pair. Replacement rotors are also cheap due to the two piece arrangement (since you only replace the actual rotor and not the hat) and go for around $200USD a pair. I am sure a lot of other pads would cross reference here in Aus and still work.

If we can get 4 other people, pricing shall be $1850AUD Delivered Australia wide.

This kit in the US normally sells for over $2000USD and due to the weight the freight costs to Aus are quite high so the savings are quite good. To put it into perspective Rocket Australia wanted over $3000AUD for the same spec'd kit!

I will leave the group buy open for around 4 weeks until the 7th of February or until the spots fill. Once the group buy is closed I will give 2 weeks to collect payment and then transfer the money to the US. Once payment has been made to them they will need two weeks to get the kits ready and then shipping time is around 6-10 days.

Once again, any questions feel free to ask and I will do my best to answer them. As always, I will write up a bit of a DIY on how to fit the kits once they arrive.

Here are a couple of DIY's I found for the 240SX. Note that they are using the cheapest 4 piston calipers and smaller rotors.

http://www.wilwood.com/Pdf/howtostories/Nissan_240SX_Brake_Install.pdf

http://gskoff.blogspot.com/2010/06/wilwood-superlite-front-brakes.html

Cheers guys

Phil

BUY LIST

1. PMR33

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[The Dan]

damn that's even cheaper than the Justjap kits. What you are saying about the dust boots is correct also. A lot of people ask me this when they are considering a brake upgrade. As long as the proper maintenance is done when changing pads, they will perform well for many seasons

[lookingforboost]

how do these rate up agianst Vspec brembos?

[tefu]

Do you have one with 355 rotor for S15 with the bracket?

[PM-R33]

how do these rate up agianst Vspec brembos?

Would be better in every single way. Larger rotors, larger calipers, lightweight, brand new instead of 10+ years old etc.

Do you have one with 355 rotor for S15 with the bracket?

The specs listed is all that is available for this group buy. Rotors that large would not appeal to most people as they would most likely have to run 19" wheels. But yes this would bolt up to a S15.

[numleg]

Would be better in every single way. Larger rotors, larger calipers, lightweight, brand new instead of 10+ years old etc.

What is the difference in piston area between this kit and GTR brembos? The rotor diameter difference in not massive 332mm vs 324mm.

I'm interested but want to be sure it's enough of an upgrade.

[PM-R33]

Piston area is nearly identical to Brembos. It's only the GTST calipers that run less bias up front.

For R33/R34 GTR brakes it aint a HUGE upgrade. However when people ask $1500-$2000 for 10-15 year old R33/R34 factory GTR Brembo brakes second hand, it obviously makes this kit a hell of a lot better value. Also means some one could sell their factory Brembo setup for nearly the same price of this setup...

I should have listed the factory brake specs so people can compare if they don't know:

FACTORY FRONT BRAKE SPECS

R32 GTS-T (early) : 280mm x 26mm (single pot sumitomo caliper)

R32 GTS-T type m : 280mm x 30mm (4 pot sumitomo caliper)

R32 GTR : 296mm x 32mm (4 pot sumitomo caliper)

R32 GTR VSPEC : 324mm x 30mm (4 pot brembo caliper)

R33 GTS-25 : 280mm x 26mm (single pot sumitomo caliper)

R33 GTS-4 : 280mm x 26mm (single pot sumitomo caliper)

R33 GTS-25T : 296mm x 30mm (4 pot sumitomo caliper)

R33 GTR : 324mm x 32mm (4 pot brembo caliper)

R33 GTR VSPEC : 324mm x 30mm (4 pot brembo caliper)

R34 GT : 296mm x 30mm (4 pot sumitomo caliper)

R34 GTT : 310mm x 30mm (4 pot sumitomo caliper)

R34 GTR : 324mm x 32mm (4 pot brembo caliper)

Z32 NA : 280mm x 26mm (4 pot sumitomo caliper)

Z32 TT : 280mm x 30mm (4 pot ali sumitomo caliper)

S14, S15 : 280mm x 30mm (4 pot sumitomo caliper)

[na beast]

Hey phil, extremely interested in this kit, just depends on wether I can flog this gtr brembo brake kit in time. I'm going to throw it up on the forsake section this afternoon but if you know Anyone that would be interested it comes with a full set of r33 gtr caliper and practically brand new pads, a hel stainless steel braided line package to suit, and a set of rda vented rotors witch should come up fine after I give them a wire brush.

[PM-R33]

No worries man

[tefu]

Thanks for the clarification, yeah i got 19" that's why I want the 355 rotor, thanks again for the info.

Would this kit come with the bracket for S15?

Edited January 14, 2011 by tefu

[PM-R33]

Yes 100% bolts up to a S15.

The caliper mount brackets we are using in this kit are actually US 240SX ones (S14/S15).

As I said in the first post, nearly all of the Nissan import family run the same caliper mount on the hub so they are nearly all interchangeable.

[dcdc]

I'm down for the rear kit

[lookingforboost]

if you get more than 4 people will the pricing be revised? as with the GTR brembos you would have to change to the BM57 booster wont you ?

[PM-R33]

Nah that's the best price and I won't be taking more than 4 other people just because it will be a lot of cash to deal with and I would rather not risk playing around with $20,000 lol. Also I think getting 4 other people will be hard enough since no one has put their name down yet.

I wasn't aware that you need to change the booster?

[dcdc]

*edited

Edited January 15, 2011 by dcdc

[PM-R33]

I suppose I could have a better chat to the supplier about what we are going to do about the rear kit. The damn hand brake assembly makes it tricky to make sure whatever we choose will fit.

[acsplit]

Very keen but I use 17"rims

[Deano 1]

any info on the booster? dose it need to be changed?...... (Roy where are you? haha)

[PM-R33]

Well from what I understand, if the pedal gets really hard than you will need to upgrade the booster.

But maybe a slightly stiffer pedal would be good.

I guess it is one of these things we will just have to see. However I havn't really heard of any one needing to change it.

[DVS JEZ]

Im in? Thanks Deano for

letting me know about this. I wonder how the bias will be without the rear kit for now.