Brake Duct Solutions & Catch Can Antics!
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From: Knoxville, TN
Brake Duct Solutions & Catch Can Antics!
Over the weekend the famous S2k'r known as Willie Gee swung by my place to hang out and have a little bit of work done to his car... The two biggest things it needed were brake ducts, and it needed a catch can installed.
The Catch Can:
Bill had some sort of "Home Depot" oil catch can solution under his hood, and was finding that it didn't really work that well when actually put to the test... So, he went out and purchased a Greddy Catch Can. Originally the idea was to just mount the can on the front crossmember or some other random place under the hood.
I'm personally a big fan of keeping things hidden, or making things look nice, like Honda put it there. So, i went on the hunt looking for another place to hide the can. Turns out there is a nice small area over by the brake booster that is the perfect size for the Greddy Catch Can, and there is a bolt hole in the body right next to it where i can mount the can. The bolt hole is currently holding a relay. Also, i've never been a huge fan of mounting a catch can low in the engine bay, so this also provides a place that is almost as high as it can get in the bay.
So, i built a bracket that would hold the catch can, and bolt it up to this hole. It also held the can out far enough so that the relay would still be able to stay in the same spot, and it wouldn't be causing another problem by trying to solve one.
Since the location is very tight, and you wouldn't want to be removing the can to empty it, I also hooked up a 'remote drain' that runs a line from the bottom of the can, down to the underside of the car where there is a bracket holding onto a petcock valve so that it can easily be drained
Here are the installed pics:
Nice and clean
Brake Ducts:
Next up, Bill was having problems with brakes getting much too hot during track events, and wanted to add some brake ducts.
There are some ducts on the market that you can buy that just insert into the stock openings in the AP2 bumper, but they are very small holes (the ducts seem to be about 1.5" diamter or so), and they seem relatively ineffective for as much air as these brakes need to keep cool during REAL use.
The bigger problem though, is that Bill has an AEM intake, which places his filter directly in the way of one of the openings, and that opening is also providing a bit of cool air to the filter. So we don't want to completely block it.
So not we needed to look at placing the ducts in the front grille area. Originally the idea was to place one duct on either side of the grille. However, once i got to actually measuring and looking in the grille opening area, i saw that the A/C line going to the condensor was RIGHT in the way of being able to do that.
That meant either installing ducts on the outside-side of the bumper, or moving inward to the center of the grille. I didn't feel that installing duct holes on the sides of the bumper would be as effective as a center-mounted setup, so i decided to go to the center of the grille.
So, i started welding...
And eventually came up with this:
This design sat perfect, and would provide a LOT of airflow to the brakes, without blocking much of the grille area in the bumper:
Next up was to hook up the ducting to it:
And finally.... how it looks in the bumper:
This setup will provide MORE than enough air to the brakes, which the brakes really need... also, once painted black, it'll virtually disappear in the grille area. This also allowed the air filter to stay in place, and still allow it to get some air from the side opening. Also, we didn't have to cut any huge holes in the sides of the bumper to mount any ducting.
All in all, happiness abounds, and the brakes will be nice and cool now
Thanks for coming by and hanging out Bill! Can't wait to see how these mods perform!
The Catch Can:
Bill had some sort of "Home Depot" oil catch can solution under his hood, and was finding that it didn't really work that well when actually put to the test... So, he went out and purchased a Greddy Catch Can. Originally the idea was to just mount the can on the front crossmember or some other random place under the hood.
I'm personally a big fan of keeping things hidden, or making things look nice, like Honda put it there. So, i went on the hunt looking for another place to hide the can. Turns out there is a nice small area over by the brake booster that is the perfect size for the Greddy Catch Can, and there is a bolt hole in the body right next to it where i can mount the can. The bolt hole is currently holding a relay. Also, i've never been a huge fan of mounting a catch can low in the engine bay, so this also provides a place that is almost as high as it can get in the bay.
So, i built a bracket that would hold the catch can, and bolt it up to this hole. It also held the can out far enough so that the relay would still be able to stay in the same spot, and it wouldn't be causing another problem by trying to solve one.
Since the location is very tight, and you wouldn't want to be removing the can to empty it, I also hooked up a 'remote drain' that runs a line from the bottom of the can, down to the underside of the car where there is a bracket holding onto a petcock valve so that it can easily be drained
Here are the installed pics:
Nice and clean
Brake Ducts:
Next up, Bill was having problems with brakes getting much too hot during track events, and wanted to add some brake ducts.
There are some ducts on the market that you can buy that just insert into the stock openings in the AP2 bumper, but they are very small holes (the ducts seem to be about 1.5" diamter or so), and they seem relatively ineffective for as much air as these brakes need to keep cool during REAL use.
The bigger problem though, is that Bill has an AEM intake, which places his filter directly in the way of one of the openings, and that opening is also providing a bit of cool air to the filter. So we don't want to completely block it.
So not we needed to look at placing the ducts in the front grille area. Originally the idea was to place one duct on either side of the grille. However, once i got to actually measuring and looking in the grille opening area, i saw that the A/C line going to the condensor was RIGHT in the way of being able to do that.
That meant either installing ducts on the outside-side of the bumper, or moving inward to the center of the grille. I didn't feel that installing duct holes on the sides of the bumper would be as effective as a center-mounted setup, so i decided to go to the center of the grille.
So, i started welding...
And eventually came up with this:
This design sat perfect, and would provide a LOT of airflow to the brakes, without blocking much of the grille area in the bumper:
Next up was to hook up the ducting to it:
And finally.... how it looks in the bumper:
This setup will provide MORE than enough air to the brakes, which the brakes really need... also, once painted black, it'll virtually disappear in the grille area. This also allowed the air filter to stay in place, and still allow it to get some air from the side opening. Also, we didn't have to cut any huge holes in the sides of the bumper to mount any ducting.
All in all, happiness abounds, and the brakes will be nice and cool now
Thanks for coming by and hanging out Bill! Can't wait to see how these mods perform!
