I wanted to add some brake cooling to my car a while back, but I didn't want to cut the bumper, nor was I comfortable with the solution of attaching a hose to the back of the stock shield (although I did try that for a while). And I wasn't going to go to King either (I'm a few thousand miles away).

I asked a friend of mine, who owns a small engineering firm, to assist me in creating a system for my car that addressed those concerns. We messed around with some different approaches and finally settled on one that doesn't require cutting the bumper, doesn't require any holes to be drilled, delivers air through a targeted and shaped duct to the rotor eye and basically bolts on.

The only tough part was removing the stock rotor shield, which is replaced by a specially made unit. Removing the shield requires either taking the hub off (no way) or cutting off a very small portion of the stock shield (with tin snips or a dremel), which can still be reused.

I've been driving with the setup on my car for awhile now and it's been unobtrusive. I'm bringing along a later prototype to Thunderhill to see how it works on track. However, my friend is at a cross-roads. The kit works well, but the prototypes have all been handmade and the level of finish isn't what my friend considers saleable - even though they are completely functional. He's interested in going into production, but before he does, he wants to see if there's enough interest to invest the capital cost necessary.

Overall the kit would include new rotor shields, tubing/ducting, clamps, fasteners, and even a couple of custom tools to faciliate the installation. He was hoping to keep the cost around $300-$400, but that would depend, of course, on volume.

Is this something you guys would use? Is it worth $300-$400 to you to get cooling without cutting your bumper?

Any comments are welcome.

UL

 

Sounds like something I'd be interested in. I'll have to take a look at yours at Thunderhill.

 

Maybe

Here are a few questions:

1) Is this for the fronts only?

2) Will this kit work if rotors and/or calipers and/or wheels are upgraded later?

3) How well does it work (absolute or compared to the bumper duct method)? Guess we'll have a partial answer to this after Thunder Hill.

4) How does it look? I assume you don't want to post pictures to protect the design from poaching, so maybe just let us know how visible it is.

5) Any downsides to doing this? Is this something one would want to disconnect when not at the track, or in rainy weather?

Thanks,

Ted

 

An additional question - where does it draw air from, and how does it direct it into the new rotor shield? Since it doesn't work off the front bumber "ducts," can it be utilized for the rear brakes?

Personally, cutting part of the front fascia and the fender liner isn't an issue for me. Directing the air into the center of the rotor is, however. I assume the new shield does this better than pointing a tube to holes in the stock one?

Perhaps I'd be interested in utilizing part of the kit, and hooking the tubing up to the front "ducts." However, I'm not sure if $300 to $400 is reasonable for what would be for me, I assume, simply a replacement rotor shield.

 

To answer the questions in some semblance of order:

1. At Thunderhill we'll be testing on gilcwong's car since I'm bringing my CRX. We'll do some laps with the stock setup and apply temperature sensitive paint at various locations on the rotors. Then we'll change to the kit and see what happens. Unfortunately, I've heard Thill isn't too tough on brakes - is that accurate krazik? I'd love to try it at Streets of Willow. We'll have the ability to measure temps between 600 and 950F in 50F increments.

2. It's currently for the fronts only, but I'm pretty sure that it can easily be adapted to the rear. The only issue is that the rear rotors aren't vented, so the cooling only takes place on one side of the rotor. This may or may not be an issue (warping, etc.). We could also adapt it to move cooling air to the rear diff.

3. It should work with upgraded rotors, calipers, etc. provided the orientation and location of those components does not change. Wider wheels might require more careful routing of tubing, but it shouldn't be a problem. You just can't put on smaller wheels :-)

4. How well it works is TBD, with temp paint, etc. I'm quite sure that cutting the bumper and running a big duct there would provide more cooling. And if you are a dedicated track junky then that is probably the best route, no doubt about it. In terms of heavy street braking (repeated 90-20 stops) there is an improvement, but nothing proves functionality like the racetrack.

5. The kit looks o.k. now, but as I said, the finish isn't up to my friend's standards. The only things you can see with the wheels on require a close look to notice them, and later versions may be even more non-descript.

6. The only downside I can see is that in heavy rain conditions the vents _could_ bring water directly to the rotor on a continuous basis. My car doesn't see rain so I haven't tested that. However, removing the complete system requires removing a couple bolts, zip ties and a clamp with the wheel off. Alternatively, plugs for the vents could easily be created.

7. The possibility exists for selling just pieces of the kit, for example, rotor shields, with vents sized for tubing from 2"-4". That part of the manufacturing process is relatively flexible. I'm assuming that such a option would be much cheaper, perhaps 50% or so. Considering that stock rotor shields are about $40 each, that's not too bad, but it may not be worth it if you're getting good results now.

Good questions and comments. Keep them coming and we'll see what data and feedback we can obtain at Thill.

UL

 

Depending on how well it works I'd be very interested.

I've heard before that the rotor shield can only be removed by pulling the hub. Are you just having to cut it off?

 

would you by any chance have pics of the current setup you are using in your car.
I would definately be interested in a package like this.

Thanks in Advance

 

Mikey,

Pulling the hub is the preferred way, but with a special tool and some careful snipping of metal you can remove it while leaving it almost completely intact. In fact, it is totally reusable and only a careful observer would note that it has been removed.

Part of the development process was figuring out how to do this since pulling the hub is cost/time/skill prohibitive for most folks, including me.

Davies2k, because my friend covered all the development costs, I can't post pictures just yet - he wants to make sure the kit is ready to go first. However, my friend and I are in LA too. So, at the worst, we can probably arrange something, or just wait till the Orange County get together on the 18th.

UL

 

Thanks Ultimatelurker,
unfortunately I wont be able to make it to the OC meet. However, when you have the kit finalized with some pics that would be great.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by ultimate lurker
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