Stainless steel brake pistons
 

There was a thread on here the other day where a few people were talking of replacement pistons for standard calipers an using different materials. Since then I have been doing some research and it seems that the most common replacement material for brake pistons is stainless steel and for those with a large wallet; titanium. Now I am far from finishing research on the pros and cons of these materials, differences in expansion co-efficients and thermal transfer properties so depending on the results of that I may just abandon the idea but...

How much interest would there be for sets of brake caliper pistons made from stainless? (rears may be difficult as they aren't a hollow type)

Would there be any interest in ones made from titanium , bearing in mind these would be probably £100 per piston?

Thermal conductivity is lower for both materials when compared with the standard steel applications so those of you that would suffer with brake fade due to high fluid temps would definitely benefit.

Moving on from that and knowing that suspension geometry on these cars is critical and the problems associated with the corrosion in the regular metalastic bushes, I am in the process of seeing how viable an idea it is to make up sets of suspension bolts from titanium, whilst this might not stop the problem of the bushes corroding against the bolt it should make it easier to adjust the suspension after a few years and also save a little weight. The added advantage being standard Honda items are so expensive, it shouldn't be significantly more expensive to upgrade.

If there is enough interest on this I will continue with the project and get some test items made and work out how cheap we can get them.

Geo bolts sound good!
If I didn't have a set of 6 pots for the front I'd have loved some pistons too.

Put me down for some bolts please :)

I guess you would have the bolts individually machined from billet?
Would be interested in seeing the cost of the geo bolts. Although being Ti and low volume, im expecting some high numbers to come back!

Titanium isnt the best for fatigue, so you would have to be careful

Not a material expert, but want to make sure what compatibility is between the mating surfaces. Some metals like to "bond" together when placed side by side.

What about just coating the original pistons with something similar or the same as what the cylinder walls can be coated in?

Stainless pistons would make a lot of sense.

I can't see geo bolts gaining much attention (or they shouldn't) - steel is fine for the application if greased correctly. The only people who would want Ti or SS geo bolts either own garage queens, or are fools. Apologies to those who have already registered interest here, but the cost/benefit is going to be exceptionally poor.

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Have you any sources for your information? That might read like sarcasm but it genuinely isn't, from what I have read most of the titanium alloys are better served to fasteners than stainless, generally only resulting in failure from machining defects, poor design and surface finish of the material.

Brake pistons look like they are the thing I will be moving on with first, I need to do a lot more research on the bolts and their materials and I'm veeerrry busy at the minute with other projects.

Powerflex does a caster adjustment kit in stainless.
Doesn't look like the actual bolt is stainless though, probably because it's a to weak material.

Fatigue is the issue for titanium. Over time it yields and loses strength under dynamic load conditions

Would this be a factor on a suspension bolt under dunoc loads ? I don't know but I know I wouldn't want to be the one to find out. Especially for minimal gains when a £1 of grease would have the same anti corrosion effect.