Last Minute DIY Brake Ducting
 

With 4 days until the first time trial of the season, I've come to realize that my brakes are woefully inadequate and are going to try and kill me (thanks Savington). In an attempt to avoid feeling floorboard under my brake pedal the only real options I have, with such limited time, are to add some makeshift ducting, do a rain dance, and go slow.

Since I'm not 100% confident in my native american performing arts technique, and going slow isn't any fun, I'm going to try some ducting and hope it helps.

My plan is to buy some "fire proof" flexible metal ducting and "funnels" from Home Depot Racing. Cut holes in the air dam, rivet the funnels to it, hose clamp the ducting to the funnels, zip tie it along the lower a-arms, and point it at the backs of the rotors (after cutting off the dust covers)

Am I an idiot? Will I fail worse than Faelflora? How can I make this work?

It's monday. Order the parts and get them by Friday.

and install them... while I'm driving to the event? :dunno: Even if I dropped $250 on overnight shipping, they would get here wed or thurs which would give me roughly 5 hours to get them installed and working, maybe a bit more if I wanted to sacrifice sleep. I have enough experience with Murphy's law to know that's a bad idea. I'd rather alternate slow & fast laps to let the brakes cool than take the risk that something goes wrong installing a completely new brake setup the night before the event. :sad2:

I'd say it's a whole lot easier to install TSE brake ducts in 5 hours than it is to fab up custom DIY brake ducts. They don't really sell the right kind of hose at Home Depot Racing Supply, it's either too big, too low temp, or too fragile.

TSE ducts install pretty easily, the hardest parts are removing the factory shields and attaching the hose somewhere it can get air, and those are going to have to happen either way.

You *do* have high-temp fluid and some decent pads installed already, right?

--Ian

Here's my DIY ducting. Probably not the most effective, but it's better than nothing I hope. Got the idea from 949, not sure where the photo is, his is a little prettier.
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1334619810
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1334619810
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1334619810

Just be sure to zip tie it to your under tray to keep it away from the tire at full lock. I lost a piece of tubing that way.

Ahh, thanks curly. I have been trying to find photo's like that for ages!!!

Do you know if it has made any difference to your car?

this is what i just did, used 3" direct vent gas piping. it expands and stays where you put it only needed a few zip ties to stay in place. i figured any air blowing in the wheel is better than none.

Do you not have big brakes? I doubt it would cost $250 to have a BBK shipped from TSE to you in a few days. It's easy to install too. I'd say budget an hour each side just for safetys sake and bleed them. Good 2 go.

I added the Wilwoods and 11" Corrado rotors at the same time, so I'm not sure. They haven't faded in two track days with only Hawk HP+ pads, but I'm not very aggressive in my braking zones.

Do you guys know what temps I should see if I measure the caliper body/rotor surface? I'm fading Hawk HP+ on 1.6L brakes on all seasons! I have 1.8L brackets, but i figure if 1.6s w/ ducts work fine, I can save the weight penalty so Im trying to measure BEFORE I add ducts to make sure it does something. My current $5 IR temp doesn't read anything above 200 degrees.

Read Hustler's build thread, he has his data in there somewhere. He's using stick on thermometers, reading 500+ in the rears, and 250ish in the fronts with his TSE biggest big brake kit. IIRC.

Thanks guys.

Falcon: No big breaks yet, the car was built for hill climbs, which are really easy on brakes. Believe me, I checked on over-nighting a TSE BBK, its $250.

Codrus: I have new XP10's, fresh Motul 600, new 1.8 rotors and new SS Lines.

The weather is calling for rain, so I may get lucky. I'm sure that I'm the only driver hoping it rains, lol. Even if it doesn't rain, I don't mind babying the brakes most of the time and just laying down one or two fast laps each session... but if I can throw some makeshift ducts on there that might help, I figure I might as well.

Get real pads before you dump money into your brakes. HP+s are ---- compared to a proper track pad.

Here's your problem.

Is XP10 a "proper" track pad?

Yes.

I hardly call a DIY brake duct ''dumping money'' into the brakes. If anything, a new set of pads is "dumping money" into it when the HP+ still have life left.

After hunting through all the local hardware stores I decided that Codrus was right, they don't sell anything that would work. I ordered some legit brake duct hose and some NACA ducts from Summit for just $25 overnight shipping. Got the dust covers off the hubs last night, will be installing the ducts tonight.

Oh, so I was right the whole ------- time?!?!?! What a ------- surprise, ----------ers. ---- yeah. Never ------- doubt me.

get the silicone. it is more expense but will last longer. It is really hard to keep vent hoe in good shape if the car sees any street time so not a problem for you. if use zip tie you should think about reinforce the hose so it does not rip with gorilla tape or something similar.

also I also like Alcon temp strips. that way you can really see how hot the calipers get though it really for overall system health. to see if they are getting up to temp, or how overheated they get. but its just a tool, caliper temps say nothing of rotor pad surface temps.

the paint for rotors like ABC does is cool but its kinda expensive.