I went up to the local track with the hatch for a night of some open lapping. We get to do 20 mins of track time for about 15 bucks Us.

I run a ok setup i guess some 500 lbs springs with adjustable shocks, front 22mmsway and 24mm rear sway bar. I have a b18c1 with a ITR tranny. Tires are R compond hankooks.

AND stock civic brakes 9.5" with drums, and RRBF600 fluid and Hawk Hp+ pads OEM shoes.

After 20 mins yesterday of track time my brakes were spongy, i get off the track and let the car sit for the next session. When i went on the next session the drums were very loose and the pedal travle much larger... at the end of the 2nd 20 min seeions the brake peadal was too the floor almost. I got of the track and they were steeming hot the discs and pads.

Anyway on the way home after packing up, i stopped a friend house not too far from the track, i went in had dinner came out to see my left front tire sitting in a pool of brake fluid. I took the wheel off and invetigated and it turns out the casted part of the caliper near the piston is cracked and is leaking. I left the car there and will go back to fix it later tonight with a spare civic caliper.

The thing is, are the brakes really that underpowered for my car? I was doing Max 140 km/h down the little staight. I will be doing a 11.5" brake setup later this year but the parts are no ready yet and so i can not do anything but put a spare stock civic caliper on at this momnet. Should i stay off the track with this brake setup? I was thinking of gettting air ducks to baby the brakes a bit more until i can get the large setup complete and installed. I will definately reduce my track time to 1 20 min block rather then x2 20 mins in about 1 hour. I only do this about once a month... but i really want to get back on.

any input would be nice... thanks.

 

Calipers shouldn't "crack" like that. Ever. That happening is not a problem of your brakes being overworked, but rather some defect or damage to the caliper. A stock replacement would do fine for now, since you're planning of getting something better down the line eventually (which you will most likely need, given the potential of your engine).

For track use currently, your setup should be fine, as there are lots of racers using the stock brakes without issues. Ducting is one possible solution, a different pad choice may also be in order, something with more heat tolerance. Even more than either of those though, look at your braking technique. Are you on the brakes a lot? Do you stay on them for a significant period of time, or could you get on them harder over a shorter time/distance? I know for myself, when I was first tracking I got a lot more fade on the same setup as I currently use, and it was all because I let too much heat build up from braking too early and too long. After I adjusted that, fade became nearly nonexistant.

 

I'll add to this by saying the increased pedal travel is most likely related to the rear shoes. You will need to pull the drums off and adjust them. With the drums back on, they should have some resistance to spinning. This will also make your parking brake tighter.

 

So there should always be some rotational resistance with drums? That seems weird...

 

I have a pair of GSR front calipers for sale if you are interested...

 

IMO you have WAY to much power and WAY to much grip for those brakes. I was running the stock brakes up front with an LS motor and street tires, and was always deystroying the pads and rotors.

Now i don't think this caused your cracking issue but, you should defently upgrade your brakes

 

Thanks for the input eveyone, i have no idea if it's my braking technique or not that make the brakes all squishy after a couple lapping events but i guess i will have to try to be less on them, but i was the fastest i have even been on that track when i was on it yesterday, and there is only one large braking zone where i come down from 4th to 2nd..eveywhere else on that track is just a stab and a blip if anything.

 

Replace your brake fluid with something like Motul RBF600. Sounds like you had air/humidity in your old fluid. Bleed entire system properly. Pads will have nothing to do with pedal going to floor. They might overheat and fade, but that would not affect pedal travel (unless some old crappy fluid is boiling), as only fluid can do that. Get high temp rated track pads to avoid fade. As for cracked caliper, sounds like there might have been accident damage at one time.

 

rear drums out of adjustment will make the pedal long

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by descartesfool &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Replace your brake fluid with something like Motul RBF600.</TD></TR></TABLE>

He has RBF600. Unless RRBF600 isn't a typo and has an inferior temperature range

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by sscguy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">He has RBF600. Unless RRBF600 isn't a typo and has an inferior temperature range </TD></TR></TABLE>

I am the typo king

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