Re-post: I posted it originally in Tech Forum but no-one answered.
I have 11" Fastbrakes Front Kit w/Drum Brakes in the rear on my EG 4-dr. Because of that setup, my fronts are very easy to lock up, especially in the wet. In the other words, I have a heavy front biased brakes. Since I CAN'T afford the rear disk brake swap, it seems logical to install the adjustable brake proportioning valve & get the brake force distributed more to my liking. Here's some links:
http://www.jegs.com/cgi-bin/ncommerc...78&prmenbr=361
http://store.summitracing.com/defaul...rchType%3DBoth
Has anyone TRIED it? How difficult is it to adapt the valve to Honda's brake lines? How's the threads?
I'd greatly appreciate any knowledgable replies!!!
Thanx in advance,
Yuri K

 

Mind if I ask why you changed your front disks? I'd say your best option if money's tight would be to put the stock brakes back on a sell the fastbrakes kit... or at least hang on to it until you can afford to upgrade the rears as well, but unless your doing some hardcore road racing and your overheating I don't see any reason to upgrade your front disks.

The only other thing I would suggest would be to try to fine some shoes for the rear drums with a higher coefficient of friction. That would shift the bias toward the rear.

 

I to am interested in the responses, I have wanted to make this change but have been a little scared to do so. THe fronts by themselves work great how ever
Peace.
Schu


[Modified by MSchu, 7:49 PM 10/8/2002]

 

because my 9.3" front disks were horrible! Especially @ high speed. Also, the rotors lasted me around 15k miles because of the warpage. With 11" fronts the braking has much improved BUT on the wet surface the fronts lock up VERY easy. It's scary to brake sometimes in the rain.
When I autoX, only the fronts grab hard. I'd prefer more balanced brakes. Portfield's drum shoes are $80 & I'm not sure if they'll help as much as I want. What I do, I re-adjust the drum shoes & then the balance improves but only for a few days. After that the brakes are front biased again.
Oh, my 9.3" were overheating when I drove w/4 friends in a car down the mountain road (drove gently, not raced). That scared me!
How many people here agree what 9.3" fronts with drums in tha rear are NOT adequate for 4-dr sedan to move people?
Thanx,
Yuri K

 

What tires are you running? Why are the front locking up? You shouldn't have that much braking. Are the rears adjusted properly? What pads front and what shoes rear?

 

205/50R15 with Pirelli 7000 (around 5k miles on them). Front & rear pads/shoes are no-name Pep Boys stuff.
WHY the fronts are locking up is because 11" Fastbrakes kit uses LARGER CALIPER from Integra or Civic (4-disk brakes ones).
Thanx,
Yuri K

 

Read and re-read this. And then if you still have questions, i'll (or someone else on here) will try to give an answer...

http://www.stoptech.com/whitepapers/...tter120601.htm

 

Proportioning valves are only good for reducing rear braking as far as I know. I guess it *might* be possible to put them under the hood, and have them break into the front lines there, but without studying a diagram of the brake lines in the car, I can't say if it would work or not. Bias valves traditionally are for reducing rear braking because they reduce pressure on the lines to the rear. You can't increase the pressure to the rears, only reduce it. The other issue is that with the Honda braking system, you have lines that run front left to rear right and vice versa. I ended up putting two valves in my CRX to control it properly. Regardless, bias valves are not your answer. How much do you think a rear disk conversion costs? Mine cost me $400.

Matt

 

I think there probably aren't very many streetable brake pads that wouldn't over heat if you ride the brakes all the way down a mountain road. Try selecting a lower gear and letting your engines compression slow you down. That way if you have to stop for some kind of emergency you'll still have brakes. Also if you're careful not to everheat your brakes you're problems with warping (or other more common long-term hear assiciated problems) will be far less.

 

Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you're trying to borrow from Peter to pay Paul here. What did you expect? Fix the real problem (the car) and get better rear brakes if you want big fronts. Don't use a band-aid that'll cause more problems than it's worth. If you can afford a front kit, you can afford a rear kit. Otherwise, deal with what you get when you only do half the car.

$.02

 

OK, I've read the Stoptech article. Why did I need the bigger front brakes? Because after installation of B-series powerplant I had to swap Eiback Pro-kit for Civic to GC (380F, 250R) because of the added weight. The front brakes weren't adequate for a D-powerplant, even worse with B-series under the hood. 15k miles front brake pads changes also show how weak front brakes are.
Stoptech also sais that rear brakes only do 15-20% of braking. Well, WHY THEN I CAN'T LOCK UP THE REARS??? They also point that with stronger front brakes the car will have more dive. Not the case w/380lbs/in front springs & stiff-*** Bilstein shocks.
All I simply try to do is to decrease the flow of the brake fluid to the front calipers in order to obtain more balance between front & rear. When someone installs big front & rear brakes on the racecar, they do adjust the braking bias from front to rear in order to get the car to brake to their liking. That's exactly what I'm trying to do.
Any other thoughts?
Thanx,
Yuri K

 

Yuri,
I feel your pain. I run the fastbrakes 11.75 kit in the front and the 11" rear in the back of my eg civic. I made the decision to go the overkill route because I got tired of dealing with brake fade on track with the 10.3" set-up. I have also considered the brake-bias issue as I am currently using different aggressiveness pads in the rear to "match" the front / rear bias. This can be a tough path as I have found the ideal bias lies somewhere between two pad compounds. ie. I can have a little too much front bias or a little too much rear bias, but it is tough to get it just right. I may try running a less agressive front pad and see how that works.

Best combination to date: Panther plus in front with either the same in the rear (too much rear bias) or Axxis Ultimates in the rear) too much front bias.

I am considering the bias adjustment but am weary of making things more complicated....

 

Speedracers point is well taken... Reducing the front braking bias would not be beneficial unless see how 80- 90% should be on the front and normally is with weight shifting. I am running 11+" wilwood four piston set and I do not have much problem with un balanced feel, I just was interested in the porportioning in a mechanical standpoint. If you Trail brake in to very fast corners then it is very useful, but in the point and shoot world of auto X I see less impact. Thats why I stay away from auto X, there is more flow on some mountain roads than those courses. Anyways everyones got there own ideas
Peace
Schu

 

When was the last time you adjusted your drums? Adjust them so the handbrake grabs hard at one click, adjust them once a month, and use better shoes. You should be much happier. You will also be happier with a better front pad, because you will get better brake modulation. Like stated above, don't throw good money after bad, especially when it probably isn't necessary and wouldn't really fulfill your goals.

 

When I adjust the drums, they feel MUCH better for a week the MOST. As for the better shoes, what are your recommendations? I got a quote from Portfield for $80/set of shoes.
Thanx,
Yuri K

 

You could also go to less aggressive brake pads on the front, more aggressive on the rear if you had to. Just trust me, you don't want the rears locking up first! It isn't pretty! Ask me about my 4 spins during the VIR enduro thanks to that situation (and running rear toe out, and cold weather with R tires I couldn't keep warm).

Matt

 

Ok guys here goes :-

My car is ( it is off the road now for a swap ) setup similar to rally spec . With the help of an engineer friend and lookin at other ppls setups i tackled mine .

Honda manufactures have designed the stock proportional valve in such a way that one of the lines from the master cylinder feeds Front left and Right rear and the other line feeds the other wheels , this was done so that if one line fails there will still be front and rear braking . Well we decide to change this . ( you can do the same but you will have to check you lines REGULARLY ).

what we did was to make one line feed the front alone and the other rears . By routing the front lines on the opposing side of one of the inlet lines on the stock valve , then tappin pluggin the other holes so nothing flows in or out .
Next we routed the other line from the master cylinder to the aftermarket proportional valve and then out and tee ( this would depend on if you aftermarket valve has 2 outlets or 1 , mine had one in and one out ) the line and run to each of the rear wheels .

When the valve is open ( lowest pressure flow ) and you jam the brakes you rear wheels will lock VARY VERY HARD . you will have to play wit the valve to aquire you preferred setting .

 

eg6 madness lets see some pics

later
matt