The recent thread about glowing brakes reminded me of this.

I'm sure a lot of folks have a nice souvenier paperweight that used to be a performance part that met an untimely death but in a way that made it worth saving from the trash. You know, a piston with broken valve heads permanantly imbedded, etc. I saw a connecting rod from a nitro burning Harley drag bike that was perfect except that it was about 3 inches shorter and had kinked the rod with two perfect 90 degree bends and a 180 bend from pre-ignition. Kind of a detour to the side

Here is my paperweight, it is a caliper piston from our old '87 ITA CRX that had a brake fire at Mid-Ohio because the friction material had unbonded and shucked off. In less than a lap, the backing plate pushed into the rotor and got so hot that it melted and the caliper piston welded or extruded itself through the limp backing plate. While running in third position, my brakes went away so I limped around into the pits. The pit workers ran over with a hose and started spraying my car but I didn't know why. The heat melted the seal out of the caliper so the brake fluid had a major flash fire on the hot metal. To hell with glowing rotors, big flames on you brakes are what it's all about. That was my last race without brake ducting.

 

The *exact* same thing is sitting on Larry's desk (and no, smartasses, it was NOT a Carbotech pad...)

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by MaddMatt &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">(and no, smartasses, it was NOT a Carbotech pad...) </TD></TR></TABLE>

Mine was a Cool Carbon PowrPad from about 1995. Now I stay away from non-riveted, bonded-only pads

 

A guy at work (Cummins) has a couple big pistons that are absolutely melted all the way through. And these are out of one of our high-midrange engine, so they're like a foot across.

 

i have a row of broken rocker arms on my desk


a friend has a blob of metal that used to be a piston and conn rod out of his 510 prod. car

joel

 

What happens when a bolt shears of the crank magnet of a Yamaha R6 engine at 14k rpm. It was on an engine dyno, all I heard was a *plink*. Then I saw the hole in the side of the engine.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i have a row of broken rocker arms on my desk</TD></TR></TABLE>
Considering you drive an E30, this is not a shock

Matt&lt;--pushed Whitney's E30 onto a trailer when he busted a rocker arm in Hogpen...

 

ive kept a small bag of "D16a6 SPARE PARTS" bag after my engine exploded.... its full of pieces of my crank girdle, wall casting and #1 piston rod...

 

i have a nice piston at the house with a valve stuck in it. i'll snap some pics when i get home.

 

Whhoey! I went off the front straight at Buttonwillow (100+) in my NSX when the padding came off on of my Project Mu pads (FR).... Luckily I was able to hammer the backing plate off my piston- I have a pic somewhere....

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by CRX Lee &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
Now I stay away from non-riveted, bonded-only pads</TD></TR></TABLE>

Lee,

Rookie Question i'm sure: How can you tell if they are riveted?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ACRDC2 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
Rookie Question i'm sure: How can you tell if they are riveted?</TD></TR></TABLE>

This is going to sound dumb but...look for rivets through the pad backing plate. IF they are bonded (glued) only, they won't have rivets at all. My problem was the pads got to a temperature that the glue melted and they slipped away. Some rivet only and some bond and rivet. Carbotech folks can speak more knowledgably than I on the merits of each I am sure.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by MaddMatt &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
Considering you drive an E30, this is not a shock
</TD></TR></TABLE>

yup. broken rocker arms own me

joel

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Carbotech folks can speak more knowledgably than I on the merits of each I am sure.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

I'd love to, but that's way off topic in this thread and honestly I think it would bore the **** out of damn near everyone. You can call us anytime and we'll gladly talk with anyone about it.

Joel: Just short shift that thing. No, I'm not trying to keep up with you or anything, I'm just trying to save your engine. Seriously

 

I have a ziplock full of a timing belt that disintegrated on the d series with took out of the CRX...

 

Thanks for the thread CRX Lee. This is seriously making me want to think twice when I build up my next car. Whats more important than horsepower? Being able to contain that horsepower.

 

I have our ERS Springs as paperweights, pen/pencil holders and I use our Fork Springs to beat co-wrokers with