like the post said. how do you like it or dont like it?

 

i guess ill stick with the stock braking system since everyone decided to ignore my post

 

Just me , myself and I.

 

Which kit are you looking at? When I was looking at brake upgrades, I noticed how absurdly expensive the Fastbrakes kits' were compared to the Wilwood brand kit. I recommend the Wilwood brand kit from Summit Racing for $680. It includes lines, pads, 4 pot calipers, 2-piece 12.2" rotors with aluminum hats and all the hardware needed to install them.

 

search around about willwod i have heard some bad things about them never had any personal experince but search, people are not happy

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by slammed_93_hatch &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">search around about willwod i have heard some bad things about them never had any personal experince but search, people are not happy</TD></TR></TABLE>

Please explain...

Wilwood products are huge in the domestic motor sports world, and they are the standard for most racing leagues. I have yet to run into any problems with them and everyone I know with the kit raves about the brakes. There are far more pad choices than with stock brakes, too.

If your gonna post bullshit like that, then either speak from experience or site some references

 

Well, from my personal experience, I never got around to actually using my kit (yet). I ran into a handful of problems when I tried installing the first kit, then wound up using a different kit, but ran into problems with the 2nd kit as well (but not as bad as the first kit). It had little to do with the workmanship of the products, it was just some information wasn't fully expressed when buying the kit. I kinda know Brian Hasty and we conversed back & forth and he totally helped me when I ran into a problem, during the time of my install of both kits. Don't get me wrong, there was no bitterness or anything of that nature that came out of 'guinea pigging' these kits, and I don't mind helping Brian out at all as we're old school (98) Hybrid forum members. I pretty much documented both installs (mentally) too.

[get ready to read....]

First off, I'm running 94-01 GSR brakes on my EG civic and I was running 15x7 w/ +45 offset Regamaster EVO wheels (back then, im on different wheels now). I wanted to try a Type-R (11" or bigger) sized brake for better braking power at the road course, yet keep it all fitted under a 15" wheel. I could have just bought the Fastbrake mounting kit that lets me adapt an actual Type-R caliper & redrilled (to 4x100) Prelude rotor to my GSR front brakes, but I didn't want the added weight of an OEM Type-R caliper. So, first, I tried out the 11.75" FB Wilwood brake kit, which uses a Wilwood Superlite (cast) caliper (almost resembles a Spoon caliper in some ways), and has a 2-piece rotor that mounts to a "hat". This hat becomes a problem later on. Note that the instructions say NOT ALL 15" WHEEL WILL WORK WITH OUR KITS. I took note of that and crossed my fingers that my EVO's would clear the Superlite caliper once all was installed.

When I began to installed this kit, I realized longer wheel studs were absolutley needed because the geometry of how the Superlite caliper sits on a GSR knuckle, and is nowhere near the stock GSR caliper's geometry. Aquiring longer wheel studs wasn't mentioned in the instructions from what I recall. The Superlite caliper is pretty big & geometry changes need to be made in order to satisfy the Superlite calipers fitment to an Integra knuckle. The mounting hardware & 2-piece rotors reflect this geometry change so all can fit on the integra knuckle and this becomes problamatic for certain 15" wheels. I can get deep into my story deeper, but to make a long story short with this kit:

1) longer wheel studs are totally required.

2) Some 15" & 16" wheels will need the use of a 5mm+ wheel spacer, or the face of the Superlite caliper may rub on the inner spokes of the wheel being used.

3) TEST FIT everything & spin wheel on one side of the car before fully installing the kit.

4) You can't go too low (tucking tires in fender) or else you'll rub the inner side of the rotor on the 17" balljoint castlenut, as well as mess up your fenders when you turn your wheel too far (it happened on my car).

5) your best off using a 16" or bigger sized wheel with this kit.

With those problems at hand, I thought about it and decided this kit is too big for my needs. Brian was generous enough to let me send the kit back and trade it in for the 11" civic/crx Dynalite Wilwood kit. Now, this kit is designed to upgrade the stock civic brakes to an 11" sized brake using a billet Wilwood Dynalite caliper. Its a nice caliper btw, and is a bit smaller than the Superlite caliper. This means I have to put my stock 92 civic CX front knuckle/hub assembly back on. No biggy. Going with the knowledge I gained from the Superlite kit, I had the ARP wheel studs installed on my civic knuckle. smooth install. I test fitted the caliper on the civic knuckle. test fitted my 15" wheel on there along with the 3 or 5mm wheel spacer that is supplied with the kit. Spun the wheel, and suddenly had a surge of happiness because nothing rubbed at all and spun freely.

I was happy as a little girl.

So, I fully installed the kit on the passenger side of my car. Then came the driver side. This is where my sunshine evening turned into pure moot. I ran into a serious problem with the driver side install and it was totally my fault. Ya see, each aluminum caliper has a threaded hole which you then screw an aluminum brakeline adapter into it. This adapter is the bridge between your brake line & the caliper, hence 'brakeline adaptor'. lol. Well, I used this hi-temp thread lock on the b-line adaptor, then began to screw it into the hole on the side of the caliper. it instantly locked up as I barely threaded it on. I swear it bonded it for life. I couldn't get that **** off if my life depended on it, plus i broke the damn adapter in my attempt of removing it! Some kind of chemical reaction happened with the thread lock and 2 pieces of aluminum mating up! So, this is when I mucked up the whole install of this Dynalite kit, and put my GSR front brakes back on, postponed this install till a later date.

I emailed Brian and told him my Dynalite install story and how I need a new half-side Dynalite caliper and new b-line adaptor. Again, he generously helped me out and sent me a replacement caliper half and new b-line adaptor.

I got lazy and/or my life got too busy.

That was almost 8 months ago and I haven't tried reinstalling the kit yet. I plan to install it soon, but seriously, I F'ing hate working on suspension & brakes. But, I'm betting the kit will work out just fine. I have new wheels now too (mugen MF10L's), and I'm betting they'll clear the caliper better than my EVO's as these MF10L's have a 42 offset (stick out more). I'm hoping I won't have to use a wheel spacer at all. Won't know till i try reinstalling them.

Things I've taken note on this Dynalite kit:

1) longer wheel studs are needed for sure.

2) Being as low as my car is (slight wheel tuck in front), will the innerside of the rotor rub on the balljoints' 17mm castlenut just like the Superlite kit did? It doesn't look like it will rub, from what I recollect.

3) This kit looks like it's way more 15" wheel friendly than the Superlite kit. Still don't know for sure yet.


...anyways, these are my FB stories and notes. enjoy your life on the internet. hth.

I personally haven't heard any 'horror' stories or horror rumors about FB's Wilwood kits at all.




Modified by Katman at 6:37 PM 12/18/2003

 

i use the fastbrakes 11" kit on my race kar... and it ROCKS! i love it! just gotta work on some air ducting to them... last time at VIR i got them so hot that they are no longer black... more of a purplish/copper color

 

Goddamn! Sorry to hear about your troubles, Katman. I'm glad I went with Wilwood's own kit. I had absolutely no problems or modifications to install it. Good luck with installing your new kit!

BTW, you should use teflon tape on the brake line adapter threads.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Hunter &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i use the fastbrakes 11" kit on my race kar... and it ROCKS! i love it! just gotta work on some air ducting to them... last time at VIR i got them so hot that they are no longer black... more of a purplish/copper color </TD></TR></TABLE>

How did you over heat them? At The Streets of Willow, I barely had rotor temps over 400* after 15 minute track sessions. And I drive HARD. Are your rotors one piece iron? Mine are two piece with aluminum hats and steel rotors, so I imagine thats where alot of the heat goes.

 

aluminum... 2 hours of track time EACH day that weekend... that 2 hours was split into 30 minute sessions almost back to back. brakes never really got a chance to cool down. venting makes a WORLD of difference.

 

How do you guys feel about these big brake kits that only address the front brakes? I love how Stoptech preaches about how other crappy big brake kits do a bad job at stopping the car because they only address the front brakes which throws off the brake bias and yet their own Integra brake kit only addresses... the front brakes. hahah

 

My Race Kar: Front Brakes = 4 Piston Wilwoods
Rear Brakes = Stock 15 year old Drums


stops like a champ!

 

Im sure it stops better than stock but even Stoptech's articles talk about how a balanced brake system is optimal for the shortest stopping distance. Im sure a proportionate upgrade to your rear would stop your car even faster.

http://www.stoptech.com/technical/

I just wanted to point out a hypocracy that has been bothering me for awhile.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Muckman &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">How do you guys feel about these big brake kits that only address the front brakes? I love how Stoptech preaches about how other crappy big brake kits do a bad job at stopping the car because they only address the front brakes which throws off the brake bias and yet their own Integra brake kit only addresses... the front brakes. hahah</TD></TR></TABLE>


actually it doesn't really bother me at all. I mean look at Spoon brakes, they only offer front calipers and the user just sticks with their stock rear brakes. As long as the upgraded stopping power is doing its job...its A OK wiff me.

 

silly little stoptech people.

 

Baer makes a real nice rear kit with beefy two piston sliding calipers and pretty larger rotors for under $800. I don't know if it will facilitate a parking brake, though.

I'm very content with my current set up, but I have considered going with much better pads in the rear (using AEMs) and perhaps a larger rotor.

 

Wilwood is now working on a rear kit for Honda/Acura that will use a bigger caliper and have the parking brake built in to the kit. I was told it would not be ready until summer time.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by JDMDA9 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Please explain...

Wilwood products are huge in the domestic motor sports world, and they are the standard for most racing leagues. I have yet to run into any problems with them and everyone I know with the kit raves about the brakes. There are far more pad choices than with stock brakes, too.

If your gonna post bullshit like that, then either speak from experience or site some references </TD></TR></TABLE>

i wasn't posting bullshit i just told him to search around in a brake thread about 96ITR setup some one mentioned wildwood and a couple people posted there stories. i was simply suggesting that he lookaround.

 

even if the baer kit doesn't accept the parking brake you could always install lineloc
and just push the brakes in and pull up in the **** and viola e-brake

 

i would really like to run that but they do not make the wilwood kit for my car not unless i get it through fast brake so i will just get his 10.2 with the type R calp that will work for what little track racing i am going to do

 

wont work sir type R came with an 11.1 inch rotor

 

I just spoke to Brian at fast brakes about an upgrade for my Type R Brakes.

HE IS EXTREMELY KNOWLEDGEABLE AND HELPFULL.

I am now very interested in buying from him as he has gain my confidence with our conversation and he provided me with 4 differrent options all the while telling me that the ITR brakes are plenty for my car. Incidently, I agree that I have more than enough brake power, but am actually more interested in getting rid of the wheel spacers I had to use to mount rsx wheels without hitting the caliper brackets...

Oh well... to Fastbrakes!