Wilwood only offers black calipers.
Other calipers are special ordered and it is hard to find places that sell them.
wilwood kit is hands down better then the z32 kit
why does fastbrakes send hawk pads? why not wilwood pads with wilwood brakelines?

 

yeah....I thought that until I got a red one but now we know the real story

wilwood vs. z32 - you have firsthand experience of this comparison?

pads: I prefer hawk pads, frankly.

lines: the lines that came with them are very nice....ss with anti-chafe tubing and very nice fittings.

 

yes i have firsthand experince with both the z32 and the wilwood kit.
I used to have the z32 kit with 13 inch cobra rotors. To me that kit was only headaches. I had soo many problems with it. Then i moved to a wilwood kit and it is a huge difference.
No pad overhang, no caliper flex, no bracket flex, no need to rebuild calipers
my opinion on hawk pads is that the quality is not the best it can be. i am comparing them to the wilwood bp-10 pads that i am using right now.
I am using wilwood lines that are ss also and are teflon coated as well.....
This is my opinion and you can flame me for it but z32 kit is crap.....

 

I don't think it is "crap" but it certainly has its share of issues with fit/overhang/etc.

Remember, when Matt and Jeff came out with those kits there were really no other options under $1500 or so for a multi-piston BBK. They are what they are - a kit that can be put together for around $400-500 and provide better braking than stock or 6th gen setup.

That said, now that the fastbrakes setup is available for a similar/slighly higher price I (pending my own experiences) think it is probably a better/easier setup. But we'll see once I get them installed. Thanks for sharing your experiences.

 

by the way, might I ask why your join date is this month, yet you've clearly been on here a while to have used Jeff's kit/etc...?

 

Shift, do you know how much more the special colors are?

 

banned - new screename

 

After some research, it doesn't look that way

 

i'll go ahead and ask here.

i know these wont fit with my stock 17s. is that due to it hitting the outside of the wheel? or the spokes? meaning, will it work with the increased offset of my Z wheels? or do i need 18s?

 

Hey noob, no thread hi-jacking. START YOUR OWN THREAD!

 

not a hi-jack...im asking a question regarding the topic of the thread.
i email him at work about it but he clearly had the day off

 

Ture it is what it is but it could have been made better.
Take example the brackets. They could have been made the proper thickness so you wonuldnt have to use shims to center the rotor in the center of the caliper. Plus the brackets are flimsy. They heat up and flex.
Plus the 300zx caliper is not designed for such a huge rotor like the cobra or even the 6th gen maxima. The z32 kit should have been used only with the stock diameter rotor.

Oh and yes I am a newbie. I used to own a maxima but sold it. But now i am back since i need a family sedan with some decent power ( 5.5 gen max ) The z32 kit has been out for a while....

I run 17x8.5 wheels with a 42 mm offset and they clear. The desing of the spokes has to do alot with clearing the calipers.

 

That's funny. the brackets for both my kit and Jeff's are 3/8" steel. They are thicker (and stronger) than the OEM mounting tabs on the knuckle. If you were seeing flex, it was from somewhere else. unless the brackets heat to several hundred degrees- which they don't. I've pulled them off the car 5 minutes after a session on the road course with no gloves- then the steel is just as strong at 350*F than at 75*F.

The big issue with the Z caliper is pad selection- same as with the Fastbrakes setup. I've run the Z calipers on my car at the track and had no problems with them. even with the Z brakes up front, I could still outbrake cars that cost orders of magnitude more than my car. (i.e. corvettes, porsche, BMW ///M, etc.)

I run wilwoods on both my Maxima and 240 now because of the cost and availability of pads. I run Ferodo DS2500 on both cars for the street and track. For REALLY hot days, I'll switch to a track-only pad like the Wilwood D,E,H compounds.

The BP-10 compound is very similar to the E, but seems to be a bit more street friendly. I would put the Ferodo DS2500 or Hawk HP+ right up next to it in terms of quality and performance.

There's no need to run strictly Wilwood pads on your wilwood calipers. especially for street use, I've found Hawk and Ferodo to be a much better pad at much better prices than the Wilwood stuff.

You can get the same pads for the Z caliper, but they're $250 per set for the good stuff instead of $100/set for the Ferodo or Hawks. for my little Wilwood Dynalite calipers I run on the 240, they're $50 a set and last me a full season of track duty.. The Wilwood pads I've run on my Dynalites last a couple months or 2 track events at most. for $70-120 a set, I'll pass next time thanks.

 

I am serious about the flex though. The bracket would flex and the caliper is bolted to the bracket. i would get a grinding noise when the bracket flexed because the caliper would move and touch the rotor.

Pad selection is difficult. Yes i know that. Most people use hawk pads because hawk makes alot of pads. I noticed that the quality is not consistent on the hawk. And yes I have replaced pads more then once.
But yes you dont have to use wilwood pads with wilwood calipers. there are other choices. But bp-10 is a good street friendly pad.

I guess that is why it is called trial and error.....

 

that wasn't from the bracket flexing. That was because the calipers are a tight setup with the thick 6th gen rotors, and there's not much clearance.

Also remember: The bracket is attached to the spindle, and the rotor is attached tot he hub. What is between the hub and the spindle? A wheel bearing. And bearings have some amount of play to them, especially if they are worn, or the main hub nut is not torqued to spec, etc.


If ANYTHING was flexing, it was the caliper itself - which is made of aluminum. But Matt's/Jeff's brackets definitely have no flex to them. Simple engineering can tell you that.

 

i like red u see it more i have red on mine and i like it

 

well if the point is to have brakes so people can see them.......

 

Josh,

Did you receive the new calipers? Pics?

 

u notice them more when there in red

 

I think he was trying to say... the point of brakes is to stop, not for people to see them so much

 

DING
DING

 

I guess it was just a little too complicating for him to figure that out himself...

 

Have you installed (or even received) the new calipers yet, irish?

Like I said before, I had this idea rolling around in my head for a while now, so I'm anxious to see someone actually do it.

 

I'm 2nd on that....

 

Still waiting. Got an email from fastbrakes and they're still waiting to get them from Wilwood

 

road trip to wilwood...

I'm in, we just need a short yellow bus

 

calipers arrived today. Most likely I'll install on Thursday if I have time. More once it's done.

 

I think it'll look cool :]

 

what kind of rotors are you going to use, iirc you had some nice 2 piece ones.

 

Pics!

 

Irish, on a side note, how much miles are on your car now, and how long are you planning on keeping it?

 

They will fit with both my 2pc Blehmco/Coleman rotors (12.6") and my OEM Nissan 6th gen rotors (also 12.6"). Since winter is coming soon I'm just going to put the OEMs on for the time being. In the spring I'll switch the 2pc back on.

at about 125k miles....I have no plans to replace it anytime soon assuming it continues to run well. Next new car will be to replace my wife's 2004 Mazda3 in the next months, probably with an SUV once we have our baby in February. Plus the maxima is paid off and I like not having car payments, and I've put so much work/time into it.... I'll probably drive it to 200k and then start thinking about something newer.

btw, your sig is lame....


what, of the calipers sitting in a box?

 

Been meaning to change it after the whole Halo3 bandwagon fiasco..
on keeping it. the VQ30 is a great engine. I have alot of work in mine I'd hate to start over or part with. If I could change anything, I'd rather a black leather interior over my beige leather.

 

I wasnt using a 6th gen rotor.
Yes a wheel bearing will have play in it but it will be very minimal.
maybe it was the caliper... but there was flex and the rotor was grinding on the inside of the caliper

Also please take pictures of the brackets from the fastbrakes kit.
thanks

 

mmm... Calipers.

Sure man, we wanna see! Also, congrats! Great news on the baby.

 

These calipers have no dust seals on them..... not really a good street caliper if you ask me.

How much is this kit costing with 2 piece rotors and all ?

Why not go for the Brembo GT kit ?

And WTF you need big brakes for Josh ? You do parking lot racing :P

 

Doing alot of research and I've yet to find a single person on any type of car who has had a problem running them on the street. The only failure I've seen is someone on the track who blew out a piston inner seal after 45 minutes of hot-lapping. Alot of people I've seen have 100,000 miles of street driving on them and have never had to even rebuild them.

The wilwoods have stainless pistons so corrosion isn't an issue. And looking at the calipers, the tolerances are so tight there is virtually no way for dirt/rocks/etc to get between the piston and the seal.

I'm pretty religious about checking things monthly and will be equally religious about making sure the calipers are clean. "Off the record" fastbrakes said that it's not a problem. "On the record" of course they say that they are for "off-road use only" for legal reasons.

I'll still ave my z32 setup and my stock brakes in the garage if there's any issue though..

plus the wilwoods are direct bolt-up to my GT6 spindles for later use.

I already have the Blehmco 2-pc rotors which fit the setup. I'll be using OEM 6th gen rotors in the winter though. The calipers/brackets/lines/HawkHPS pads/hardware was $590 to my door.

it costs twice as much....money I'd rather put toward the GT6.

brakes get more of a workout on the DC beltway than they would at mid-Ohio....I guarantee you that

 

Mike, from Wilwood's site:

they've been selling thousands of calipers forever, so I tend to believe this. If it wasn't true, they'd be in serious trouble with lawsuits I would think...

also of note: the stock 2-piston calipers on my GT6 have no dust seals on them....and they are original with 100,000 miles+ on them, and 30 years old and have never been an issue....

 

from some other car sites:

and there are alot more posts like this. have yet to find someone who used them on the street and had a failure. The general consensus is the only thing to worry about it so make sure to thoroughly clean the outer piston area before retracting them during pad changes, so the gunk won't get "sucked in." Otherwise dirt/grime can't "force" itself in there since there's nothing really pushing it, and the inner seals are pretty beefy.

 

for whoever wanted pics....





of note, the brackets say "Alitima SE-R" on them for some reason, but they are for the 6th gen maxima as well.