I used the iron 300ZX Calipers. I'm a fan of overtightening stuff, so the Aluminum Calipers were out of the question with me. I love the iron calipers myself, and they work just as good. I am running the Enkei DM5 rims (18"). I will post some pics a little bit later on today.

-David-

 

cant wait to see the pictures. whats the width and offset on the DM5?

 

blehmco is awesome (gf still thinks its a medicine company)

 

Larry, you get 'em installed yet?


Here's some pics of David's when he was doing the test fit at my place:
http://www.mattblehm.com/HSS_images/...e_kit/4th_gen/

the rest of them are other toys I was prototyping on his car. stay tuned for those.

 

Man I cant wait...but after seeing those pics...I am not so sure anymore that they will fit behind my rims.

 

You know what man. I dont even remember anymore. I'd have to look em up. I think they're 18X7.5" but I'm not 100% sure. I've got 235's on it and will be going to 245's next safely. I think the offset is either 38 or 40mm. I will look it up and let you know.

 

Hey Matt. I'm ready for Matching Calipers in the rear.

 

David, I'm working on it. I spent about an hour on the phone with Mike today about it.
I'm going to try and get started on something next week. gotta get caught up on my other stuff in the meantime.

 

I'm just giving you a hard time man. I know you're busy. Wish I could play in the garage all day as a job. Wait. No I don't. Then I'd be making stuff for other people other than me. That's no fun.

 

nope, not yet. I'll be sure to send you pics when I do get them in, help expand the business and all. I am getting rims to clear the brakes this weekend.

 

Just curious. Which rims are you running? And are you referring to the stock or the 300ZX calipers?

 

The 300Z calipers behind my aftermarket rims. And I am running 17" Konig Verdicts as my winter rims. I was planning to go to new rims in late spring early summer.

Matt already told me it was going to be close (I really wont know until a simple dry fit is performed its going to be like 1/8 to 1/4 inch of space if I am lucky[crosses fingers]), so I was informed. I just gambled at this point as I HATE my vibration on any kind of slow down.

 

Hey Larrio. Any new news on your kit? I was just wondering if you got em on yet, and if you like em.



Free Bump. Hey Matt, I must have missed you today. Oh well. I'll hit you up when we get back from our road trip to Bama.

-David-

 

i'm itching to put these on so bad! I just finished painting the calipers this weekend and received my rebuild kit from daveb. I also bought 8 new pistons at $25 each for the future since they are on national back order.

Only problem right now is I dunno if the rims I have will clear the brakes. They are 18x7.5 at 40mm offset, the original owner was running 12.8" vr4 rotors with the z calipers on this 5th gen with 10mm spacer.

 

Since the VR4 rotors are made so that they put the caliper about 7mm closer to the spokes of the wheels than the '04 Maxima rotors, you might get lucky and clear.

Its according to how the spokes of the wheels are made. d_warner has 18x7.5 Enkei DM5's with +40 offsets, and his clear with no spacers.

Mike

 

yea, i know what your saying how spoke design is a key factor. Right now i'm just worried that i'll be half way through the job bleeding the system and installing rotors to find that the rims won't clear.

 

Greetn's - Someone forwarded this topic to me cause I am gonna need to upgrade the brakes...
Whats the deal with the website - why not working?
Im interested but can't really satisfy the curiosity

 

Matt switched to a different hosting company for his web site on Thursday. Looks like they dropped the ball. He will be back in town tomorrow night, so check back after that. By the way, the front brake kit is AWESOME. My car is the white 5th Gen that we used to develop the kit on.

Mike

 

Just an idea so you don't leave yourself in a bind. Do a "dry run" test fit. We did it probably 25 times on my car while developing all the components for the kt. Take the stock caliper off(don't disconnect the brake hose) and put it on the side. Use a hanger to hang it on the spring like you are changing front pads. Remove the front stock rotor. Bolt on the new spacer, put on the rotor and secure with two or three lug nuts. Mount the 300ZX caliper on the bracket, then see if your wheels clear. You haven't unhooked the stock brakes at this point, so you just reverse the process after.

 

Thanks Mike- meanwhile, since I am just dying to know- can I ask you a couple questions?? (no worries if I gotta wait to talk to Matt. :-)

1) Can I reduce the actual weight of the rotors/calipers while making them larger (e.g. aluminum)? VERRY Exciting!!

2) I have 15" wheels right now, thats probably not going to work with any setup... Will I have to go 17 at least or is 16" a possibility (Im thinkin SSR type C)

I want the best stopping power for the cheapest, gonna have to swallow the bitter pill of buying light 16 or 17" wheels, eh? (sigh).

Um.. How much will it cost about?
Thank you..

 

1. What do u mean "while making them bigger"? Matt's kit is 12.6" using 2004 maxima rotors only. The calipers can be lighter if you use aluminum instead of iron

2. The possibility of 16's clearing the brakes IMO is almost impossible, but you can try test fitting 300zx tt rims on the front to see if those clear if you have a buddy with a z car

3. you won't have to upgrade to 17's if you plan to run matt's kit using the 12.6" 2004 maxima rotor with stock calipers.

 

Some of these I'll answer
(1)The combination of the '04 Max rotors and the aluminum 300ZX calipers is a few pounds heavier than stock(I think it was 3#). Remember your stock 4th Gen rotors are 11 x 24mm thick(5th Gens are 26mm thick). These are 12.6 x 28mm thick. Thats a LOT more metal. The aluminum ZX calipers are about 7 pounds lighter than the 300ZX iron ones. Here's rotor comparison for my car.



(2)With ZX calipers - 15's, no way. 16's, I don't see how. We tried a 92 300ZX TT wheel on my car and it did not clear. It did at the spokes, but hit because the wheel was not big enough in diam. These do clear my 17x8 Konig Tantrums, but they have the perfect spoke design, spokes go out to the lip, for big brakes.

I'll let Matt tell you about cost tomorrow when he gets back in town. He's selling the package, not me, so I'll let him deal with the money issues - I only help think up this stuff, plus my car is the test mule for all of it. Pricing will depend on how much of the brake system you want to buy from him. He did list an introductory pricing schedule earlier in this thread, but that time has expired.

 

Thanks Larrio and kwd2kSE... info much appreciated.

 

the pics couldn't open?

 

Matt switched to a different hosting company for his web site on Thursday. Looks like they dropped the ball. He will be back in town tomorrow night, so check back after that. By the way, the front brake kit is AWESOME. My car is the white 5th Gen that we used to develop the kit on.

Mike

 

One of the biggest selling points to buying this (besides the improved braking) would be good instructions on how a relative newbie like myself could do all the work w/o hitting a wall... Any advance info on that part of it?- since the website is still down?

I must be getting annoying because I just dont want to wait to start planning how I can get better stopping power SOON! The stock brakes are just killing my times. Tnx

 

I am waiting for this kit and some 2k4 crossdrilled rotors. I do have to turn my stillen rotors cause they're warpped.

 

will the kit clear the 16' 97-99 5 spoke factory wheel? and what is the total cost of this kit minus cost for wheels if needed? thanks

 

impossible, this kit will not clear any stock maxima wheel clearly due to stock design and the offset because the stock rim width is not that wide. A 300zx twin turbo rim won't even clear this kit. I tried last weekend with 10mm spacers on a stock 17" rim and it won't clear.

remember guys, 12.6" rotors... these things are massive along with those beefy 300zx calipers.

spaniard: the kit is pretty straight through. If you know how to do your stock brakes, you can do this kit. The brackets go where the old caliper location used to go, the calipers go on the bracket, etc. Look at write ups/how-to's on how to install/change brake pads or rotors on the org or a haynes manual. THen read on how to bleed the brakes. Although i'd recommend a buddy more familiar with cars to help out cause brakes is not something you wanna work on for the first time.

 

As Larrio said, the kit is VERY straightforward to install. Matt does have detailed instruction with pictures finished for everyone that gets the kit. Honestly the hardest part is jacking up the car and taking the wheels off, and then bleeding the brakes. Not difficult at all. Make sure you have the correct flare nut wrench to replace the brake lines. If you want to make the bleeding a piece of cake, buy the Russell Speed Bleeders like I did, and bleed the brakes a second time after putting some bedding/test miles on them.

 

PM Matt. He's got something in the works.

 

is matt's site still gonna be at the same address?

Once brembo comes out with slotted 2k4 rotors, I'm finally gonna get these suckers on!

 

from the looks of it, the only factory wheels that'll clear the "5th gen caliper relocation kit - just the bracket to move the oem caliper to compensate for the larger rotor" are the 2000 and up 17" and larger wheels.

At least that's what I can tell by looking at the pictures.

 

So the only real challenge might be in choosing the right 17" wheels so that it will fit?

I want the 300ZX aliminum calipers for sure...

Will pretty much any 17x8 wheel work or do I really only have to worry about 17x7.5?

 

it would be difficult. With the stock spoke design and also the offset on a 7" wide wheel, you'll probably still need spacers

if you look closely, the spokes on the stock wheel barely clear the stock calipers.

 

Sorry I haven't gotten back to you guys yet... my webserver has been down since the middle of last week..

my host was simply a reseller, and when the first servers crached, he switched to a different DNS and hosting company for me to get it up and running.. THAT site went down after just a few hours. That was on Thursday or Friday, and the site has not come back up since then. I have been out of town all weekend, and I emailed him again last night when I got home at 1am.. he said he's moved the site back to the original server, but it's still not running.

I have since given up on this guy and have purchased new hosting from another company this afternoon- one which has a solid reputation and my friends have been using for a couple of years with success. Hopefully I have the same.
they have told me the site should be functional within 24 hours, and I will do my best to get the pictures in their original locations so that the links should work again.
At minimum, they will at least be back on the server and I can point you to them again.

I apologize for all the delays, but I'm doing my best to get the site back up for you!

 

correct. Spoke design is CRITICAL for any brake kit. Whether you go with this kit, Brembo, AP, Precision, etc... you're going to run into the same issues with caliper clearance here.
these calipers are extremely wide, and there's nothing you can do to get around it.
the OE wheels of any model Maxima will NOT fit. 300ZX wheels won't fit either- at least not without a 1/2" spacer.

All of the aftermarket 17" wheels I have tried so far will fit, but they all have outwardly-curved spokes that are designed with lots of caliper clearance. I'm sure there are many wheels that won't fit, but there are many that will.

I can't say specifically that "any" 17x8 wheel or "some" 17x7.5 wheels will fit- it just depends on the wheel, offset, and spoke design. but NONE of the OE Maxima wheels will fit.

When my website comes back up, I'll show pictures of the ones that have successfully fit.

 

MyOwnNismo,
I have found a course for slotted and CD rotors. They're an additional $20 if you'd like them. I haven't ordered a set yet, but I've called and spoken to the reps and they say they're made by one of the biggest US brake suppliers in the country, BPI. (They make Wagner and Raybestos rotors for them, if I recall correctly). Obviously not a small company.

Spaniard... Install ease... it's extremely straightforward.
If you can remove your factory caliper and rotor (remove wheel... two bolts... one brake hose... one hammer), then you can install this kit.
I did it in a parking lot with only hand tools in about half an hour.

I have step-by-step pics of the install process on my website whenever I get it back up and running.

 

Here are some pics of my setup. 13" cobra rotors/300z alumin calipers. Note the spoke design.



This ISN'T Matt's kit. But for fitment/clearance purposes, the pics work to give members an idea of what is needed. I don't have any spacers on these wheels. This is a 3-gen

 

Thanks for the help, Jeffy.