More serious brake cooling - Part 3

Following on from part 2, I fitted some new longer ducting that I purchased. The old one was too short as I had originally planned to route it in from of the suspension. So off the front bumper came again and the new hose went in. Five hours later and both left and right sides are done...

Next, I drilled some holes in the dust shield so that the air is directed towards the center of the rotors into the vents. I do not want the air hitting the rotor face as that will create an uneven cooling effect compared to the outside rotor face. The holes may be too small, but I'll test it like that first.

More serious brake cooling - Part 2

Continuing on from part 1, I went about building brackets to hold the ducting near the rotors. JimJim helped me to fabricate some brackets using his engineering prowess.

The finished brackets...

Jim fitted the brackets and this was when we found that the idea to route the duct in front of the strut was a big fat fail.

When the front of the wheel was turned in, the duct would be crushed against the suspension. The cost of this lesson: Approximately $4 in bracketing material and Jim's time and effort.

So back to the drawing board for a solution to route the ducting to the rotors. Naturally, the next option to explore was to place the ducting behind the strut. After some searching on the web, I found some pictures of a 350Z that had brake duct work done and it was routed behind the strut. I got the idea from that project of how to build a bracket. So with all that in mind, I purchased some 0.7mm thick galvanised steel and cut it to shape.

After some bending, drilling and filing, I finished building the right hand side. Here it is with some ducting I was using as a guide.

Below is the ducting touching the brake fluid hose when the front of the wheel is turned outwards. I'll need to wrap the brake fluid hose with some cushioning material.

What remains to be done is to fit some new longer ducting and connect it to the new brackets. I'll also need to drill a hole in the dust/heat shield behind each rotor to allow air from the ducts to the rotor centres.

Say hello to my little friend...

Thanks to Mugsee for the photo. No bumpers were harmed in the making of this, much.

More serious brake cooling

Given that my previous effort in brake cooling was not enough to prevent my rotors from cracking/warping, I decided it was time to upgrade the cooling. The idea was to channel air from the front of the car to the front brakes. So with some planning, shopping on eBay and multiple trips to Bunnings Warehouse, I was ready to get to work on the GorillaZ. The plan was to cut holes in the front bumper and attach air inlets. Brake ducting hose would connect to the inlets and direct the air all the way to the front brake calipers and rotors.

Preparation
I bought plumbing pipe flanges to use as the inlets, these have a 60mm inner diameter.

As they were off-white, I had to do something about that as they wouldn't match the black car. I masked off areas that I didn't need painted and sprayed the rest with primer and then black engine enamel.

The brake ducting hose was purchased off eBay. This is the standard high temperature resistant orange silicone construction stuff that is apparently capable of operating at up to 325°C. Here is my quarantine inspector checking the hose upon arrival.

Building it
Now, the exciting part. I headed over to Silas' place where some of the Exe Crew were working on their cars. I needed help, especially holding the front bumper in order to cut holes in it.

To start off with, the front bumper needed to be removed from the car. The air inlets were positioned behind the bumper and the locations of the holes were marked. Under the supervision of Dan, I then cut the holes in the bumper. It was my first time using a hole saw and luckily no fingers were lost and no other damage was done to the bumper.

Here we see the cut-outs from the bumper.

With the holes cut and the edges nicely filed down and finished by Dan, the inlet were attached to the back of the bumper. A layer of mesh was placed in between the bumper and the inlet, and the adhesive used to attach them to the bumper was Sikaflex 255 Extra.

Next, the brake hose was connected to the inlets and secured with hose clamps. The bumper was then fitted back on the car. The hose was routed between the windscreen washer bottles and radiator support, around the mass of wires, under the sway bar and along the lower control arm to the space between the two bolts holding the caliper to the knuckle.

Strategic placement of 7.6mm wide cable ties.

I also removed the old air diversion plates from the previous brake cooling attempt.

So this is how the hoses currently sit, however I plan to somehow make brackets for the hoses to properly attach to the two big bolts for the calipers.

Finally, this is how the car looks from the front.

A very big thank you to JimJim, c2888, Kam80, Mugsee, unco, bong, dezmon, limpus and the legendary chargeR for your help and company.

Brake Cooling

Warning: Viewers are advised that this post is ghettolicious and contains images that may offend people's sensibilities.

First of all, hat tip to MacGillaz for this idea. To help in cooling the front brakes, I set about fashioning up some air diversion guides that would direct air to the inside of the brakes.

Firstly, I built a template out of cardboard and attached it to the lower control arm to test the fit.

Here you see the wheel being turned to ensure that the air diversion plate will not foul against anything.

Then galvanised steel was cut to size from the template. Strips of steel were also cut to act the brackets.

A 12 mm hole was drilled in the bracket and attached to the lower control arm where the sway bar end link attaches. The bracket was then bent into shape by hand using judgement by sight only, which should suffice.

5 mm holes were then drilled in the bracket and in the plate.

The plate was attached to the bracket with high tensile nuts and bolts. Then the plate was bent to shape.

Some bending and further cutting results in the finished product...

I am yet to do a road test and some additional cable ties may be required to prevent possible annoying rattles from this plate.

Further Oil Cooler Testing

To get some oil temperature readings without the aid of the oil cooler, I covered the cooler core with a piece of cardboard. This is not as accurate as getting readings without the cooler installed at all, but it provides a general idea of before and after temperatures.

Looks like the cooler is doing its job.

Defi Oil Temperature Gauge Installation

With the help of Kam80, this was installed. I cannot stress enough how immensely grateful I am for his help. The installation was stressful for a noob like me as the uncertainty of whether it would work got to me, but Kam's stoic resolve pulled me through.

The temperature sensor is fixed to the oil cooler sandwich plate. Wiring for the gauge is attached to the aircon control harness. Today, I tidied up the wiring inside the cabin - got a couple of 3M Command wire holders and matte blacked them.

See here for the wiring instructions:
http://zkthlz.blogspot.com/2009/12/defi-oil-temperature-gauge-wiring.html

Results so far with oil cooler
Air temperature: 25º C or below
Stop/start on roads 80kph or less: 79-82º C
Freeway: ~75º C

Air temperature: 25-30º C
Stop/start on roads 80kph or less: ~85º C
Freeway: ~80º C

The next step is to test with the oil cooler core covered on the street and then some on-track temperature readings.

Trust/Greddy Oil Cooler Installation

With the impending hot weather and upcoming December track day, I thought I would get an oil cooler. So last week, this arrived:

The sandwich plate contains a thermostat which I believe opens between 71 and 85 degrees Celsius +/- 2 degrees.

With the help of Kam80 and c2888, installation was fairly simple:

1. Take the front bumper off.
2. Mount the cooler core in place.
3. Fit the oil filter sandwich plate.
4. Connect and tighten hoses.

One small hiccup - As my Japanese literacy is non-existent, I didn't see that I was required to use an oil filter for a 1JZ/2JZ. As a result, my OEM filter did not screw on as the sandwich plate thread pattern was different. Luckily, c2888 had a spare Corolla filter that fit - that will do for now.

Big thanks must go to Kam providing a heap of help and taking photos during this stinking hot installation, and Dan for his technical know-how.