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.
