Adding hoses for additional brake cooling...

[kylie]

Hi while my new Mintex brake pads went in last week and up on the hoist, I looked at the possibility of adding some large hosing to duct air from the front onto the brakes, anyone done this or should I just leave them alone. I have the SE front bumper.

Cheers
Kylie

[superdave]

Kylie, i will be doing the same to mine in the next month when I fit my new SE/S300 front end. The S300 doesn't have the fogs and uses the hole for ducting. So Iam led to believe anyway. I won't be installing fogs, as I don't like the SE ones anyway and they cost a small fortune. My mount some behind the mesh so you can't see them until they are switched on.
You can either wait until i've done mine or have a go and send me some pics. I'll work with you on this one. You have my e-mail address.

Cheers,



Dave Walters

[cnh1990]

Kylie,
That is what I use, Mintex C-tech pads.
I like them. Also the ducting idea is fine as long as you don't drive in the rain too much. It might channel a lot of water right on the brakes. Should help them cool off under normal conditions.
Calvin

[lotusguy]

Kylie,

Try to find someone with the service manual for the X-180R as this Esprit has brake ducting. As mentioned, it uses the front grill area normally reserved for the fogs.

Absent that, and given your penchant for working with composites, it should be easy to fabricate a working system.

If you plan on tracking the car extensively, as you've prevously alluded, you may even want to look into incorporating a Brake Misting System into the ductwork. It consists of nothing more than a pump, some hosing, a reservoir, a small orifice and an electrical relay. The concept is simple, water has a greater heat capacity than air. The relay triggers the pump to provide a mist over the rotors when the brake pedal is released. This mist absorbes much heat and flashes it off instantly to atmosphere providing superior braking efficiency in the next turn. Pretty cutting edge stuff, Audi successfully worked out such a system for their current ALMS car and found it very effective. Happy Motoring!... Jim'85TE

[kylie]

cnh1990 said:

Kylie, That is what I use, Mintex C-tech pads. I like them. Also the ducting idea is fine as long as you don't drive in the rain too much. It might channel a lot of water right on the brakes. Should help them cool off under normal conditions. Calvin

Hi I am heading out after work to bedd them in properly. They are called M1166 which contains metals and high temp resin components, so have to fade them to pre-harden before use on the track. Quite a different exercise to normal bedding in of pads.

[GreenV8S]

Brake ducts are a very good idea, 4" diameter minimum and 6" is better. You need to ensure the front end gets a good air blast, the outlet can just point in the general area of the disc e.g. strapped to the lower wishbone, doesn't need to be shrouded or anything. Not so sure about the water mist, I imagine it would produce some pretty sharp temperature gradients which might lead to more surface factures and eventually disc cracking.

[kylie]

superdave said:

Kylie, i will be doing the same to mine in the next month when I fit my new SE/S300 front end. The S300 doesn't have the fogs and uses the hole for ducting. So Iam led to believe anyway. I won't be installing fogs, as I don't like the SE ones anyway and they cost a small fortune. My mount some behind the mesh so you can't see them until they are switched on. You can either wait until i've done mine or have a go and send me some pics. I'll work with you on this one. You have my e-mail address. Cheers, Dave Walters

Thanks Dave, I had a good look up in there, and think it should be one of the easier projects on the list. There seems plenty of room to run some pipes from the front, but where to hang them from, so they are safe and not obstructing anything else. And yes would definately make use of CF materials of the like. And yes will certainly be in touch.
Cheers
K

>> Edited by kylie on Tuesday 2nd March 00:04

[kylie]

lotusguy said:

Kylie, Try to find someone with the service manual for the X-180R as this Esprit has brake ducting. As mentioned, it uses the front grill area normally reserved for the fogs.

Good idea Jim,
I will ask around if anyone has got this page they could copy me, failing that will kindly ask our servicing guy if I could borrow his workshop manual for a few hours.

[kylie]

GreenV8S said:

Brake ducts are a very good idea, 4" diameter minimum and 6" is better. You need to ensure the front end gets a good air blast, the outlet can just point in the general area of the disc e.g. strapped to the lower wishbone, doesn't need to be shrouded or anything. Not so sure about the water mist, I imagine it would produce some pretty sharp temperature gradients which might lead to more surface factures and eventually disc cracking.

Yeah will leave the water mist thingy for now, but need to decide the diameter of the pipe, 6" sounds a good size. The air intake pipe to the turbo, what size is that for camparison? Would amagine something like that would do the business.