A Serious Track Brakes Setup... That works!

[si2see]

excellent thread here. will any dot4 brake fluid be an upgrade or do it have to be a specific brand?

[jrickerm]

I like the ATE Super Blue or the amber equivalent Type 200 (which makes fluid changes easy to see) - high boiling, low moisture uptake. Motul RBF 600 is also high temp but I think it picks up water faster, but not a big deal since you are likely to be changing your fluids every year if you race. There's some Castrol and Amsoil high temp products as well, all hovering in the 550 deg F boiling point range.

I'd stay away from the cheap stuff at Walmart and auto store brands of DOT 4, which have boiling points 100 deg lower than the better brands, and probably suck up water like a sponge.

[lukits01]

Originally Posted by kekekekevin

Wow, thanks for the great info, My friend just recently added a set of accord calipers to his EP3, works good. However I like my new DC5R brembo better. Well, my question is the touge course I run is 5.7mile uphill, and 5.8mile downhill. With yellowstuff front pads and ATE Super blue I will still have a little brake fade after 4mile/4min(usually I finish the course within 4 1/2 -5min) after on the downhill section. Do you think adding some thermal tape/wrap to the brake line would help since they are too close to the header?

I run the same setup, DC5R Brembos with Yellowstuff, they are a decent street/track pad, but if you plan to push them pass 4-5 minutes of abuse, you're better off going to the Bluestuff or something equivalent. Some ducting wouldn't hurt either. This is a photo of my brakes after 3-4 laps of abuse, definitely asking a lot of the pads. Have switched to bluestuff since, and have found them to handle easily double the amount of laps.

[si2see]

Originally Posted by jrickerm

I like the ATE Super Blue or the amber equivalent Type 200 (which makes fluid changes easy to see) - high boiling, low moisture uptake. Motul RBF 600 is also high temp but I think it picks up water faster, but not a big deal since you are likely to be changing your fluids every year if you race. There's some Castrol and Amsoil high temp products as well, all hovering in the 550 deg F boiling point range.

I'd stay away from the cheap stuff at Walmart and auto store brands of DOT 4, which have boiling points 100 deg lower than the better brands, and probably suck up water like a sponge.

Yeah the stuff I have here at work is about 100 deg lower than that. We use Wynn's products in cars here at work. Do local retailers sell the ATE or Motul or is it something that needs to be ordered online? Thanks

[Yetti 000]

Originally Posted by si2see

Yeah the stuff I have here at work is about 100 deg lower than that. We use Wynn's products in cars here at work. Do local retailers sell the ATE or Motul or is it something that needs to be ordered online? Thanks

I just installed Goodridge SS lines and flooded the system with Motul RBF600. Took me 9 shops to finally locate a distributor. I've seen ATE Super Blue around a couple of places though.

[iomatic]

Yeah, I was going to ask what other SS lines are available. Blanks? We've talked pads, but what about blanks! Calipers, we talked a bit about fluids. Does anyone do this often enough you finally bought a pump? What brand?

What's your list?

Pads:
Rotors:
Fluid:
Lines:
Calipers:
other:

[jrickerm]

Pads: daily and autox - Hawk HPS front and rear; track days - Hawk DTC 60 front
Rotors: Brembo blanks (not drilled or slotted!)
Fluid: ATE Super Blue or 200
Lines: Goodridge SS all around
Calipers: TSX swap in the front, stock in the rear
Other: Speedbleeders (to replace the little nipple on the calipers - cheap!) all around to make fluid changes a one-man operation, and no pump needed
Brake ducts: work in progress, still trying different ideas here. Pegasus 2" silicone high temp ductwork routed to the dust shields (rivet a 2" exhaust pipe stub and cut a hole).

At last week's track day at Lime Rock, my instructor was driving my car and said the brake setup was definitely a high point! He made my car run through turns at speeds I didn't think possible...

[Yetti 000]

Pads: Hawk HP+ (F), Hawk HPS (R) for everything
Rotors: stock
Fluid: Motul RBF 600
Lines: Goodridge SS
Calipers: stock

- Yetti

[lukits01]

Pads: EBC Bluestuff or Endless N45S (Front) & Ferodo DS2500 (rear)
Rotors: S2000 spec
Fluid: Motul RBF600 and now RBF660
Lines: Goodridge SS
Calipers: DC5 Brembos
other: DIY brake ducting

I keep cracking rotors on the road course in my area.
Autocross and hill climb tracks are ok though.
300mm rotors is probably too small for the weight of the 8th gen civics for hard braking at racing speeds.

[Brett_C]

Pads: Ferodo DS2500 all around
Rotors: Stock
Fluid: Motul RBF600
Lines: Stock
Calipers: Stock

Only autocross at the moment. Would worry about caliper temps on a road course. I saw rotor temps of 300F after 4 autox runs.

[iomatic]

Is this a good deal for the Goodridges?
Amazon.com: Goodridge Stainless Steel Brake Line Kit for Honda CIVIC 06-On;4 Line;All Rear Disc Models Incl. Si: Automotive

Also, what size bleeders?
More setup info? thx.

[Yetti 000]

Originally Posted by iomatic

Is this a good deal for the Goodridges?
Amazon.com: Goodridge Stainless Steel Brake Line Kit for Honda CIVIC 06-On;4 Line;All Rear Disc Models Incl. Si: Automotive

Also, what size bleeders?
More setup info? thx.

Try this for Goodridge lines

and this for quick bleeders

[jrickerm]

Speed Bleeders SB10125, $34 shipped. Got them for my stock calipers last year, but fit fine for the TSX swapped fronts as well.

[iomatic]

Sah. WEET.
Thanks.

[HeliOs6020]

Pads: f:Project Mu Club Racers r: Hawk HPS
Rotors: f: Power Slot r: Stock
Fluid: Motul RBF600
Lines: Goodridge
Calipers: Stock

the PMU Club Racers are a great pad!! great pedal feeling, initial bite not as strong as HP+ but i prefer the more progressive feeling, even when faded these things still stop. last a good while quite noisy tho, even worse w/o the backing plates (my car sounds like a friggin freight train....)
only problem flippin expensive compared to hawks, and also when out of stock be ready for a loooonnnnngg wait.....
popular with the s2k guys and they are the same part number

only reason why i switched to SS line cuz this happend at around 50000miles

[mikeJstein]

I'm sorry guys for not replying... I was out of the country and apparently never got any thread subscription updates. Glad to see you all enjoyed the information.

To update on a few questions and information:

1. First, I need to clarify my comment on the Carbotech pads. The pins I saw are made of brass, and apparently are soft enough to not do any damage to the rotors. So you could gain more use than I did, but not that much more. I still think the HT-10's are a better alternative so far.
2. I also went with the Goodrich SS lines. I think I ordered from Amazon or eBay.
3. Braking ducts would be nice, but technically difficult to execute. The windshield wiper fluid resovior is in the way for the passenger side. There is an article on the forum about attempting this mod though. I don't think it's worth the trouble though.
4. The caliper heating is significant, and I recommend rebuilding the front calipers roughly once per year, depending on your use. As for the rears, I change the rotor, pads, and rebuild the caliper all at the same time... which for me has been 50,000 mi + 20 track days. The rears are a bit of a pain to work with because of the parking brake.

Let me know if you all have any further questions.
-Mike

[iomatic]

If replacing all components of the fluids (lines, bleeders), what would be the 'correct' procedure? Would you speed bleed it all first, replace the lines, and do a couple of flushes with new fluid?

[jrickerm]

Dunno about 'correct', but I swapped everything out and then flushed with new fluid. Using a different colored fluid makes it easy to tell when the flush is complete.

[ff juice]

i was having the same problems with my car. i ran throgh the stock set up in two track days and then went to HP+'s with rbf600. i ran through those in three track days. i tried some taiwan made brake kit, they didn't even last a whole track day. so i went to tsx calibers, rotors,rbf600 motul, cobalt xr2 pads and new line. its been working grate 5 track days and counting. the whole set up cost me about 350 and the pads were the bigest cost.

[cambodianricer]

I can't believe you trusted some random ass brake kit with your life LOL