sharkytm

Any time.
Know the feeling.
I ought to ------- save that as a notepad doc for future reference.

I wish someone would break suspension dynamics down like that for me... I get all confused when I try to diagram suspension arcs and ----.

lkailburn

interesting thread, and that was a lot of reading in that one post.

however, i cannot ignore the fact that i have never met someone with a rear disk swap who said they did not feel any braking improvement by swapping to rear disks.

i've got a set in my basement that will go on this summer, and i will see for myself.

-Luke

idiot-stick

Could you explain why larger discs are better? Of course I could see the reasoning for larger discs in a race application, but not on the street. Can you not lock your brakes up with the smaller rotors? If you can lock them up, why would you need more stopping power than that?

sharkytm

Its like everyone who installs a K&N claiming they can feel the power. Who would admit that their brakes felt the same after spending $200 on parts, and a weekend installing them?
Also, people who swap to discs usually are scared of working on drums, and have let them go to ---- in a handbag. Good drum brakes are just as solid feeling as discs.

Bone1

Drums brakes = less maintainance, but you still have to pop the drum and clean them once in a while.

Lets see........you never hear about a drum car dragging a pad, parking brake not adjusting, pads only lasting 60k miles.......

my OEM shoes lasted 250k miles on the back.

Any here every upgrade to the larger rear drums? You can get them cheap from idiots who do rear disc swaps

2point2

I'm currently upgrading to aluminum ones.

CRXDrew

CRX HF drums ftw

quadnie

Sounds like H-T all over again with the kids preaching about how great drums are... all about the 'weight savings'.

Did anybody forget to think about how shitty wheel cylinders are? Just about every time I pull a drum off of any car (civic or chevy) the wheel cylinder is down for replacement. I garuntee I can go out into my garage right now and find little springs and parts to dead wheel cylinders that have gotten swept off to the side.

Recently on the tahoe the 10 month old wheel cylinder failed thus causing drum, shoe, cylinder replacement on one of the rears; and full brake job on the front (it was time to go back to OEM anyways to sell the thing). Enough to **** me off and swear not to run drums on anything I drive again.

Upgraded front brakes are great, but you still need the rears to go along with them. The truth of the matter is, a weaker rear brake will cause additional wear on the front brakes. Proper sized rears will allow for a nice even brake roll of the car, versus a hard dip in the front from a larger front upgrade and shitty drum rear.

Go ahead and look into the larger hondas and their upper line sports cars. The Integra and SI both have 10x9 brakes and a larger MC. The DX only has 9xDrum and is pretty shitty. Just about all the bigger cars have the 11x10 upgrade like the prelude vtec, ITR, Legend. Look at the newer civic SI cars, they have 10x10 brakes (and I think maybe the latest CTR in japan or whatever). The pimped out TSX-S has the same brembos that the evo has, with of course 10" rear brakes to support it.

I myself run the 11x10 upgrade (thinking of going dual pot calipers). Of course I have braided stainless lines and motul rbf600 racing fluid to support the setup. I think that maybe I'll get creative and take some old volvo 4 piston calipers and put them to use. My car already comes stock with the largest master cylinder, being the 1" - just need to delete the ABS to make it all gravy.

The person saying that you can just swap on discs and not touch the proportionating valve has no clue. Wheel cylinders take a lot more fluid to stop.. thus the awful pedal travel. You need the right valve out of an RS or SI

psycho_vince

I just put some big nasty brakes on my car over the past month, and I hav to say I love it. I got the fastbrakes 11" adapters to run 91 VW corrado 4 lug rotors with 95 teg calipers, and did a rear disc swap with rsx calipers/brackets and the 10.2" rear rotors off of a 02 civic si hatch (4 lug). All the rotors are stock off the shelf Napa rotors, and the pads are hawk HP plus in the front and hawk HPS in the rears. Russel stainless lines, 95 integra 15/16" master and booster with the correct prop valve from same car. I have always maintained my drum brakes, constantly cleaned them, adjust them up nice and tight, and had a GREAT pedal feel and stopping power, but when you jam on the brakes off the highway, or at the end of the 1/4 mile, it didnt feel that great, plus it would nose dive and get the fronts super hot and they would start pulsating really soon. I kept cutting them (cut them about 4 times last year, but only a couple thousandths so it wasnt under spec yet) till I finally decided to do something about it. Theres nothing wrong with the rear drum for normal use, bad pedal feel is just bullshit, especially if you know how to maintain them, but to people that use their car hard, theres nothing better than having the added stopping power of bigger brakes. Swapping to stock rear disc i dont see being much of a benefit, but when you go bigger like a 11" front and 10.2" rear, you will feel it. I almost think its TOO much brake for my small car, i really have to watch how hard I hit the brakes b/c it stops a shitload better than before, plus it stops really level, no *** end dip or lock-up (like stated before) or front end dive. Its not too easy to lock the up though, I have brand new dunlop direzza's on it, and they are some nice sticky gumballs for the price, so I guess with crap tires it would be easy to lock them up.

WTF

i notice i have almost no nose dive now that i have rear disc's, but my drums were fucked on every civic ive had they probly had 40k+ on them so i really cant say how good drums feel, all i know is i hate changing them and would rather spend 200 on a rear disc swap.