S brake conversion & caliper rebuild

[ekam]

Well apparently the rear S calipers will have problem fitting without the adapter/spacer from FVD Germany, of which that part is discontinued.

If I can't locate someone that's selling them, I'm selling the complete rebuilt rear S calipers and swap my base front calipers to the rear.

[ekam]

GOLD......

[Pat]

Any difference in stopping won't be attributed to the difference in rotors, assuming the pads mate with the rotor surface properly.

[ekam]

Too early to tell since the pad is still bedding in to the rotor. Again I think the difference will be most noticed at the track where it'll see severe braking. For now it just looks damn good.

[chaudanova]

Very cool! Are those 2 piece rotors pretty costly compared to stock rotors?

[ekam]

They're about $1k after refinishing.

[jcb986]

You should get up on a nice highway and bed your brakes correctly. Get up to about 70mph and brake very hard but not locking up the brakes and get your speed down to about 30mph. Do this 3-4 times and your brakes will feel better.

[ekam]

Took out the pistons from the base front calipers, to my supurise they're 40mm and 36mm - same as the S front calipers!!!

It's going to be interesting to put these on the rear... I have to learn how not to do any trail brake...

Or maybe I need a crappy set of pads... what do you guys suggest? Textar? Mintex?

[BudmanV24]

Have you considered buying Boxster S rear knuckles so you can run the Boxster S calipers?

[JFP in PA]

Have you priced out what that will cost? A lot of $ for very little additional braking................

[ekam]

Originally Posted by JFP in PA

Have you priced out what that will cost? A lot of $ for very little additional braking................

Right now I'll need a new set of front rotor for the back, a set of new seals/dust boots, new pads and cost of powercoating, and all the additional parts to make them fit, plus labor. Hey, driving our Porsches also cost a lot of $ for going from just going point A to point B...

I've always wanted red brembo calipers even before I got this car. I admit I really like the looks of it.

[BudmanV24]

Originally Posted by JFP in PA

Have you priced out what that will cost? A lot of $ for very little additional braking................

I snagged a pair of Boxster S knuckles off ebay for $50 plus shipping. You can find them around for decent pricing if you look around. But I'll look into making spacers for this conversion to eliminate the need for replacing the knuckles.

[ekam]

Originally Posted by BudmanV24

I snagged a pair of Boxster S knuckles off ebay for $50 plus shipping. You can find them around for decent pricing if you look around. But I'll look into making spacers for this conversion to eliminate the need for replacing the knuckles.

I have these "knuckles" but the FVD spacers are still required for the swap. I spoke with my local Pcar garage and they told me it would cost too much time & money to make these spacers (basically a lot of fab time and test fitting, etc).

I spoke with Rhonda from FVD and she cannot provide any drawings for that part either.

Front base calipers are dropped off to be powercoated. Going to order the seals & dust boot tomorrow.

UPDATE:
Seals and dust boots ordered!! They were able to ship via USPS which is great.

[BudmanV24]

Where do the spacers go? I will be jumping into this project here in the not so distant future and will be engineering any parts necessary to make the conversion.

[ekam]

High quality shot of the caliper and rotor.

[chaudanova]

Ekam, any updates on your brake project? Did you end up getting your front brake calipers installed on the rear?

[ekam]

Thanks for reminding me. I'm going to pickup the old front calipers tomorrow from the powder coating shop.

Next step is ordering the rest of the parts (caliper spring kit, screws, bleeder valves, pads & rotors).

After the front brake swap, braking is more confident. You can feel there's always room to spare.

[chaudanova]

Originally Posted by ekam

Thanks for reminding me. I'm going to pickup the old front calipers tomorrow from the powder coating shop.

Next step is ordering the rest of the parts (caliper spring kit, screws, bleeder valves, pads & rotors).

After the front brake swap, braking is more confident. You can feel there's always room to spare.

haha, sounds good... Looking forward to seeing how the rest of your project unfolds.

So, as of right now with just the only change being the front S calipers, and new rotors/misc. setup, do you like the braking characteristics overall? I know some will say that it might upset the brake bias, etc... But would you say that it has been a solid improvement thus far, and have you experienced any downsides yet?

Thanks in advance..

[ekam]

It does require less effort on the brake pedal to slow down. That being said, my previous front rotors were toasted and the pads were on their way out.

I haven't been to the track yet so I can't say much about brake bias. If you look at the difference between the base vs S rear caliper/rotors, the S rear rotors are 300mm diameter and 22mm thick vs base 292mm and 20mm. I assume piston sizes are identical (since the base & S front calipers piston sizes are the same). Those .2" bigger S rotors won't make much of a difference if at all. The added thickness is mostly for cooling.

There's all kinds of arguments out there, but most car suspension & brakes are setup to have tendency to under-steer. Putting stronger rear brakes might correct that a bit.

[ekam]

I'm doing so more research on parts needed... apparently Brembo makes a special rotor for the base Boxster to use the S rear calipers. Problem is nobody knows where to get this mysterous part. Can't locate this on the Brembo catalogue webpage either as it only shows front rotors for the base boxster.

What brake upgrades do we have for base Boxster?
http://www.boxsterforum.com/forums/showpost.php?p=23054&postcount=3
http://www.6speedonline.com/forums/boxster-cayman/112389-brake-upgrade-2.html#post1578029