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Evo X 3" Brake Cooling

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18K views 83 replies 20 participants last post by  Mash  
#1 ·
I'm tired of buying new pads and rotors due to excessive heat. Aside from the AMS brake cooling kit, I am unaware of an aftermarket solution that would work for me. So, I have decided to develop one myself.

I have the Stoptech STR-60 BBK on the front with the STR-40 kit on the rear of the car. I am using titanium shims up front and do not get boiled brake fluid. However, I have early pad degredation and rotor cracking due to excessive heat. I have been running the Binary 2" nozzles with crappy front intakes. The Binary nozzles do not fit the Stoptech kit at all, so I am loosing air pressure from the sides of the nozzles--suffice it to say the set up I have now isn't viable.

I figure there are three parts to the problem: fabrication of brake duct nozzles, ducting from the front of the car, and cold air intake. I have finished the first of the three.

The first step is to fabricat a mock-up of the nozzles out of aluminium that is easy to bend and cut.

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The Stoptech set up has more room than the stock Brembos in the center for air flow. I wanted the nozzles to fit tight enough to conform to the shape of the hub.

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With what seemed a reasonable first design, I fabricated the nozzles from sheet titanium that I already had. I cut the parts using a cheap benchtop wood bandsaw with a metal cutting blade.

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I cut the holes for connection to the brake bracket with numerous smaller holes and a round file.

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I then had to bend all the sheet metal into the right shapes, which isn't as simple as it might seem.

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Being comfortable with a file is important here. Next, I got the nozzles welded.

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I checked for fit and installed them on the car.
 
#2 ·
The fit was great and the nozzles cleared everything--in particular, the brake lines.

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The fit to the hub was good. I don't think I will loose much flow through the bracket.

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This was the easy part. Now I have to figure a way to get air from the front of the car back to the nozzles.

This thread might take a while to complete. The route from the front dosen't appear to be straightfoward.
 
#4 ·
Brown truck delivered the old school matrix needed for the CF nozzles.

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Call me old fashioned, but basswood has a nice tight grain and carves like butta. I've gathered the gouges, parting tools, and chisels and will excercise muscles I don't get to use much these days. Once the nozzles are carved, I'll finish with primer, paint, and then break out the vacuum press, Soric, and carbon fiber.

I have done some carving in the past for my other hobby...

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I made the cabinet in the background above too.

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Somewhat less traditional...

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A brake nozzle shouldn't be too tough.
 
#6 ·
UNBELIEVABLE. Well done sir
 
#8 ·
It couldn't be this simple, could it?

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Of course, the mock-up ain't pretty. Would the fog light holes provide enough flow given air is sliding around the front of the car and a large vent right next to the location has priority?

It is odd that the light diameter is so nicely close to the 3" duct hose.
 
#10 ·
It might be a reasonable approach to use the fog light vent assembly thingies to form an initial mould. Rather than have the flat opening for the fog lights, I could form a vent in the same location that better admits the high pressure air. Or, the cooling duct input could be moved to the inside of the bracket with the trans/oil cooler vents on the outside.

With a decent mould in hand, it would be straightforward to make the part(s) using vacuum infusion.

The only down side is less volume of air for the trans/oil coolers. I'm running the Dodson sump on the SST along with an auxilliary cooler, so I'm not too worried about transmission cooling. I have a v-mounted dual core oil cooler that I can add a SPAL fan to increase cooling if necessary.

Thoughts?
 
#11 ·
Your workmanship is about 1 billion % better than anything I could ever imagine making, so I feel dumb commenting anything, but what about just cutting a hole in the bumper for the duct and route from there? Somewhere above the current air intakes for the oil/sst coolers?
 
#12 ·
Your workmanship is about 1 billion % better than anything I could ever imagine making, so I feel dumb commenting anything, but what about just cutting a hole in the bumper for the duct and route from there? Somewhere above the current air intakes for the oil/sst coolers?
Something like this?

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A new opening is certainly an option, particularly if the car is a dedicated track car. I am attempting to keep things fairly within the stock parameters.

I have been thinking about the area on either side of the intercooler as well.
 
#14 ·
For similar reasons, I would like to find a solution that doesn't use the sides of the intercooler. With an MR, the intake has to be in the engine bay, unlike the GSR. So, a source of cool air is important.

I fabricated the brake intakes to live where the fog lights once did as follows.

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The plastic guide makes for an easy way to zip tie the ducting.

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The inlets seem reasonable to me. However, I haven't fit them on the car to determine whether there is enough room for the ducts. I should be fine on the drivers side. I might have some issues on the passenger side with the larger cooler.
 
#15 ·
The driver's side was a snap to install. I had to first enlarge the hole in the plastic panel for the ducting. One can see the exit point from the pictures below (none are very good, I confess).

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The routing from the front was not nearly as difficult as I was expecting. If you tuck it under the SST cooler, it fits right around the corner between the SST and the cover panel.

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The driver's side is ready for testing. The passenger side, as everyone who has attempted this already knows, is the challenge. In my case, it is particularly so since I have a v-mounted oil cooler in the way. The exit of the front inlet is in the middle of the two coolers and must make a near 90 degree turn right from the start and snake around and under the cooler.

The routing to the side panel where the ducting exits to the wheel is a challenge due to limited space between the panel and engine. I'll work today on a duct that fits in the limited space but maximizes the area available. The duct might end up being an odd shape, but it should maximize the volume of air that is possible going to the hub.
 
#16 ·
Do you have a small range differential pressure meter to check the results? I still want to take a road of connecting small 80$ diesel turbo to ewg exhaust and supply air by 1" flexible tubes, so I'd like to see a reference to compare the results.
 
#19 ·
Sensors are no doubt the way to go Mash, particularly since I do not know how pressure is affected by the cooler intakes. But, alas, I would rather waste money on cooked brake pads and crazed rotors to know it doesn't work.
 
#17 ·
The driver's side is ready for testing. The passenger side, as everyone who has attempted this already knows, is the challenge. In my case, it is particularly so since I have a v-mounted oil cooler in the way. The exit of the front inlet is in the middle of the two coolers and must make a near 90 degree turn right from the start and snake around and under the cooler.

The routing to the side panel where the ducting exits to the wheel is a challenge due to limited space between the panel and engine. I'll work today on a duct that fits in the limited space but maximizes the area available. The duct might end up being an odd shape, but it should maximize the volume of air that is possible going to the hub.
Yes, the passenger side is a real pain. Even for a 2 inch pipe, it is a pain in the butt to get everything to fit right. A hard pipe that routes safely under the drive belt and is bolted into place seems like the way to go. Then cut the ducting in halves. From caliper to hard pipe, and then from hard pipe to duct up front. Hope that makes sense.
 
#18 ·
This is what the AMS kit did. If you look it up, there are still pics of it on the interwebs.
 
#24 ·
If you have Dodson sump I think that you don't need any cooler so far. I would log temperatures with it turned off, but pretty much there should be zero usage of it.
 
#29 ·
I have made some progress on the tunnel for the passenger side but still have to figure out how to make it into a mould. It seems straightforward but by the time you get vaccum pumps, plugs, holes, and pipes figured out, not to mention female from male, things get complicated.

Crap, I just know Morricus is going to quote that last sentence.
 
#28 ·
Sometimes I wish I had a 'day time' job...I wouldn't be sitting on a plane right now going from LGA to ORD. Some call me a consultant.

I can answer the grade school kids question about what he is going to do with math, well, statistics.
 
#33 ·
I worked some on the duct that routes air in front of the engine.

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I don't know if it matters much that the duct is somewhat boxey. I guess it would make more sense for at least the ends to curve around smoothly.

Thoughts??
 
#34 ·
Dude, you're an engineering freak! These look perfect. I'll take two.
 
#36 ·
I guess another option would be to make mould that is the reverse of the pattern and use an inflatable bladder to compress the carbon fiber from within the mould. One advantage to this approach is that the outside of the duct would be nice and smooth.

This could be done with vacuum, I believe, if one set it up correctly.
 
#64 · (Edited)
I guess another option would be to make mould that is the reverse of the pattern and use an inflatable bladder to compress the carbon fiber from within the mould. One advantage to this approach is that the outside of the duct would be nice and smooth.
Warning, Nerd Moment: I know that you have moved well past this step by now, but I had a similar thought to this one the other day. I was curious how they manufacture turbochargers with a hollow cavity in the middle with no obvious mold release points or seams. The trick is to make the inner contour of a part like this out of a destructible material (this is the mechanism which allows 3D printers to make parts with complicated cavities in them). If you wanted to make a CF part around that core, it is possible to have a 3D printer create a solid part out of just the disposable plastic "place holder" material. I know that you probably already know this, but for those that don't take a look on YouTube. It is really interesting stuff.
 
#37 ·
In order to clean up the inputs to the duct, I applied some wax as a release agent to the inside of a piece of 3" PVC pipe.

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It is a good idea to pull the pipe off before the plastic is completely cured.

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I took some time to round the ends of the duct.

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The kink in the middle could be smoother (on the right side in the picture above), so I might do that as well. I took some measurements and it appears that there is no loss of cross sectional area using the duct.

I need to do a test fitting next to make sure the clearances are good and take a look at mounting points. Also, I have been considering whether it makes sense to fabricate a duct (3" pipe) from the front to avoid using flexible hose.
 
#41 ·
very nice work as always. yeah, the passenger's side is too tight with the oil cooler. there are other options for location for you track only guys:

1. headlights. i know some of you are running gutted lights as it, just mold a duct into that.
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2. bumper
see thefost's evo for example:
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more info/pics: http://www.evoxforums.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1867042&postcount=34


both of these will come out above the oil cooler.


then there is this style of solution:
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there is one more variant on this that someone did as part of their under-tray setup that i liked the most. i'll find pictures.