Wilwood "Street Sport" Kit Installed!

[HwyCruiser]

I've had the TCE Performance Wilwood 13.1" x 1.1" rotor / 6-piston caliper "Street Sport" kit on for about 2 weeks / 600 miles now. One word: WOW. In my mind, this brake upgrade has be a close to a top performance enhancement mod 2nd only to adding a supercharger.

Here's the links to pics in my gallery:

Pic 1, pic 2, pic 3

The pics does't do them justice. The look just kills people. As you can tell, I've developed some nasty surface rust on the non-contact portion of the rotor. I should have shelled out the extra $65 for the zinc plating, but I'll claim ignorance. Nothing some high-temp paint can't cure though.

With the OEM setup, the couple of times I had to stand on the brakes in an emergency stop left me feeling like I coundn't judge where the MM would wind up at. Even though I bought the car with 17k miles, the OEM pads still had plenty of life left in them. I knew I had to put a brake upgrade on the mod list.

The pedal is now much firmer. Once I got used to the feel, I've learned I have plenty of control. These bad boys add a ton of stopping power and the anti-lock system kicks in right when I think they should.

I've been talking to Todd with TCE about getting the rear kit he's developed off the bench, but we've run into some technical issues with the Marauder's axle shaft endplay. I've even had my MM on the lift to take some real-life measurements, but even though they are within factory specs (30/1000's if I recall correctly), Todd feels its too much "float" for a fixed mount caliper.

It seems that Todd has run into this with the rear Impala setup, where oversized c-clips are required to reduce axle shaft endplay to a workable tolerance. The research I've done on it has made me come to the conclusion that the whole c-clip retention method isn't the best idea in the first place. Anyone out there have any experience with this issue on the Ford 8.8" rear ends?

Anyway, upgrading the front brakes has been the best money spent so far... I'm thinking the next stop is the tranny and then its all about boost (weeeeee!).

- JD

[woaface]

Wow! Those are very cool! You can get the speed, but the corners are just as important IMHO...and upgrading brakes are always a must...

[sailsmen]

Really sharp looking, until you have switched to a higher performance brake you don't know how marginal the stock brakes are.

[jabird56]

Yep JD,

Those brakes work like flies on fly-paper. I still remember my eyeballs popping out when you hit the brakes. :-)

Jay

[HwyCruiser]

After re-reading my post, I forgot to mention the installer. The same shop has done all my performance mods to my complete satisfaction... my dealer. The service manager is even working with Todd on the axle shaft endplay issue.

I'm just the guy with the checkbook, a good run of luck, and all the stupid questions.

- JD

[Todd TCE]

Just got back in late last night from a CO race. Set a new record there too, so it was a good weekend.

http://www.chcaracing.com/race_day_results.html (for the dirt types)

Glad to hear that things are up and well with JD.

We've talked at length on the c clips. I believe this can be done and that we can make the rotor stay put. I'm guessing that there are more than a few packages for the Mustangs as I recall us stocking them in my Bondurant days for the car.

The key is enough but not too much load on them. We do not want the side gear preloaded in the clutch pack or pushing a side gear out of oil. I'd guess that a float of .008-.010" would be nice. The amount of .030 seem a bit high to may liking. That's just going to be too much pad 'knock back' and create a poor resposive pedal.

Again, given the complexitiy of this kit and all the work I just don't think this one's going to be for everyone. It's certainly NOT a weekend driveway project.

[HwyCruiser]

Another update now that I'm at 850 miles with the Wilwood front "Street Sport" kit from TCE Performance.

I finally pulled off the front wheels to tend to the mild surface rust I developed on the non-contact portion of the rotor. Here's the pics:

pic 1, pic 2, pic 3

I painted the very inside track and the top of the rotor vents with flat black 1200F "fireplace" spraypaint. I also tended to another issue I was having with pad / rotor bedding...

The issue was that even with following the bedding procedure that came with the brakes twice, I was getting oscillation during deceleration from highway speeds until 45-40 mph, some dragging at speed less than 5 mph, and just recently some engagement "clink" while tapping stop from a crawl.

Todd told me this was typical with the low dust Polymatrix "Q" pads, and that I should try roughing up the pads and rotors. So, while I was in with the spray paint, I hit the rotor and pads with some sandpaper and knocked over the pad tangs a little bit to help with retention. It took me all of three hours to get this done and apply 3 coats of paint.

The neat thing about the design of the calipers is that you don't need to remove them to take out and put in the pads, just remove the bridge bolt and spacer and they slide right in and out.

After running through the bedding procedure again Saterday and putting them through some pretty good exersize this morning, all the issues are gone except for a much milder oscillation from highway braking. I'm hoping that this takes care of itself after a few more miles. I'm in need of new tires pretty soon so I'm going to see if wheel balancing has any effect if its not gone by then.

I am by no means trying to steer anyone away of this kit. I just wanted to make others aware of my experience so far so that educated decisions can be made.

- JD

[HwyCruiser]

Final update @ 1100 miles, installation / tweeking is complete.

I finally got fed up with the highway speed braking oscillation so I had my dealer check the rotor runout mounted on the car while I had the worn tires replaced. They mic'ed out at 0.010 right and 0.020 left, so they turned them on the car and re-bled the calipers for me.

While I was respraying the turned non-contact portion of the rotor last night to avoid surface rust, I tweeked the pad tangs a little more as required so that they remained in contact with the stainless steel guide plates of the rattle clip and still rode freely on the bridge bolt spacer.

With freshly turned rotors, new tires, balance wheels, and a final bed-in, the brakes are enaging and disengaging smoothly at all speeds.

A lesson from someone whose already been there, get the rotor runout checked during installation and be prepared to tweek the pads for final fitment.

Now that I've got the quirks worked out, I give this kit a .

- JD

[Todd TCE]

Interesting info JD.

The exact cause of the run out shall likely remain a mystery. The only thing I can think of is shippping damages in the box where perhaps the rotor saw some banging around. Assuming it to be actual rotor run out.

On the other hand I did speak at length with Wilwood on the Q pad of late. Your previous post as well as one from another source had me concerned that there was some how some change to the compound. They assure me that the Q pad of today is that of the past year or so. I can speak first hand from fitting the Mini kit (here in my garage) that I too found the Q pads on this set up a bit of a flutter under initial brake bedding. Strangely enough this has come from the pads used most recently on kits not ones of older sales.

The only comments I could get from them centered around lighter than suggested bedding of the pads. Too that end I took the Mini out on them and beat the crap out of them at high temps pulling smoke off them by the last few HARD stops from about 70-0mph. And you know what? From then on they've been fine. No sanding, no scuffing of the rotor, no pulling of the pads even. They feel that people are just being to gentle on pad bedding and rotor seasoning with this pad. And given my experience with the upper end race pads which do this at a faster rate and working out the issue on the Mini, I'd tend to agree. Seems the pad may be transferring more material to the rotor as heat has not been built up on them to cure them at temp.

The rotors on the Mini are going through a transfermation from basic iron, to blue to golden, and now back to a smoother shiny finish. And I plan on abusing the hell out of them again tomorrow on some side roads near the shop to work them in even harder.

[HwyCruiser]

Todd,

The rotors may have been true to the hat out your door, but after that is where you lost control of the actual alignment on my particular car.

Having the the rotors checked and turned was the easiest way for me to solve the problem. There's still plenty of slot left behind, so I can tell that there wasn't too much resurfacing required to true them up.

Who knows, it may have also been someone simply getting a little too happy with an impact wrench. Thus the advice to have the runout checked during installation just to keep things squared away, eh?

- JD