Stock vs Big Brake Kit

[Ldstang50]

The last time I ran VIR I was sick so, my lap times sucked. RA is in the 2:27-9 range. That was my first time at RA driving my R. Funny story on the cold brakes. We have all had those head somewhere it doesn't belong moments. The key is surviving. The stock brakes on the ST is impressive for such a large vehicle

2:27 at RA is COOKING!! I'd love to be in the woods before Canada Corner and here that Voodoo screaming That time is massively impressive

 

[Ldstang50]

I appreciate everyone chiming in. It's nice knowing people appreciate this.

The plan for this weekend was to install the front brakes last night and test tonight. After installing the brakes, I attempted to bleed them. All the air bubbles pushed out, but the pedal still went to the floor. I did ZERO with the rear brakes. Versus fight the fight at 0200, I called it quits.

This morning I woke early and figured I'd bleed the rear brakes.

I don't have a vacuum bleeder, so I did it the old fashion way. Pump to stiff(er) pedal, I then would slide the seat forward using my prosthetic leg to hold the pedal in. Jump in my wheelchair, open the bleeder, then rinse and repeat. Always starting at the piston furthest from the pump.

I have never had a car with an electonic e-brake before, so I never throught to do anything about it. Turns out there is a sequence with the gas pedal, parking brake switch and ignition button that puts the car in maintence mode. Try it as I may, I could never get it to work and the pedal kept going to the floor. So much for testing tonight...

I contacted a friend at the dealership and told him of my dilemma, he told me to bring it in tomorrow and he'll look at it.

Not wanting to go through this again, I decided to change the rear brakes. Big problem though, the parking brake was on, and wouldn't release. The only way to remove the rotor was to take the whole system as one-piece.

The caliper brackets required an impact or ratchet with the trusty jack handle as an extension. I then had to use a ratching wrench to remove the 3 bolts that hold the dust shield on. The way Ford installed the rear dust shield required it to be taken off with the rotor. The issue was the shield was mounted behind the caliper mounting point thus requiring me to bend and pry it over it. The new rotors are too big for the dust shields, so they were getting tossed anyways.

The Superforged brackets and calipers are billet pieces. The caliper is one-piece, bolting directly to the bracket. I used a bit of thread locker to lock-in the bolts reducing the chance of over-tightening.

My only gripe with the Superforged is their design of holding-in the pads. To replace the pads, despite the fronts having pins to hold the pads in-place, you need to remove the entire caliper to get to and install new pads. Changing pads will be a real treat. I honestly think I'll just bring the car to Ford and pay them to replace the pads. I'm hoping the provided pads provide more stopping power. If they don't, I'll use them until they wear-out then upgrade to a more aggresive pad.

In a rush to get everything done, I didn't take any after photos. Despite these rotors being massive, they can be another 50mm bigger and they'd still clear my wheels.

If the car gets done tomorrow, I'll run it through the wash and post the new photos, then hopefully test tomorrow night.

Sorry for the long read.

If you run the Superforged, how have you changed the pads? Removing the caliper as I mentioned above?

 

[Cruising68]

I appreciate everyone chiming in. It's nice knowing people appreciate this.

The plan for this weekend was to install the front brakes last night and test tonight. After installing the brakes, I attempted to bleed them. All the air bubbles pushed out, but the pedal still went to the floor. I did ZERO with the rear brakes. Versus fight the fight at 0200, I called it quits.

This morning I woke early and figured I'd bleed the rear brakes.

I don't have a vacuum bleeder, so I did it the old fashion way. Pump to stiff(er) pedal, I then would slide the seat forward using my prosthetic leg to hold the pedal in. Jump in my wheelchair, open the bleeder, then rinse and repeat. Always starting at the piston furthest from the pump.

I have never had a car with an electonic e-brake before, so I never throught to do anything about it. Turns out there is a sequence with the gas pedal, parking brake switch and ignition button that puts the car in maintence mode. Try it as I may, I could never get it to work and the pedal kept going to the floor. So much for testing tonight...

I contacted a friend at the dealership and told him of my dilemma, he told me to bring it in tomorrow and he'll look at it.

Not wanting to go through this again, I decided to change the rear brakes. Big problem though, the parking brake was on, and wouldn't release. The only way to remove the rotor was to take the whole system as one-piece.

The caliper brackets required an impact or ratchet with the trusty jack handle as an extension. I then had to use a ratching wrench to remove the 3 bolts that hold the dust shield on. The way Ford installed the rear dust shield required it to be taken off with the rotor. The issue was the shield was mounted behind the caliper mounting point thus requiring me to bend and pry it over it. The new rotors are too big for the dust shields, so they were getting tossed anyways.

The Superforged brackets and calipers are forged pieces. The caliper is one-piece, bolting directly to the bracket. I used a bit of thread locker to lock-in the bolts reducing the chance of over-tightening.

My only gripe with the Superforged is their design of holding-in the pads. To replace the pads, despite the fronts having pins to hold the pads in-place, you need to remove the entire caliper to get to and install new pads. Changing pads will be a real treat. I honestly think I'll just bring the car to Ford and pay them to replace the pads. I'm hoping the provided pads provide more stopping power. If they don't, I'll use them until they wear-out then upgrade to a more aggresive pad.

In a rush to get everything done, I didn't take any after photos. Despite these rotors being massive, they can be another 50mm bigger and they'd still clear my wheels.

If the car gets done tomorrow, I'll run it through the wash and post the new photos, then hopefully test tomorrow night.

Sorry for the long read.

If you run the Superforged, how have you changed the pads? Removing the caliper as I mentioned above?

Man that’s a brutal bleeding procedure. But you gotta do what you gotta do!

In daily driving, I have not found the need to upgrade pads. But if I were planning on tracking I would look for better track pads. I have not changed my pads yet but it sure looked like you could remove them without the caliper. IMO that would be a really stupid design if you have to remove the caliper. I did not have to remove any rotor shields to install the calipers. IIRC it was just a bit of bending and trimming to fit the rotor.

Regarding bleeding, I only used a cheap Harbor Freight vacuum bleeder that runs off your air line. You just attach it, pull and lock the trigger, and wait a couple minutes as it fills the bleeder tank. I have heard of others having trouble with the two person brake pedal method but I have never even heard of the manual method not working on any car in the past 40 years.


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[Svttim]

Man that’s a brutal bleeding procedure. But you gotta do what you gotta do!

In daily driving, I have not found the need to upgrade pads. But if I were planning on tracking I would look for better track pads. I have not changed my pads yet but it sure looked like you could remove them without the caliper. IMO that would be a really stupid design if you have to remove the caliper. I did not have to remove any rotor shields to install the calipers. IIRC it was just a bit of bending and trimming to fit the rotor.

Regarding bleeding, I only used a cheap Harbor Freight vacuum bleeder that runs off your air line. You just attach it, pull and lock the trigger, and wait a couple minutes as it fills the bleeder tank. I have heard of others having trouble with the two person brake pedal method but I have never even heard of the manual method not working on any car in the past 40 years.


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Those look like the Brembo calipers on the GT350.

 

[MikeyP]

My only gripe with the Superforged is their design of holding-in the pads. To replace the pads, despite the fronts having pins to hold the pads in-place, you need to remove the entire caliper to get to and install new pads. Changing pads will be a real treat. I honestly think I'll just bring the car to Ford and pay them to replace the pads.

The GT350 and GT500 calipers are 1-piece with a solid bridge so those have to come off to change the pads. It takes me 30 minutes to swap the front pads. It's not hard.

 

[Ldstang50]

Man that’s a brutal bleeding procedure. But you gotta do what you gotta do!

In daily driving, I have not found the need to upgrade pads. But if I were planning on tracking I would look for better track pads. I have not changed my pads yet but it sure looked like you could remove them without the caliper. IMO that would be a really stupid design if you have to remove the caliper. I did not have to remove any rotor shields to install the calipers. IIRC it was just a bit of bending and trimming to fit the rotor.

Regarding bleeding, I only used a cheap Harbor Freight vacuum bleeder that runs off your air line. You just attach it, pull and lock the trigger, and wait a couple minutes as it fills the bleeder tank. I have heard of others having trouble with the two person brake pedal method but I have never even heard of the manual method not working on any car in the past 40 years.


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True story man. Ingenuity vs “I can’t do it.”

I’m going to make a longer post IRT bleeding

 

[Ldstang50]

Finished! Stock brakes vs BBK. The 22” wheels even make 400mm rotors look small. We need some 450mm to fill these wheels

 

[Ldstang50]

Got the brakes bled today, even the Ford tech says it's not an easy procedure for the home mechanic.

As I explained above, I could never get a hard pedal when bleeding.

Unbeknowest to me, these brakes are not vacuum assisted, instead they are boosted by an electric motor. Hence the reason for not getting a hard pedal. No vacuum essentially means no piston to increase line pressure.

The electric parking brake is the other thing making this difficult. There is a procedure to eliminate to bleed, but I couldn't get it to work.

In-order to bleed them properly, a connector is attached to the reservoir with a tank and electric push-pump. The tech uses Forscan on sterods, FRDS to release the parking brake AND have the ABS to essentially go to default, or open.

Per the Ford manual, the brakes are then bled backwards from the conventional way. It starts the bleeding from the nearest caliper (FL) and then moves to the next closest (FR), then finally to the RL and RR.

Even with doing it per the manual, it needed to be run twice due to air being stuck between the reservoir and motor.

Once complete, FDRS clears any codes, then reactivates the motor and parking brake. Needless to say, when pads need to get changed, I'll be bringing it in.

Testing will have to wait until I get my RR tire replaced. Brand new and I already ran over a bolt. The hole is too big to plug or patch. I'm fairly certain it's not a month old and should get it replaced for free.

I'm truly lucky to have a patient wife. This is our only car. I've worked on every car we've had with no issues. Granted I didn't tell her what I was doing, but I never envisioned any of these problems. The car was down for 2 days, yesterday and today. She never once got angry, frustrated yes, but not angry. Made me breakfast and lunch everyday, kept my 2yo son inside to allow me to work and reminded me to drink water. I think I owe her something big

 

[Cruising68]

True story man. Ingenuity vs “I can’t do it.”

I’m going to make a longer post IRT bleeding
View attachment 28670

I guess necessity is the mother of invention. Or you are just stubborn like me


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[Svttim]

Those look like the Brembo calipers on the GT350.

The GT350 and GT500 calipers are 1-piece with a solid bridge so those have to come off to change the pads. It takes me 30 minutes to swap the front pads. It's not hard.

Especially with the Cephalon extensions