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s14 brake upgrade

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VinceKouki

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Discussion starter · #1 ·
Hi everyone!

I own a '97 200sx s14a. I want to upgrade the front brakes but I dont have money for a fancy brand new big brake kit. I was thinking I could get the brakes off from another car. I have an evo 8's front and rear brake calipers and discs, sadly it would need modificatiosn to fit. My question is: do you know any car which has big brakes originally ( like evos, and stis..) and will fit without modifications?
I already know of the alfa romeo 159 sport/ sporwtagon's Brembo brakes, which can be put on my kouki easily :) But those are hard to find... So is there any more?
 
#2 ·
Decent pads/rotors go a lot farther than you think. Slotted rotors with Hawk HPS is pretty great for any street setup under 300hp.

Q45 and Z32 are about as basic of an upgrade as you'll get. Not going to explain them, looooads of google-able info.
 
Discussion starter · #3 ·
I am already over 300 HP. she has now around 320 hp. And im building it for drifting. Actually im building a drift ready street car, which i can take to amateur competitions, and when I get skilled enough I can convert it to a race car. But for now i still use it everyday, and I find the original nissan brakes weak... break pads wont improve the break efficiency that much. I think its my fault i forgot to give all information needed :D
So basically I am looking for cars, which are easy/not impossible to find in Europe (i can only get infiniti brakes from teh US, shipping costs more than the brake itself...). The brake calipers should accept atleast 320 mm discs. I did try to google for it, thats how I found alfa romeo 159 sport's Brembo 320mm brakes . They would be perfect, but I couldnt find any for sale.
 
#4 ·
If you want a Euro-specific bolt-in setup, not sure how much help you're going to find. 350Z/Evo/STi are as simple as you're going to get beyond Z32. There's places you can get the Akebono off the Z34 Sport.


320MM rotor? If you're not road racing and doing trailer braking, you won't get the rotor THAT kind of hot and need that size. Drift cars don't spend all that much time on the brakes.

Another thing to think of is with too much caliper, you're going to have to modulate more. With no ABS, those wheels will want to lock up a lot easier and send you further into trouble.

Off the shelf, a Wilwood setup would do more than enough for your needs.


Have you not upgraded the stock setup before? Pads make a HUGE HUGE HUGE difference in how that car stops. That's the most important factor. GTR 6 piston Brembos won't stop for shit on Autozone pads.

I'm doing a brake upgrade at the moment...and I'm at 350hp/343tq in the summer. Z32 or even a Z brembo will be moooooooore than enough. Rotors and pads are much more important than the caliper upgrade. I've been asked many times what brake upgrade I had, only to answer stock and good pads/rotors. There's plenty of FD Pro/Pro-am cars not using GIANT brakes and crazy race calipers.
 
Discussion starter · #5 ·
Makes sense now that i think it through. It was a friend of mine and a car.mech who suggested me getting big calipers and big discs. The friend is a rally racer, and the mechanic guy builds rally cars. They do need huge brakes for the 30km stages. But a drift run is less than a minute, so the brakes wont heat up. Now i get it. Thanks for waking me up :DHowever I found this site Nissan Skyline brake disc and caliper information which says both z32 and s14 have 280mm discs wit 4 pot sumitomo calipers. Whats the point of the swap then?
Also could you please tell me the distance of the original s14 front brake caliper's mounting holes' distance? ( my car is now nowhere near me, so I can't check it myself. i can only get to my car next month)
I found some 300mm aston martin/maserati/porsche caliper which look like they would fit, but i need to know the mounting bolts' distance to make it sure :) Thanks in advance

EDIT: what do you think the best setup woulkd be for me?
 
#6 ·
No idea on the distance. You're also assuming bigger = better. All 4 pots are not created equal. I don't have the time to dig it up, but there's a page out there with actual comparisons of piston size, clamping force, etc.

Rotor size is only going to matter for heat dissipation, which you're not generating. The pistons have a set clamping force, and size doesn't always matter. You're also going to need custom lines, and hope those big fat calipers fit under your wheels, not to mention the mounting bracket leaves enough room for them. The cars they came on were designed to have 300mm brakes. You may not be able to fit a 300mm between the hub and where that caliper mounts, meaning custom brackets, and even bigger rims. Your braking will also be thrown off since the BMC wasn't meant to push those calipers, also why a Z32 17/16 BMC is recommended for brake upgrades.


If EDM got the same calipers as JDM, you've got mooooooore than enough clamping force. Get a set of GOOD pads and rotors and see how you feel. If you're skeptical, get a BMC stopper and stainless lines.

Be a world of difference.
 
Discussion starter · #7 ·
ALright thanks, will figure something out. I have 18" wheels, already got the brake lines changed because i have a hdyro e-brake installed. Thing is I have these evo 320mm discs, so I could just get a real good pair of calipers for the price of getting a z32 caliper and a disc for it (my s14's discs are worn, so I'd need to buy new ones anyways). This is why Im a bit stubborn on getting big calipers. I found z32 calipers on ebay for 180 pounds (including shipping)+80 pounds good quality discs+brake pads... Aaaaand I found a skyline gtr r33's brembo calipers for 290 pounds with shipping, which will accept my disc ( and i also have some pads). I have to find out if these will fit, then i have to decide...
If it doesnt fit i will just do what you suggested :) Thank you anyways !
 
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