E30 brake upgrades?

J

jrez

New member
My 85 325e is not a racer,but I'm still looking for input for brake upgrades.The car is currently being converted to a M52 engine,and is being restored/upgraded along the way.the brakes sucked with the original engine,so i was not surprised to find the front pads were smaller than my ice racer Scirocco.I would like to possibly use brakes from another BMW,if beneficial.I'm not currently considering willwood,baer,etc,but will be if there's nothing else worthwhile.To put it simply,best brakes for the buck.
John
 
most bmw people i know runing its are very satisfyed with their brakes. (however, that said, bigger is always better) the pad size has almost nothing to do with brake power, size relates to wear..larger=longer. an easy upgrade would be M3 hubs with the M3 11.? rotors and callipers. an adaptor would have to be made for the calliper...can do same on rear. or, the complete M3 suspension can be swapted to your car. if you decide to go this way, i have 15" wheels for this conversion--we'll talk.

a better solution, i think, would be to add brake ducts like those from bimmerworld, and very good pads, like mintex 1155's. they will work at the track but are temp tollerent enough for the street. the difference in brakeing is tremendous. then if this is still not enough, consider larger rotors and wheels.

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Chuck Baader
SEDIV ITS #36
E30 BMW
 
Originally posted by jrez:
the brakes sucked with the original engine,
Click to expand...


If this is the case, there is something wrong with the brakes. If your stock brakes are in good working condition, there is no way that "sucks" would be an accurate description.

In 10 races last year, I never had any brake problems. No pedal fade, no excessive heat. I did install new rotors and calipers, and I was using Porterfield R4 compound pads. I don't have any ducting on the brakes. All brake components are %100 stock.
My suggestion is to get your rotors turned, install new calipers and a good compound street pad.
I don't believe that your car has ABS, if it doesn't you may find a proportioning valve could help. The type that limits pressure to the rear brakes. This will allow you to apply more pedal without the rears locking up. With the added weight to the front of the car from the M52, you will need to get more braking power at the front without the rears locking.
 
Thanks for the replies.Went out and bought 2 new brembo rotors and stripped the front calipers.I did'nt find any evidence of wear in the cylinders,and they were not leaking externally.Thanks also for the brake pad recomendations,could'nt get any suggestions locally.
Cheers'
John
 
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