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Porsche Brembo "monoblock" conversion

We all know that the "E-Brake" as fitted to our cars will AT BEST hold the thing stopped on a very slight incline when it is in good health and properly adjusted. We are never going to use the E-Brake to stop the car as if we have to use it for that we will have bent sheet metal.
I did not bother with having an "E-Brake" in my toy. I have installed a hydraulic handbrake which is used to apply the rear brakes to rotate the car as needed at speed.
I am somewhat puzzled at everyone acting as though the factory installed E-Brake is such a good thing.
John Lane.
 
JohnLane said:
I am somewhat puzzled at everyone acting as though the factory installed E-Brake is such a good thing.
Click to expand...

Likewise, I would MUCH rather have a hydraulic e-brake that I could use for fun u-turns, drifting, and winter driving. Among those I know with a 240, my e-brake is perhaps the best, and it's still not good. It's also a hassle to take apart, as anyone who has done it will know.
 
JohnLane said:
We all know that the "E-Brake" as fitted to our cars will AT BEST hold the thing stopped on a very slight incline when it is in good health and properly adjusted. We are never going to use the E-Brake to stop the car as if we have to use it for that we will have bent sheet metal.
I did not bother with having an "E-Brake" in my toy. I have installed a hydraulic handbrake which is used to apply the rear brakes to rotate the car as needed at speed.
I am somewhat puzzled at everyone acting as though the factory installed E-Brake is such a good thing.
John Lane.
Click to expand...


John no arguement here, I DID ask you how to do a hydrallic ebrake. Problem is as you suggested for a street car that relies on the ebrake for parking the car on hills and such, this would not be a good idea.

Personally I'd love (and probably still will) to do it.
 
Is the e-brake on the 240 much diff than the one on a 740. If not I am a believer in the "emergency brake" as a couple of weeks ago I pulled my car down from 65mph very fast when I had not pressure due to bad mc. I had to drive 10 miles home using it as my sole source of brake power.
 
JohnLane said:
I am somewhat puzzled at everyone acting as though the factory installed E-Brake is such a good thing.
John Lane.
Click to expand...

I refer to it as a handbrake or parking brake.... I don't call it an emergency brake. Often where I park my car there are few opportunities to drive my wheel into a curb or parking stop (many of which would destroy my body kit if I did), so having a parking brake that works correctly is essential for the real world in a street car with a manual trans. Leaving such a car in gear only and walking away is not a very good option unless you start carrying a tire chock with you for parking. I can agree that I see little need for a parking brake on a race car.
Dave B.
 
At some point I will get pictures of my hydraulic E-Brake up.
It is not soooo pretty for those of us with the swank street ride but it is exceptionally effective at applying the rear brakes for fun or otherwise.
Those of us who wish to still have the OE handbrake could have steel hats made up to work with nice big racin' rotors. Those of us with lathes tend to be fond of wierd projects. So they will be a couple hundred a pop. They will no longer be a wear item.
Have a good weekend guys. Hornets Saturday night at www.evergreenspeedway.com
John Lane
 
This thread is quite old, but did anyone actually do some braktests with the r-brakes in front and stock in rear? In norway, we have to approve our cars each second year and they also check brakebalance!
 
Since 2004, I'm not sure how many other folk have added the R front brakes to their 240s besides myself. I believe my installation is unique, so I don't know how useful you'll find my information.

My car's a 244 with an iron head V8 in it, with a stronger front weight bias than the other two folk who've posted on this thread. I've also run my calipers "upside down" to preserve the staggered piston size relationships Brembo engineered into this system - the bleed nipples point downwards so they look a bit funny and I've got to suspend the calipers upside down to bleed them, but I believe there's a performance advantage. Similar to Dave, I removed my rear limiting valves and otherwise kept my brake system stock. I've got brand new rotors front and rear, undrilled and unslotted, and Hawk street performance compound brake pads front and rear. Super Blue fluid and braided lines all around, too.

My front brakes are incredibly powerful, and the rear brakes can keep up with them for a few good hard stops before I notice a performance decrease. By "good hard stops", I mean full effort stops from fast highway speeds. After that, I start to notice decreased stability and unpredictable braking effort - not really fading performance, but I do notice that the system isn't performing as effortlessly as it did when it was cooler. With my heavier nose, higher suspension (stock springs) and sedan body, you'd suspect that I'd have less need for rear brake than Dave does with his low, stiff, 4 cylinder wagon, but I think the "upside-down" calipers make the difference here.

I could add larger rear calipers (4 piston solid rotor fronts from an early 240, perhaps) but I believe the heat management of the stock rotors can't even cope with the smaller 2 piston calipers as it is. I'm thinking of upgrading to the R rear brakes but a parking brake is handy. A custom rotor hat to work with the stock parking brake and mount a big rotor might be in the cards...

Also, if you ever put Hawk pads on these brakes, expect terrible performance in the rain.
 
FWIW Porterfield's pads that I use bite just fine from cold, do not fade and are easier on the rotors then other flavors of 'race' pads. They also do just fine in rain, though like any brake pad they will not be there if you are driving through lakes and such.
 
If I were driving thru a lake and my brakes worked this poorly, I'd understand. A light sprinkle is all it takes to DESTROY the braking power of my car. Might be the lack of dust guard? Something to try, anyway.
 
Matt Dupuis said:
If I were driving thru a lake and my brakes worked this poorly, I'd understand. A light sprinkle is all it takes to DESTROY the braking power of my car. Might be the lack of dust guard? Something to try, anyway.
Click to expand...

Try Porterfield's R-4 compound. They will always bite. The will not fade until you boil brake fluid. I have always removed the dust gaurds to be sure that I get as much airflow around the brkae rotors as I can. With AP or the Prosche Brembo brake calipers I have never faded the brakes, and I have driven it HARD.
 
My Parking Brake Works

It works as well or better, for it's intended purpose of parking, as any other vehicle I've owned.
 
blkaplan said:
rob runs a similar style cutting brake on his 242 driftcar.... it works nicely
Click to expand...

as long as there is no means to push the master passed it's home position I see no problem running that in parallel with the stock rear brakes, alternatively, adapting a second smaller rear caliper would be ideal so if there was issue with the hydrualics of your handbrake system they wouldn't extend to the normal brake system. Jaguar XJRs run a similar setup.
 
I'd just like to say thank you guys for having threads like this. They are wonderfully informative for the less than experienced (ie - me) and are a great read! Keep up the wonderful stuff!
 
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