Supra TT Big Brake Upgrade for SC400

[jibby]

Sc400T looking for results-

Did you ever do this swap and do you like the results? Curious, any draw backs that you can think of. Like the rear brakes not working well with the new front supra 4 piston calipers. Did the Supra rotors need an offset ring to fit tight? How's your braking at high speeds? Thanks bro-

 

[SC400TT]

Sc400T looking for results-

Did you ever do this swap and do you like the results? Curious, any draw backs that you can think of. Like the rear brakes not working well with the new front supra 4 piston calipers. Did the Supra rotors need an offset ring to fit tight? How's your braking at high speeds? Thanks bro-

Jibby, that is not done yet...After I get the TT done, and the car actually running...Then I will do a 4-wheel Supra TT brake swap...

Ryan

 

[jibby]

I just spoke with rdm20.. and we could experience some spacing issue on clearing the new Supra tt calipers. That seems to be the only potential problem that I may run into, if your sc is not lowered you should be ok. Apparently, if the car is lowered spacing out the front wheels is very difficult. Infact RDM.. said he used a machined hardened washer and stainless steel shim to get the job done.

Anyway, thanks for the input..

 

[jibby]

Ok - I am going to bore you all with the play by play Supra BIG 4 piston brake swap with the SC400 ... This is a basic job but there are some issues that come up so check this, and feel free to let me know if I am wrong about something....

The shopping list goes as follows:

Both front larger Supra TT rotors, both front Supra TT rebuilt calipers, toyota brake pads, also the springs and holding rods for the pads, and most likely you will need wheel spacers/adapters for the rims to clear the larger Supra calipers.

Ok, now the fun begins follow the pics one at a time and you can figure it out. The first pic is of the stock front sc400 caliper and rotor. Next, I then remove the caliper by removing the two bolts in back. Then the next picture is of the bare rotor shield guard that must be altered to fit the larger Supra rotor, now most people remove it. However, I chose to cut it down to fit so the new Supra rotor would have some rear protection. I then sanded down the cut edges to a smoothe touch and painted the metal ends so it would not rust. Here are the pic's

 

[jibby]

I then installed the new larger Supra rotor and made sure there was no rubbing going on with shield guard and rotor, all was ok. I then checked for play and found the rotor to fit pretty snug on the hub, just a trace of play.. No fitting ring needed I hope on the SC's...not so sure about the LS's. I then proceeded to bolt on the new caliper by reinstalling the two back bolts and used thread locker. Some people choose to hook up the brake line before caliper installation but I chose to do that later for a few reasons. Anyway here are more pics...

 

[jibby]

Next I try and mount the rim and tire on, and no cigar, the rim hits the larger Supra caliper (displacement/offset is off) which I already new. I then go to the 1/2 inch wheel adapter and install it to make the rim offset right to clear the caliper. The next pic shows the rim clearing the caliper by 3/8"...

You may notice the damage to the upper edge of the rim and that was caused recently by a cement pylon flying out of the back of a flat bed truck on the freeway. I turned to avoid as hard and and fast as possible and the front rim clipped it on the freeway..I almost crashed and died it was ridiculous. The car bounced up as well, very scary...Anyway, that really pissed me off....

Back to the topic, I then finished everything and looked and noticed my front tires and rim stick out just a little too much compared to the rears and if I hit a hard dip the tire just might rub the top of the fender lip. So I am basically ruined for now. So next I must reduce the spacer size by 1/4 of an inch get longer wheel studs installed or even grind down something, I don't know yet. The car looks a little chollo'd, vatto, essay, Mexican style holmes!!!!...I can't have that...That is all for today.. The finishing touches resume tomarrow.

 

[xirforever]

Lookin good man, i so wish i could spend my money on this mod now with track season coming around the corner. Hows she feel?

 

[jibby]

Xir...- I Haven't bled the brakes yet and I still need to figure out how to get the rim offset right. I will post results hopefully tomarrow. In regards to not affording these calipers and rotors, if you have junk or wreck yards near you, you can search out for an older set of tt Supra calipers and rotors for cheap, rebuild yourself and paint.. It might end up being cheaper then you think...

 

[JamesNSC4]

Nice looking setup John. Your rims does look it sticks out a bit. The best way to fix it is to get new wheels with offset that can accomidate for big brakes. Or buy supra tt wheels which should fit it perfectly and cheaper. Last, I don't know if this will work or not is to get thin tires and smaller width to stretch it to have a bigger gap from fender.

 

[Lextreme II]

Jibby,

Those rotors going to make your car shake when brake. Your rotors are not centered and they are not balanced. The SC studs are little smaller then the Supra rotor stud holes.

That is why we sell a modified Supra Rotors so it centered. The red circles are missing from the new supra rotors. Without those little holes, your rotors will move slightly and will not be a good ride when brake.

 

[jibby]

Tell me aint so!!!!:banghead: Dave, when you say make my car shake is that at braking at high speeds only, or all the time? It's a little late now to turn back, I will say this much I can tell you these new rotors fit real tight on the hub. I must remain optomistic and after all I am into this pretty little braking setup for about $550.00. If there is a problem I will fix it, but thanks for the heads up anyway. I believe the smaller fitted spacers may just fix the shake problem...Anyway Lex, being a contractor I got the tools to get the job done, I can grind, weld, you name it..Even have a drill press to match those holes in needed on the new rotors. This car will roll, or should I say brake.....


James what's up? Thanks for the advise, and I hear you on the rims, but I just invested a couple Benjamim Franklin's $$ on having them widening, oh and tires. So I cannot see them go out the door just like that...I will grind if I have too, down size the spacers a bit and make this work... Just need to think it through fresh in the morning... See ya

 

[Lextreme II]

This is a problem with LS400 conversion also. Doing this type of drilling at home will be very tough. Beside drilling the holes at the problem location will take a lot of precision. Secondly, the holes need to be recess also.

You can do couple of things.

1. Add a spherical spacer into the stud but still clear the hole
2. Change to larger studs
3. Get the rotor machine (That is what we have)

P.S. Cutting the dust guard is not necessary. Just push the dust cover back and bend it slightly will clear any more parts.

 

[jibby]

Lex - Any chance I can mail in these rotors to you and have them machined, or do you not do that? I am not familiar with the spherical Spacer in the studs? Anyway let me know thanks.....

 

[ChrisV]

While it looks good, I hope you're not planning on using these blingin' crossdrilled rotors on the track...


Crossdrilling is only for looks anymore, as the reason rotors were crossdrilled in the '50s and '60s doesn't exist: pads don't outgass anymore (i.e they don't generate a layer of hot gass between the pad and rotor causing fade). Crossdrilled rotors also reduce the mass of the rotor, reducing it's ability to remove heat from the pad. And crossdrilling creates stress riser locations that will cause cracking under the increased heat soak loads that the reduced mass creates.

Basically, if your stock brakes don't fade and can lock up the tires (or make the ABS work) no amount of larger braking will stop you even an inch shorter OR more often.

 

[Lextreme II]

Lex - Any chance I can mail in these rotors to you and have them machined, or do you not do that? I am not familiar with the spherical Spacer in the studs? Anyway let me know thanks.....

Nah... sell them on ebay and get the proper one with screw holes. I have a rotor company make them for me. I dont have any spherical spacers. The car might feels fine now, but once those 5 slugs are slightly loose or after a hard brake, the rotors going to dance within the studs. Therefore imbalance rotor (positional that is) will cause some vibration.

 

[jibby]

ChrisV - I have heard that crossdrilling statement before. I bought this Supra brake crap about 8 months ago, and just finally got around to installing it now. I have been procrastinating all along because I knew I would have to face some trouble spacing out the rims to clear the calipers.. So here I am facing the trouble head on..

I am not going to disagree with you about your opinions on Crossdrilling, but from my experiences with driving on my stock sc400 rotors for a year then switched to drilled and slotted rotors for a year after that, I can honestly say I noticed an increase in braking power and have had no problems and only positives to report with using the crossdrilled and slotted rotors. No warping, vibrations, decrease in braking, etc...Those rotors did however create some additional braking noise, and not the sqeeking kind of noise that you get from using cheap pads, no pad lubricant and not turning the rotors. In addition to the noise I also noticed that the pads do wear faster.

ChrisV can I ask you why does Brembo still put out drilled and slotted rotors for newer sports car and some even from dealer sold new from factory? If they were not safe and reliable why would they still be selling?. .. They can't be all that bad in combination with a good set of brake pads, I am living proof of that? The only opinion I can offer on this subject is what I noticed when I changed the rotors out from one year to another. So my thinking at the time was if the rotors worked great this long lets try the same with the Supra rotors, I wasn't even doing it for looks.... Anyway thanks for the warning...

 

[jibby]

Thanks LEX for the feedback.

 

[stevechumo]

David,

As for your statement of the smaller SC studs that have a little play on the Supra rotors, I think that's ok. I'm using all stock SC brake components with the rotors having more than 5 stud holes. The rotors also have a little play around the studs if I turn the rotors either forward or backward, and I never had any problems with braking and vibrations. I think as long as the rotor's center bore fits tighly on the center spindle, and that's what's important, it shouldn't be any problem. But if the rotor's center bore is slightly larger than the center spindle, then that's a big problem. Well, just correct me if I'm wrong. You might know more about this Supra brake swap than I do, and that's what I believe in. :smileysex

 

[jibby]

There is a tiny bit of play at the center hub with my Supra rotors and I think Lex is right. It's a much tighter fit with my other stock sized rotors and they don't vibrate... I have a plan and I will let you guys know how it goes in a couple of days.:Thinkingo

 

[xirforever]

While it looks good, I hope you're not planning on using these blingin' crossdrilled rotors on the track...


Crossdrilling is only for looks anymore, as the reason rotors were crossdrilled in the '50s and '60s doesn't exist: pads don't outgass anymore (i.e they don't generate a layer of hot gass between the pad and rotor causing fade). Crossdrilled rotors also reduce the mass of the rotor, reducing it's ability to remove heat from the pad. And crossdrilling creates stress riser locations that will cause cracking under the increased heat soak loads that the reduced mass creates.

Basically, if your stock brakes don't fade and can lock up the tires (or make the ABS work) no amount of larger braking will stop you even an inch shorter OR more often.

I thought it was the other way around?
I thought the slots were for removing the gasses and the holes were just for cooling.
Thats why you see porsches and other cars rolling on drilled rotors and not slotted.