Gadgedizzle

So after googling, searching, researching, and doing everything I can to avoid joining a forum, I finally broke down and did it.. I just recently purchased a 92 2wd Toyota RC/SB pickup and decided I was gonna make it my play toy..

First things first, I repaired the smog items that needed repairing, smogged it, Reg'd it, and yanked the entire drivetrain (Except diff) the day I brought it home.. I then spent the next 2 weeks swapping in a 1996 Corvette LT1 with a Camaro T56 6-speed transmission. let me just say, it's the most fun I've ever had in a Toyota!! It's ridiculously fast, and at stock ride height it would regularly pull the left front wheel off the ground. After having all this fun I found out quickly that the stock brakes were MAJORLY sub-par for this kind of use. I NEED A BRAKE UPGRADE!

The only brake upgrades that I've seen for this truck are based on the Wilwood modular race brake setup which I don't really agree with, and I'll tell you why.. First the Wilwood brakes are great, I'm not knocking them whatsoever for a race brake, but most all of us DO NOT OWN OR SERVICE OUR TRUCKS LIKE RACE CARS.. Race brakes are designed for high operating temps, abusive use, and designed to be replaced regularly. Because the brakes are 2pc, they're not designed to be turned on a lathe, they're also not designed to be heat soaked then have the brakes sit in one place on the rotor while you wait for a red light. The pads will pull heat out of that one part of the rotor and eventually it will warp there.. Also, the most important. 2pc race brakes have hat bolts that attach the hats to the rotor, and these come loose over time, I know, I've dealt with multiple sets on race cars I service. Because of this, they are not DOT certified to be used as a street driven vehicles brake assembly. The kit I'm working on however is..

After a bunch of researching, I found that I need a DOT brake rotor that will fit like a "K" type rotor that slips over the front of the hub since the toyota uses an odd kind of Type "L" rotor that bolts inboard which offers very slim options for upgrade.

So we have a few options for rotors..
1992 Nissan 300zx Twin turbo 11.2" Dia 1.18" thick 2.68" Center bore.
2007 Nissan 350z(single piston) 12.58" Dia 1.10" thick 2.68" Center bore
2007 Nissan 350z(4 piston) 12.76" Dia 1.18" thick 2.68" Center bore
All these rotors will fit bolt pattern, and center bore perfectly.
Also keep in mind the specs on our brake rotors are
92-95 Toyota 2wd 10" dia .87" thick
As you can see, the rotors I'm looking at are over a 1/4" thicker which means they will tolerate heat MUCH better, will take way more abuse before they heat up, and will dissipate the heat much better. Another option, if you want a very minor upgrade, is get the 5 lug 1-ton rotors and 1 ton calipers.. They're 0.10" larger in diameter and thickness and work much better than stock and should be a bolt on upgrade from what I've read.

Calipers? The only caliper I've seen any luck with so far (Aside from the unobtanium of brembo 4 piston calipers on the 350Z that cost way more money than I want to spend) are the Z32 calipers, 1992 Nissan 300zx twin turbo. The thing to keep in mind is that the caliper is contoured to hug a 11.2" brake rotor, however I'm going to try them on the 12.58" 350z rotor. These are designed to run with a 1.2" rotor, the 4wd Toyota calipers are designed to be used with rotors less than 1" thick and will not clear these performance rotors that I would like to use. Initially, I was thinking that because I'm using Z32 nissan calipers, I can get performance pads now! However, although that's true, these pads also fit Toyota 4wd calipers as their both built by Sumitomo Industries. (Just make sure to verify pad size between the 2 to make sure my info is correct.)

Brackets? well, you just have to measure and make your own. I may take measurements of mine when I'm done and post them when I'm done.. I wouldn't recommend making them out of anything less than 3/8 steel plate.

Because they are 4 piston calipers, I MAY have to upgrade to the toyota 4x4 master cylinder with a bigger bore, but we'll see. Only snag that I see at the moment is the fact that the opening in the rotor hat is smaller than the wheel flange on the hub and also the wheel studs are going to be cut short by about 5mm because of the thickness of the rotor hat when installed.. So, Using a local machinest or maybe some backyard magic and an angle grinder, I may shave the hat to size, and install some longer wheel studs as offered by dorman..

The stock stud size is 12mmx1.5, 14.2mm knurl, 40mm long, 8 mm shoulder.
The new studs I believe are 12x1.5, 14.2mm knurl, 45mm long, 17mm shoulder.
610-462 I believe is the P/N I found that looked like it would work.. I'll provide all part numbers when I get the black magic worked out.. So far, I believe this kit may cost less than $500 with off the shelf auto part store OEM parts.

Discombobulated

Pics of this beast please!!!!

Gadgedizzle

Shifter moved back about a foot.

There's a LOT of room between the cross member and steering and the stock oil pan.

donomite49

that looks downright lethel lol...

the direction is either drag or road race? either way it's one mean toy.
my friend (shop where i did my swap) has a 400 hp LT4 in an all wheel drive astrovan.

Gadgedizzle

yeah, Astros were way under rated or underestimated even with the stock 4.0 V6.. of the 3 or so that I drove, they all moved really well, I can't imagine 400hp.. (Well, maybe I can..)

The direction is actually drifting believe it or not. Worst damn platform to choose for drifting since suspension is suuuper limited and performance upgrades are all grass roots R&D. However, drifting is all about having a good time and everyone wants to be different, so in that case it's perfect. As it is, nobody sees me coming, and when I do something stupid the cops look right past me like there's no way that truck with hub caps and a camper did that.. It's definitely the snake in the grass. gonna try rockin some 99 mustang GT wheels just for now till I find what I want. Stock brakes are SMOKED, and no way am I wasting money going backwards with new stock ones. Besides, it's just that much more "Ohhhh Ahhhh!!" when people see a clean swapped toyota 2wd on steroids and the first performance mods they'd ever seen on one.. it'll be fun.

donomite49

a real sleeper for sure.

keep em spinnin and slidin...

Gadgedizzle

Ok, so I did a little more work last night while the GF was away.. I did an upper and lower BJ flip, and it turned out nicely. I was later forced to go to the machine shop and have the hubs outside diameter turned down so that they would clear the inside diameter of the new brake rotors.. after test fitting the hub/rotor/4 piston Nissan z32 caliper I happened to have, I soon realized I don't have enough room to clear the back side of the spokes on the wheel with my current caliper options (Nissan Z32, Supra 4 piston). It does however appear that I have ample room for some monster 2 piston calipers though.. I'm thinking 2000 LS1 Camaro. We'll see what actually fits when I get there though..

another problem that I ran into was the fact that the rotor height is about an inch or so outboard from the stock 2wd Brake rotor, which means the caliper mounting points are also about 1" outboard as well.. I'm afraid that if I use the stock mounting pads, there will be too much torsional load on them (twisting them inboard or outboard) and they could fail.. So I have to figure something else out.. I believe I figured it out, but I won't know till I go to mock it all up. But damn do they look good on there.

Gadgedizzle

So looking around, I decided not to fight myself. the 350Z 13" rotor was nice, but the hat was far too tall to make a decent bracket. Here, I ended up with another off the shelf rotor.. this one is 12.5" and 1.18" thick.. It fits almost like it's at home and the height is almost perfect for what I did. so.. here's some pics.. 12.5" rotor off the shelf, and I promise every parts store has these in stock. As well as the calipers.. the 4 piston is just too big. it rubs and hits everything.. 2 piston calipers MAY work and can probably be upgraded to later, but for now, I stayed with a large 1 piston caliper, also an off the shelf stocking part. It's small enough to fit the suspension/wheel, and not so small that it provides insufficient braking.

Here's the working brake swap..




Now time to get hoses and try the out!

Gadgedizzle

So I got tired of looking everywhere and finding that Even the pre-runner guys are using these puny ass stock 10"x.75" brakes on their builds trying to stop 31 to 33" tires.. I don't know how they manage unless they drive like grandma..

I only push the envelope with this subject because I don't like spending more money than I have to, and I don't always believe that what everyone says is true just because they said it.. (You need to learn to question....EVERYTHING.)
I also decided this was a mandatory upgrade since I just recently did a Corvette LT4 6-speed swap, and the bigger brakes are mandatory if I plan on driving it somewhat like it's a Corvette. (Why do you think corvettes have such big brakes?)

So long story short, I wanted to build a brake system that used OFF THE SHELF OEM PARTS That you can cat at any o'reilly, autozone, napa auto or any other parts house for that matter. I started with a nissan 350Z rotor.. I decided against it just because the offset of it was questionable.. I did find another rotor that I can promise everyone stocks and is 12.44" x 1.1" which dwarfs the stock 10" x 0.75" rotors, as well as a single piston caliper which uses a pad that's roughly 30% larger than the stock 1-ton brake pads. I used single piston because there is a bit of congestion around the caliper side of the brakes. control arms, and sway bar seem to be a thing that worries me most. This single caliper is more than enough to stop this truck without making much heat.. I agree it isn't as cool as the 4 piston calipers, but I'd rather have mad steering angle than worry about what idiots (People that don't know what they're looking at) think..

So, here's what I came up with.. This brake kit for both sides cost me less than $500 using all brand new parts, and includes everything from hoses to studs. This setup should provide about 300% more stopping power, and 400% more thermal stability than the stock brakes.. that means you can tow, hammer them with high speeds, or even run big tires and these brakes won't care one bit.

vital22re

iTrader: (2)

great! now bolt it on and tell us how they work

turbo8

Actually real prerunner guys get a 4wd spindle and run the 4wd 4 piston calipers. only downside is you now have to run six lug wheels. 4wd spindle won't bolt up to 2wd just for your info.

That is bad ass with the lt1 in there though.

Gadgedizzle

thanks!

So what are they doing? Swapping the IFS knuckle onto the modded 2wd arms? sounds kinda sketch.. Although the rotors are vented and 1" thick, they're still 10" rotors. I mean, I wouldn't "race" or even pre-run a course with stock brakes on oversized tires.. I tried that in Nasa hooked on driving with a civic that had a stock brake setup. that was a bad idea..

LOL

turbo8

This is one way to do it: http://www.chaosfab.com/92300.html

dropzone

iTrader: (6)

Cool. What are your plans for a rear axle? That stocker won't survive too long...

Gadgedizzle

The rear is actually taking it.. I'm kinda in a IDGAF mood about the little 7.5 that's back there.. One of my friends that does nothing but build corolla 6.7" and 7.5" 8", 8.75" Says that the 7.5 is good for a little over 350 if you don't side step the clutch on drag radials.. LOL

I'm looking for a 1ton single rear tire axle, or a V6/Turbo axle which are all roumored to be a 8" 2wd axle.. After I get it, A supra Diff gets swapped and Wier performance in American Canyon has a kit that rebuilds the diff as well as makes it much more aggressive.

I'm also going to add a torque bar to it, like a front diff of the solid axle 4x4's so I can get some sort of IC for forward bite/weight transfer, and later may convert to 3-link/coilover w/Watts link. Just the rough idea of what's to come shortly of this truck.

Gadgedizzle

So here it is.. The swap, installed.

New everything! Hoses, wheel studs, calipers, pads, rotors, hardware, and wheel bearings / dust seals.. Just have to add the 4x4 master cylinder and it will complete this part of the build. It stops sooooo crazy fast.. Best upgrade I've done yet (Aside from the corvette LT-V8 6-speed swap)

Full lock. Driver side looking toward the rear behind the spindle.


Initial test fit.

Gadgedizzle

BTW, Things worked AMAZING all weekend at Summer jam.. Had a few big loads I was carrying around, and even kinda got into a heated high speed race with some guys in a big block chevelle that didn't wanna lose (But lost anyways) and came up on some much slower traffic.. Brakes didn't even warm up after that stop.. They're AMAZING.

Gadgedizzle

Just noticed.

OP, please move to 86-95 Tech.. This is in the wrong forum.
Thanks!

Gadgedizzle

I guess I probably should post this since people keep asking me.. Here's a parts list of what I used.

Parts list.

(these are the NAPA part numbers for the parts I used.)

2000 Crown Vic rotor NB 4886744
1995 Crown Vic caliper CAL SE5162A
CAL SE5161A
1997 camry hoses BH380922
BH380923
banjo bolt H9469-2 or 484-201.1 (x2)
Studs M12x1.5 610-462 (x10)
caliper bolts M14x2.0 - 30mm of thread, grade 10.9(x4)
caliper bracket bolt M12x1.75 - 22mm of thread, grade 10.9 (x4)

You also need to turn your hub OD down just a little so the brake rotor will slip over it. If your machinist is awesome, you can turn the hub down to about 0.005" smaller than the ID of the rotor and this will center the rotor on the hub. Otherwise you're going to need to make a hub centric ring to center the rotor.. There is approx a 0.198" difference between the hub OD and the rotor hub bore ID. Also, the bolts I used for the bracket to the spindle can change to whatever you wanna use as long as it's M12 and long enough to engage in all the thread in the bracket itself. I used 1.75 pitch because it gets a nice solid bite. Finer threads are a little more temperamental and prone to stripping out IMO.. Side note.. I made the bracket out of 5/16 plate which required ~3mm of shim to get a good alignment. If I was to use 7/16" plate, it will bolt right up with no shim since it's 3.175mm thicker.

IF I'm not mistaken, 2000 Crown vic calipers should also work and are 2 piston. Only reason I didn't use them is becuse I'm planning on drifting the truck and the more turning angle I can get, the better. So I need to be able to tuck the caliper between UCA, LCA, and a 30mm sway bar.. We'll see how it fits in a bit.

I've had the brakes on since the beginning of August.. TONS of panic stops, Heavy loads, towing, drag racing, rapid stops from very high speed (>130mph) and the brakes are simply amazing. I don't know how you guys manage with the stock ones..

ALSO, I read somewhere that the 90's T100's used a slightly larger 1-1/8" bore master cylinder that bolts directly up to the 89-95 booster. I'd recommend using this if you have a dual diaphragm booster. The pedal will feel VERY stock and will give a nice solid high pedal. The 1" works fine, but it feels like a typical american car pedal. (Slightly more travel than stock Toyota pedal before brakes stop truck, but it's so minor that I don't mind it.)

Good luck to those of you that want to attempt it.

Gadgedizzle

It needed a badge... So here it is. LOL