TCE big brake kit installed

ssinstaller · Apr 26, 2005

TCE Front and Rear big brake kit installed

The instructions that came with the kit were great. Most of the info here is copied directly from TCE's instructions. I should have more pictures and another write up of the rear install later this week.

[*]Secure the car on proper stands.

Never work under a car only supported by a jack.

You can buy a cheap set of jack stands at autozone for about $20.00

[*]Remove the wheels.

[*]Remove the factory caliper and hang to the side for now with the hose still attached to it.
- The factory caliper is held on by two 17mm bolts behind the rotor
[*]Remove the factory rotor(and dust shield if you car has them, mine didn't)
- Even thought the TCE rotor is much larger, it isn't heavier than the stock rotor
[*]The uppermost dust plate boss must be notched for bracket clearance-this can be done with a hacksaw.

[*]Place the TCE caliper bracket on the INBOARD side of the steering knuckle and slip the supplied round spacer between the bracket and the ears of the knucle. The short leg of the bracket will be at the bottom. Secure in place with the supplied metric bolts, nuts and washers, torque these bolts to 65lbs.

[*]Install the Earl's caliper adaptor fittings into the calipers with a small amount of teflon tape or pipe sealant on the pipe thread and securly tighten into the caliper body. The conical end of the fitting is for the brake hose end.
- The fitting should be tight with about 1/2 of the threads into the caliper
[*]Place the TCE hat/rotor onto the hub and secure in place with a couple of lugnuts to prevent it form dislodging from the hub.

[*]Place the proper calpier(bleeders pointing up) over the rotor.

[*]secure the calpier to the mounting bracket with the supplied SAE bolts, washers, and nuts. Little fingers help with getting at the nuts. Tighten them to 45lbs after the following step.
[*]Check the caliper centering on the rotor and use the supplied shim pack to properly center the caliper or mounting plate as needed. Final fit on center is not overly critical, however shims which are fit must be the same size on top and bottom to insure caliper is not mounted at an angle, and mounting bolt length should be dounble checked when complete.
- I needed to use about 1/8" of shims on each side to space the calipers farther outward, the calpiers centered perfectly with the shims.
- The Wilwood caliper is at ALOT lighter than the stock caliper
[*]Caliper to mount and mount to steering knockle allow for a bit of radial adjustment, rotate the rotor to be sure there is no rotor to caliper bridge contact and if there is; loosen one or both pair of mounting bolts and 'pull' the caliper out from center a bit and retighten.
- I didn't have any problems with clearance at all
[*]Fit the supplied pads to the caliper being sure the friction surface is in contact with thew rotor and secure in place with the pad retaning bolts of the caliper.
- You will need a 3/16" allen wrench, and an 11mm socket to tighten the retaining bolts.
[*]Remove the factory caliper and rubber hose from the car at this time, using the proper line or flare wrench on the hard line fitting.
- A set of metric flare wrenches is alot cheaper than replacing a destroyed factory hardline.
[*]Replace the factory hoses with the supplied braided hoses and secure them in place with the spring clips.
[*]Fit the TCE hose end (-3 AN) to the caliper adaptor fitting installed earlier and tighten 'snug' but not extreme.

[*]Check the 'flow or lay' of the hoses and rotate them as required by turning the hoses on their crimp ends, if need be they can be rotated by very carefully and lightly holding them with a pair of pliers-do not damage the crimp area by crushing or use of vise grips.
[*]Final hose fit can and should be checked with the wheel back on the car, and the car on the ground to be sure the hose is clear of all potential danger.

[*]Double check all hardware and fittings.
[*]Bleed the brakes
[*]Refit the wheel and torque to manufacturers spec.

vindication · Apr 26, 2005

6 piston?? (wow) omg
did you notice any nosedive?

Roywhitep5 · Apr 26, 2005

Mikey444 · Apr 26, 2005

sick stuff!!!

hellcat · Apr 26, 2005

Looks good. If only I had money........

goldwing2000 · Apr 26, 2005

Sure, it looks good but wave bye-bye to some of your whp.

Did you install this for some reason other than looks? Just curious.

Rennoc · Apr 26, 2005

Why is he going to lose whp from a big brake kit that says it weighs the same? Im not at all saying your wrong I just dont get it.. how is he losing it?

JCell · Apr 26, 2005

rotational mass....

that looks sick, i love black calipers

IllBinfrontofya · Apr 26, 2005

But you're not rotating anything other then the rotor, and that weight the same amount as the stock ones did. So, he shouldn't lose any whp at all. With those rims, he might even gain a little(if they are lighter).
I want to know how big of a difference is the kit making, and are you having problems with locking up the wheels at all? Did you lose your ABS with these? Also, what did you pay for the set?

mazpro · Apr 26, 2005

looks awsome, wish I had the money for those.

I wouln't mind seeing more pics of the car with those wheels.

mobomelter · Apr 26, 2005

i still say 6 piston calipers = kiss the steering wheel..... with your head. but they look kickass.

vindication · Apr 26, 2005

sow you need some 4 pistons up in the rear to even it out and a bigger master cylinder. mmm, that would be nice

ssinstaller · Apr 26, 2005

goldwing2000 said:
Sure, it looks good but wave bye-bye to some of your whp.

Did you install this for some reason other than looks? Just curious.

The wilwood calipers are ALOT lighter than the stock calipers. The rotors are larger than stock, but the entire rotor hat is aluminum, so the rotors still weigh less than stock(I didn't put them on a scale but me and a couple of people at work passed them around, and we all thought they were lighter). I'll see if I can get the exact rotor and hat weight from Todd at TCE to compare the weight to the stock rotors.

The loss of unsprung weight is very noticable, but I don't really notice any difference in acelleration.

I did install them because they look good. But after I get about 20,000 miles on the car(I've only got 9000) I'm probably going to install the hiboost kit, so I'll need them then.

vindication said:
sow you need some 4 pistons up in the rear to even it out and a bigger master cylinder. mmm, that would be nice

Can't replace the rear caliper or you lose the ebrake, and a larger master cylinder would make the pedal softer, but I did upgrade the rear brakes also. I just finished installing the TCE brake upgrade for the rear, and I'll post the writeup for that later tonight.

vindication · Apr 26, 2005

I'm not familiar with the 3, can you tell me why you would loose the e-brake? also, what is the rear upgrade consist of? also, nosedive?

ssinstaller · Apr 26, 2005

vindication said:
I'm not familiar with the 3, can you tell me why you would loose the e-brake? also, what is the rear upgrade consist of? also, nosedive?

The ebrake is integrated into the rear caliper. The rear kit comes with 11.75" rotors, new SS lines, brakets and hardware to relocate the stock caliper to clear the larger rotor.

When I was bedding in the front pads last night there was some nosedive, but nothing extreme(the car still stopped hard enough that my camera on the seat ended up on the dashboard). It's raining here right now so I cant really test the front/rear combo(It locked up pretty quickly just playing around in the parkinglot). But the pedal feels great, very firm with about 1-2" of travel total.

ssinstaller · Apr 26, 2005

Rear brake kit install walkthrough

Because the rear kit had only been test fit and not finalized, it did not come with instructions. But even without instructions it only took about 3 1/2 hours to install. The kit uses the stock calipers so you can keep your existing rear brakepads, but I still had the bad stock pads so I went with porterfeild rear pads(purchased seperatly).

[*]Secure the car on proper stands.
[*]Remove the wheels.
[*]Remove the factory caliper and hang to the side for now with the hose still attached to it.

[*]Remove the factory caliper bracket
- It's held on by 2 14mm bolts
[*]Remove the factory rotor
- Both of mine were stuck,I had to use a rubber mallet to get them off
[*]The dust plate must be notched for bracket clearance
- A tin snip works fine
[*]Install TCE bracket using supplied bolts and nuts, the nut should be on the inboard side of the bracket. Torque to 50lbs

[*]Install TCE rotor using a couple of lugnuts to hold in place.
[*]Install factory caliper bracket using factory bolts and TCE spacers. Torque to 50lbs

[*]Install the TCE stainless brake lines
- You will need a 10mm and 14mm flare wrench to remove the stock lines, and a 10mm and 13 mm flare wrench and a 17mm open ended wrench to install the TCE stainless lines.
- It's easier if you install the caliper end of the line first
[*]Install the pads and caliper back onto the factory caliper bracket

[*]Make sure the brake lines are clear of any obstacles.

[*]Bleed the brakes
[*]Final hose fit can and should be checked with the wheel back on the car, and the car on the ground to be sure the hose is clear of all potential danger.
[*]Double check all hardware and fittings
[*]Bleed the brakes
[*]Refit the wheel and torque to manufacturers spec.

mobomelter · Apr 27, 2005

now does this kit eliminate abs?

ssinstaller · Apr 27, 2005

mobomelter said:
now does this kit eliminate abs?

I don't have ABS. But I don't see how it could cause any problems if you did.

Aricjm15 · Apr 27, 2005

mobomelter said:
now does this kit eliminate abs?

all of the ABS equipment would still be in place, shouldnt cause any problems

mobomelter · Apr 27, 2005

oh man no abs with 6 piston calipers.... that would be awesome.

TCE big brake kit installed

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