My Racetech kills brake rotors and I'm sick of it.

Got the car 10 years ago and previous owner had Strange 1 piece rotors with Wilwood calipers.

He Said Wilwood rotors warped so he tried Strange.....OK..

Ran car some and found Strange rotors stop signed and split at slots....replaced rotors.
Tried various pads.......NO problem stopping anywhere going 175 to 180 at 1950lbs.

Couple seasons and rotors are looking shot.

I have a seperate hand brake system but use it only minimally.....in the pits mostly and to add some braking if I feel like it after a run...

Decided after replacing Strange 1 piece rotors at least twice.....I'd try Wilwoods 2 piece....Al. Hat drilled steel rotor....

Just took them apart last night.....Rotors not nearly as bad as the Strange but they warped enough that rotor to hat bolt holes are elongated and getting bolts out was difficult. Hat would not come off axle from rotor hitting flange. Had to remove bolts just to get them off. Had them lockwired and locktited...


Car is as built by Racetech.....probably 7/8" master cylinders..plenty of pedal ratio.....never measured brake pressure but no reason to think its weak. Pedal is always good....not hard and as I said stops fine....


Looking at options....


Mark Williams.....but sales tech immediately points to the brake pressure issue.....

Strange 2 piece stainless...not really sold on that option...nobody uses stainless steel for brake rotors....makes no sense to me...

Yea I know this has been beat to death over the years.....

I'm bored.....LOL

Lettuce shredders, split rotors, stop signs, pull your chute.....not enough brake pressure....


I'm Sick of buying brake parts that don't do the job for long.....

Put the Williams on and don't look back. You will probably get 2 years on a set of pads.

I was a MW fan for a long time but the absolute best I’ve have ever used are TBM brakes...give um a look..

My car has MW dual calipers and rotors, it's 9 years old and still has the original rotors and they are fine.

I'm changing over to a floater very soon, if you're interested shoot me a PM.

I'm going with M-W

I Could not resist....The Price was fine but would increase Jan 1 .....The Strange 2 piece SS kit just about the same price....

Just ordered after a good discussion with a sales tech about brakes and a couple issues on my car brake related.

I Have to check a few things and do that brake pressure test.

I'm Also replacing the axles..the old ones look like new...15 years old...but one side has a spacing issue.....adding to my brake problems...

Merry Christmas to myself presents.....!!!

I'm to old and stupid to quit drag racing...LOL

quote:

Originally posted by 369dragster:
Put the Williams on and don't look back. You will probably get 2 years on a set of pads.

Exactly what I did.

quote:

Originally posted by SCDIV1:
I'm going with M-W

I Could not resist....The Price was fine but would increase Jan 1 .....The Strange 2 piece SS kit just about the same price....

Just ordered after a good discussion with a sales tech about brakes and a couple issues on my car brake related.

I Have to check a few things and do that brake pressure test.

I'm Also replacing the axles..the old ones look like new...15 years old...but one side has a spacing issue.....adding to my brake problems...

Merry Christmas to myself presents.....!!!

I'm to old and stupid to quit drag racing...LOL

You won't be disappointed!

Bender, you don't count, you go to fast!!

I have the new Moser Stainless rotors on our new cars and couldn't be happier. This was a great upgrade.

SL...

I’ve killed 4different brands of rotors, usually about a season if I’m lucky, I’m not sure why either....I put a rp sensor on the brakes and can get 1400 psi so I feel I have plenty of pressure.... I’m not sure what causes it unless I just use the brakes to hard or to much

It’s an issue to many racers have had problems with. I am looking at everything and really don’t see anything blatantly wrong at all. The brake pressure issue not being high enough and generating to much heat makes no sense to me. I could ramble on about that but will skip it. Bottom line the brake material used to make rotors for drag racing and the average designs are not good enough for what we do to last. I could have bought the Strange or Moser brakes but since MW was always given high marks by anyone using them that’s what I bought. The Stainless material is kind of a new deal and if it’s better, great. I could have just bought Strange stainless rotors but went with all new stuff. I wanted to do this swap years ago...box is on its way already!

Rich, I thought I’d share what I learned as my old post on brake rotor life apparently is no longer up.

My car has Lamb brakes, solid rotors and their pads. When I got the car it had a 1” master cylinder. I chewed up a set of rotors in a year and a half, they were heat cracked. Called lamb they said not enough brake pressure. So I went to a 7/8 MC and verified that I could easily make 1100#. Still chewed up rotors (and pads) and got lots of brake dust on my wheels. Probably 80 runs out of pads and 150 out of rotors.

Meanwhile, my wife’s car has MW brakes and their ferodo pads. Pads last over 200 runs going 7.50, rotors look great, very little brake dust on the wheels.

This year I was going to bite the bullet and get MW for my car, but I decided instead to get new lamb rotors and try the ferodo pads, same that’s on my wife’s car. Went all year on the pads, rotors look great, minimal brake dust on the wheels. Over 100 runs and still at least 50% pad life left, so I’m happy.

Doesn’t really make sense though, the lamb pads put so much dust on the wheels that makes me think they’re soft and they shouldn’t be hard on rotors, but they were. The ferodo pads have little dust and are easier on the rotors so for whatever reason it’s better on my car.

quote:

Originally posted by seabass:
I’ve killed 4different brands of rotors, usually about a season if I’m lucky, I’m not sure why either....I put a rp sensor on the brakes and can get 1400 psi so I feel I have plenty of pressure.... I’m not sure what causes it unless I just use the brakes to hard or to much

Pull your chute more!!

quote:

Originally posted by "The Bender":
My car has MW dual calipers and rotors, it's 9 years old and still has the original rotors and they are fine.

I'm changing over to a floater very soon, if you're interested shoot me a PM.

Is your duals with one or 2 master cylinders?

Where do you buy ferodo pads? Besides the Lord of the Ring movie...

Steve, two separate systems, one foot and one hand.

SCDIV1...Just sharing some information I've gathered from a Hawk Mfg. engineer and from a tech rep from Mark Williams...Line pressure is really essential to Drag Race vehicle stopping safely and the Rotors and Pads living a long and happy life ! The analogy that illustrates how low or inadequate line pressure builds excessive heat and kills rotors is best explained by thinking about a bench grinder and what happens if take two pieces of metal and use them like caliper pads to try and stop the spinning bench grinder...If you have sufficient clamping pressure you will quickly stop the grinding wheel with little heat build up ...If you have minimal clamping pressure the "metal pads" will only serve to ride against the wheel generating a lot of heat and not stopping the wheel..The heat generated in stopping with a brake rotor and brake pads determines braking efficiency and brake component service life... A drag race vehicle is unique in racing as the shutdown area is limited ,and the first hit on the brakes needs to be effective to not only slow the car safely and quickly but to preserve rotors and pads.. The Nark Williams site does a great job of explaining what I am trying to..lol one area that is overlooked when selecting calipers is bridging strength or anti flex in the caliper design. If you have adequate line pressure which is determined by pedal ratio and master cyl bore size you will need strong calipers!!! otherwise they will flex and any flex instanly kills pedal feel and stopping power,,, pedal ratio in a dragster is tricky... We have an undercover car and the line pressure was way low and kurt was aware... In fact his pedal set up could not generate 1100 psi on the first hit of the pedal which is the MW recommendation. I worked hard to achieve the right ratio ,line pressure and stroke volume which translates into excellent pedal "feel" and safe and efficient stopping .We race T/D 2050# ..185 1/8 218 1/4 mile and this is the 4th season on the pads and longer on the rotors.. MW calipers and rotors..Hawk HB 237 .480 Black Pads,,,, The Hawk engineer stressed that the pad needs to perform well when cold almost like a stock OEM pad..as drag cars dont have time to heat up a metallic type compound pad...If your building heat up tp make that pad work then your running out of race track shutdown... just my experience... my Son is the driver and I am not ever going to compromise his safety....Line pressure is a very critical part of the brake package....you would be surprised at how many chassis builders cannot tell you what the line pressure is at the caliper on the race cars they build....

Some real good info there and yes the MW tech mentioned that some name brand cars had unacceptable pedal ratio. My foot pedal has over 6” from pad to brake rod. Pivot point is about 2” from rod. I assume that is a better than 3-1 ratio. My hand brake lever has a huge ratio. I installed the handbrake as a failsafe backup. I tend to use it for secondary brake apply and may be doing more harm than good. Don’t really know the answer. The Wilwood rotors I just took off are not really that bad. The hat to rotor bolt hole area elongated making removal of the rotor not possible without removing the bolts first. I could have fixed it pretty easily and reused it all. Not gonna do it......Thanks for some good posts and info !

I run on very very short tracks running 4.30 if I run ferodos I would end up in the woods...that’s why they last...Carbon Lorraine FTW for pads...

No doubt to me that various brake pads on a given rotor can be a huge difference. I go back to my ‘96 GMC pickup. Bought it new. 454 4x4 and it never stopped well to me. Tried various pads and rotors over a lot of years. Only pad that stopped well was a Canadian company I saw hyped on a tv car show. Satisfied Brakes was the companies name. Nothing else stopped like those. That Company went out of business by the time I tried to buy them for another truck !

Ive ran Strange & MW they all bell over and start dragging or crack. I started running Lamb iron rotor a few years ago they are great. I ran 2 years with them on 1/4 mile every weekend no problems. They are thicker/Heavier then normal dragster rotor but work well.