trying to get a lil' more power

[XJoshua]

also kind of opposite from power i was wondering are the cross drilled rotors an d hawk performance brake pads worth it because im going to need new pads soon, was just wondering what u fellas prefer for brake upgrades

Get the hawk pads. Cross drilled or slotted brake rotors are just a scam to get ricers to think their cars are bad ass. Some cars do come stock with them, but by having your rotors drilled or slotted you loose brake power since there is less meterial to grab onto. Also the slots are meant to evacuate brake dust and gasses. Many newer brake pads dont create large amounts of brake gas.

So stay with you stock rotors, or upgrade to the biggest rotor you can fit inside the wheels.

 

[Beej]

Get the hawk pads. Cross drilled or slotted brake rotors are just a scam to get ricers to think their cars are bad ass. Some cars do come stock with them, but by having your rotors drilled or slotted you loose brake power since there is less meterial to grab onto. Also the slots are meant to evacuate brake dust and gasses. Many newer brake pads dont create large amounts of brake gas.

So stay with you stock rotors, or upgrade to the biggest rotor you can fit inside the wheels.

Agreed, kinda. Slotted/crossdrilled rotors do not cause you to lose braking power. Crossdrilling was first done about 40 years ago in an attempt to reduce the gas layer that reduced friction between the pad and the disc due to outgassing of the pad materials. As said above, modern pads do not outgas as much, so in all but really high performance applications, they can be cosmetic in nature. Slotting helps vent gases and brakepad materials and helps to prevent vitrification of the pads in high performance applications. They are impractical for everyday use though, as they wear the pads down much faster.

In your case LilRhody, to improve your braking, consider going to larger rotors up front, like a WJ conversion or something. And do a disc brake conversion in the rear. There are a few writeups out there for both...

 

[LilRhodyXJ]

are those hawk pads worth it for 60 a pair?

 

[SCW]

Get the hawk pads. Cross drilled or slotted brake rotors are just a scam to get ricers to think their cars are bad ass. Some cars do come stock with them, but by having your rotors drilled or slotted you loose brake power since there is less meterial to grab onto. Also the slots are meant to evacuate brake dust and gasses. Many newer brake pads dont create large amounts of brake gas.

So stay with you stock rotors, or upgrade to the biggest rotor you can fit inside the wheels.

The amount of material is irrelevant, but the location of the "grab" is paramount. Friction is NOT a factor of surface area, so having larger pad footprint won't gain anything. The difference is having the calipers grab as far away from the centerline of the wheel as possible, but get too far without increasing the power of the calipers (improved booster) and performance can actually go down.

I'm bored, so here goes. Torque is force*distance. Your wheels spin with a certain amount of torque on them depending on the speed and weight of the vehicle. To stop the torque from the brake must = torque from the vehicles movement.

As T =F*D, you get larger tires and the mass and velocity of the vehicle place that much more torque to the centerline of the wheels (which is why you would regear, it takes more torque to turn them in the first place). To stop, you have two choices, increase the distance of the braking force from the centerline of the wheels, or increase the braking force. When you get bigger rotors you are moving the application of force further from the centerline and increasing brake torque, as long as the calipers are also grabbing further away. If the rotor just fits up into the caliper further and the pad grabs at the same place, gains will be minimal, like none.

 

[LilRhodyXJ]

makes sense but how di i fix that without paying crazy amounts of money ZJ disc conversion worth it? and is it expensive?

 

[SCW]

makes sense but how di i fix that without paying crazy amounts of money ZJ disc conversion worth it? and is it expensive?

Instead of a new rotor (increased distance) look at increasing the force applied to the brake pads. Use a 95-96 booster for example.

I have decided to skip over the 95-96 booster and go straight to hydroboost. I've pretty well sorted out what I need but the budget was shot before I spent $300 on a new rifle scope today. This winter I hope to be converted over to hydroboost and rear disk brakes, but that's pretty spendy overall. I figure over $500 as a midrange guess but up to $800 if things go poorly. I haven't decided if I'll get different rotors up front, it depends on cost mostly. I really like the setup GoJeep has for sale but not the price.

 

[LilRhodyXJ]

i dont even have close to that amount of money...is there anything cheaper that will help a little..im not concerned really that bad i've leanred to drive it but around my town its no biggy its when i drive up to school on the highway at the 65 mph speed limit and then driving around the campus which is in "the big city" people drive like nut bags and the traffic is terrible so it gets a lil hairy.. the jeeps got 89000 on it and it has never had new brakes... so what should i do?

 

[Beej]

i dont even have close to that amount of money...is there anything cheaper that will help a little..im not concerned really that bad i've leanred to drive it but around my town its no biggy its when i drive up to school on the highway at the 65 mph speed limit and then driving around the campus which is in "the big city" people drive like nut bags and the traffic is terrible so it gets a lil hairy.. the jeeps got 89000 on it and it has never had new brakes... so what should i do?

If you're just doing regular street driving, then just replace the pads regularly with OEM's. They will do the job while you save up to do a conversion. The rear disc conversion is not terribly expensive, you should be able to do it for under 200 USD...

 

[SCW]

i dont even have close to that amount of money...is there anything cheaper that will help a little..im not concerned really that bad i've leanred to drive it but around my town its no biggy its when i drive up to school on the highway at the 65 mph speed limit and then driving around the campus which is in "the big city" people drive like nut bags and the traffic is terrible so it gets a lil hairy.. the jeeps got 89000 on it and it has never had new brakes... so what should i do?

Your profile says you have a 2000? New booster won't help. Like Beej says, rear brakes won't be too bad at a junkyard, maybe as much as $200 on the outside after new pads and fluid, etc. Maybe as little as 1/2 that.

Good luck-

 

[BrettM]

Instead of a new rotor (increased distance) look at increasing the force applied to the brake pads. Use a 95-96 booster for example.

I have decided to skip over the 95-96 booster and go straight to hydroboost. I've pretty well sorted out what I need but the budget was shot before I spent $300 on a new rifle scope today. This winter I hope to be converted over to hydroboost and rear disk brakes, but that's pretty spendy overall. I figure over $500 as a midrange guess but up to $800 if things go poorly. I haven't decided if I'll get different rotors up front, it depends on cost mostly. I really like the setup GoJeep has for sale but not the price.

Can you direct me to any good resources you've came accross for hydroboost?

 

[SCW]

Can you direct me to any good resources you've came accross for hydroboost?

Well, we have now hijacked this thread for our own purposes


I searched the crud out of it here and didn't get very far. Google had a few nuggets scattered around, but Pirate was a veritable gold mine. I'm not a red-start member so I had to search Pirate using Google (in the google search bar type "hydroboost site: www.pirate4x4.com and it will search for that term only on Pirate).

Here is the single best resource there. This should keep anyone busy for the rest of the day learning about hydroboost-

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=305103


For me the first step will be getting a second steering pump and rebuilding it for more performance, possibly adding a cooler at the same time.

Vanco sells a really nice setup for about $700 that has everything you would need but it's just way beyond what I think I can pay. I have seen a LOT of hydroboost boosters with master cylinders sell on Ebay in the $100 range- brand new. Ford parts are significantly more desired than Chevy among those who know hydroboost, but I don't know why. I'll have a local place make up some pressure lines for me, it should be pretty cut-and-dried for me because I'm not running hydrosteering. If you are you may want to work with Vanco, it places a lot of demand on the pump and he has worked out the details. I will get his high-output pump if I don't like my rebuilt OEM pump, his is $150.

 

[LilRhodyXJ]

what exactly do i need to pull off a Zj and what do i need to replace or buy extra to put it on my xj?