Brake ducts

[IOM Black Diamond]

[rockrau]

Anthony@LG Motorsports says they are working on a kit,says it should be ready in a few weeks!

[SSSoon]

Originally Posted by bannonm

Make them yourself. I'm finishing my custom belly pan now, and then the brake ducts are next. I've already test run 2-1/2 duct and that's about the biggest you'll be able to run through the engine compartment and right up to the hub. I just bought spare dust shields at $5 ea and using 2-1/2" coupling for exhaust system at $3 each. This will be cut and welded to the dust shield to attach the hose.

For the intake, I'm using a brake duct headlight mount. I'll need 3" to 2-1/2 adapter since I have not found mounts with 2-1/2" fittings. This will be mounted to the left and right of the lower grille area. There's a plastic air damn that can be cut and the headlight mount attached.

Here's a picture of how the dust shield would like (not from a Camaro). Once I finalize how I'm doing this, I'll post the pics.

How's the brake duct project going? Could you post some pics and a par list of exactly what you bought? This kind of info would be really helpful. I am also concerned about routing through the engine bay as I have some other stuff going on down there (SC coolant lines, oil cooler lines) and would love to see where yours would route. Thanks man!

[grocerygetter]

that looked like an older gt500 duct kit

[jeremywes]

Originally Posted by rockrau

Anthony@LG Motorsports says they are working on a kit,says it should be ready in a few weeks!

Thats what they said a few weeks ago

Just kidding LG... But seriously hurry up

[Parabolica]

I'm going to be doing mine this weekend. I removed the fog lights and will be pulling air in from there. I plan on modifying the backing plate at the other end. I'll post some pics when I get it done...

[rockrau]

I hope the kit from LG Motorsports uses the lower grill area,I use my fog lights!

[L99CAMA2011]

[QUOTE=bannonm;5692756]

Originally Posted by jameslk350

The ZL1 brake ducts aren't that good because you looked at them? One of the reasons why the ZL1 tops the Shelby GT500 is because of its brake ducts and fade-free brakes.[/QUOTE

Yeah if they perform like the Z06 brake ducts they aren't that great. Better than nothing. I "looked" at them and they are the same design as the Vettes. I have friends that race Z06s and they have warped rotors even with those type of ducts. The best design for a track car is putting the cool air right at the hub, period. The downside for a daily driver with putting air right at the hub is anything that gets sucked into the duct gets blown on your brakes.

As for comparing the ZL1 to the Mustang, Avalnch is correct. Do some homework before commenting on something you obviously don't know much about.

I was thinking of making intake brake ducts with a sliding piece to close when you are on the street and open when you are at the track, as long as you have the hose adapter for the shield everything is cake. Also I heard that channeling the cool air between the rotor from the front is better than from the side because this method cools both blades vs. just the inner rotor blade resulting in a cooler inner rotor with a hotter outer rotor surface.

[bannonm]

Originally Posted by SSSoon

How's the brake duct project going? Could you post some pics and a par list of exactly what you bought? This kind of info would be really helpful. I am also concerned about routing through the engine bay as I have some other stuff going on down there (SC coolant lines, oil cooler lines) and would love to see where yours would route. Thanks man!

Actually I'm finishing the belly pan project today once I can make it over to the shop. Then I'm starting the brake duct project. I've done some more research and listened to some other ideas. This has caused me to rethink how to approach this. So, the ZL1 only uses a much smaller dust shield. Why I wondered? My buddy has a Z51 and it has no dust shields at all, the ducts just blow on the brakes similar to the way the ZL1 does. Obviously the dust shields hold in heat. So, since this is not a DD nor will it intentionally see rain I might either go with the ZL1 shields or trim the spares I bought. Still trying to decide if mounting the duct right to the dust shield is worth the effort or just have the duct pointed at the hub/rotors with the smaller shields. Leaning towards running them to the shields.

I'm 99% sure you won't be able to run a 3 inch pipe through the engine bay without smashing it up. I have test run a 2-1/2 duct and was able to get that in without a lot of problems.

So to reiterate, I'm going with the headlight duct adapters and mounting those to the left and right of the air damn in the lower grille. This means cutting out the plastic and riveting or bolting in the adapters to the air damn. I'll need a 3" to 2.5" adapter to run the smaller duct back to the brakes.

Since the dust shield is steel, I'll cut holes where I want the duct to be attached and weld the muffler adapters I found at autozone for 2.5 exhaust pipe.

Using the DRL lights is another way to get air, but I prefer to leave mine intact. The plastic air damn is inexpensive enough that if I remove the ducts for some reason, I can get it replaced.

[bannonm]

[QUOTE=L99CAMA2011;6236297]

Originally Posted by bannonm

I was thinking of making intake brake ducts with a sliding piece to close when you are on the street and open when you are at the track, as long as you have the hose adapter for the shield everything is cake. Also I heard that channeling the cool air between the rotor from the front is better than from the side because this method cools both blades vs. just the inner rotor blade resulting in a cooler inner rotor with a hotter outer rotor surface.

Sounds logical that keeping both sides even temperature, but I wonder if it's more important to keep the hub temps down. I've already melted my wheel center caps because of temperature. I think too it would require a more elaborate adapter to blow air from the front.

[L99CAMA2011]

[QUOTE=bannonm;6236395]

Originally Posted by L99CAMA2011

Sounds logical that keeping both sides even temperature, but I wonder if it's more important to keep the hub temps down. I've already melted my wheel center caps because of temperature. I think too it would require a more elaborate adapter to blow air from the front.

I think I saw this application when I was driving BMWs. Forgot which brand the kit is for but guys using it said it did a better job and reduced warped rotors big time. And yeah that keeping hubs cool thing is a good reason to go with the conventional method of cooling rotors.

[1977and2010]

Here's some pics from my ducts. I used the idea from JohnM. It came out well. He posted pics on here and I just used those. the only thing was the pics still left a lot for me to figure out. like there is two little plastic pieces that I had to cut in the front air dam to run the hoses through. The NACA ducts come pretty big and have to be cut or sanded down a lot to fit against the lower grill. The lower grill does come out with some persuasion without taking the front bumper off. The NACA ducts are zip tied to the lower grill and held strong last December at Daytona even hitting a top speed of 158 mph. Routing the ducting was the easy part. The backing plates pop off with 3 bolts, drill a 2" inch hole where the air can get to the inner rotor vanes and weld that sucker on. Also the NACA duct comes in 3" and you need a reducer that doesnt have the greatest fit so I epoxied that after sticking a couple screw in for good measure. They really can't even be seen unless they are pointed out.
Part #s
2 SPA-D103B 3"- 2 1/2" NACA duct adapter $13.99 ea
1 THE-SS200 2" silicone ducting 11' section $52.99
2 SPA-D100 single small bumper, black NACA duct $15.99 ea
2 2" O.D. exhaust tube, 4 worm clamps, zip ties

[SPCBA]

anyone try the zl1 brake ducts and then add a hose to position the air directly between rotor and the guard?

[bannonm]

Took some time Sunday to start the brake duct project. Very similar to what 1977and2010 and many other have done. I am using a 2-1/2 hose instead though. While a 2 inch hose would definitely be easier to route, I want the larger diameter because eventually I'll make some parts from fiberglass to replace what is routed along the frame. I'll only need a short section of duct tubing from the frame to the dust shield, and from the front NACA ducts to the fiberglass ducting. Right now I need something for a big track outing in May and need this working.

So here what I used from Racer Parts Wholesale. I like their ducts because of the plastic they use can be formed by heating it up. You'll see what I mean in a few pictures what I did with the bumper duct.

2 - SPA-D103A 3" to 2-1/2" NACA Duct Adapter
2 - SPA-D107 Small, Black Air Duct for Bumper, Spoiler or Small Area
1 - THE-SS250 2-1/2" Silicone Ducting- 11' Section
2 - The short steel pipe used to connect to silicone ducting to the dust shield is just a 2-1/2" muffler connector bought at Autozone.

This is the bumper duct cut and bent to fit in the lower air dam.



Using a heat gun, a couple of pieces of aluminum and vise grips I carefully bent the duct. This was done to fit the angle in the lower air dam to give it a finish look.



Here's the backside of the air dam marked off for where I will make the cutout to fit the bumper duct.


Backside of air dam after cutting. Used a dremel with a cutting bit which made it quick and easy.


This is the bumper duct mounted to the air dam.



This is what it looks like from the front. You can see on the right side where the bumper duct that was bent fits over the angled part of the air dam. This helps support it as well.



Here's how the duct attaches to the dust shield. I'll mark the shield up, cut the hole and weld the round tube to it. I'll be taking the shields off because I need to replace the dust shields on my calipers anyway. I can then trim off some extra metal and paint them up nice.



So I'll need to run the duct below the control arm instead of going over it. The 2-1/2 hose will get crushed with the suspension compressed; a 2 in hose might make it through there but my feeling it is will rub also.



I took a bunch more pictures, but this should give you guys some more food for thought. Most of these implementations have been similar, so nothing earth shattering with mine. The only thing I will do differently in the future is to design a duct system made of fiber glass to run along the
frame and avoid the issues with the control arms. For now this will have to wait, time to get on the track.