Brake ducts

[ssmike]

Looks like a lot of work but it'll look great when you're done! Can't wait to see it finished!

[SSSoon]

Originally Posted by HRD_WRK

Lookin good SSSOON.
More progress pics.

Damn cold weather. No way I was getting 24 hours at 70+ degrees for the glue to set, so I made a tent out of a ladder and a tarp and put a heater in front of the bumper, under there. Kinda made it room temp in there. Am giving it an extra day or two to set, just in case. Last thing I want is for the glue to fail to bond and the pieces fall apart when I start shimming.

[SSSoon]

All done! Pix below. Overall very happy with this. A lot of work, but I like the look and I am happy that I did not drain off air from the main grille area (because I have an extra rad in there for the supercharger plus a big oil cooler and need all the air in the grille area to cool that stuff).

Suggestions to anyone wanting to do this:

- the ACS T4 ports I received were not well finished at the point where the external port snugs up against the bumper. I did as much shimming as possible to get bumper up against the port, but in spots the port is not level and so there's nothing you can do. Looks fine from 3 feet away. Closer inspection, meh. But it's not a show car, it's a track car.

- I bought a 10-foot section of 3" neoprene duct. It turned out to be pretty much exactly the right length. If it had been 1" shorter per side, it would not have reached. Counting myself lucky here.

- The downward sloping vents out of the back of the ducts was exactly the right solution to getting the hose pointing in the right direction. If I had not done that and just had put the funnel pointing back horizontally, would have run into problems at the fender liner I think.

- I used someone else's idea for securing it, heavy duty velcro loops. That way it (hopefully) won't rub through the hose.

- There is a bolt on my front endlinks that is damn close to the hose. Dunno if it will rub through. I may get under there and add some padding and duct tape just in case. Not sure how others got around this.

- Running the hose over the sway bar and under the tie rod looks great when it's up in the air, but when the suspension is at rest the round cross-section of the hose gets compressed to being a little oval-shaped. I wonder what happens when I hit a bump. Did anyone try a different routing that worked? Has anyone tried this routing (over the sway) and run it a few months to see what it looks like after some wear and tear? Wondering if this will become a problem over time.

- The ACS light bars inside the T4 ports are really bright and shine all over the place. I would not want to be driving down the road at night with these on all the time. Would piss off oncoming traffic for sure. Luckily I put in a harness and a switch so I rarely drive with my fogs on. Daytime would be fine - these would just add a little light accent. But won't run them at night unless I need fog lights.

[ssmike]

Great job SSoon! Looks fantastic and functional too!

[td195f]

Originally Posted by SSSoon

- Running the hose over the sway bar and under the tie rod looks great when it's up in the air, but when the suspension is at rest the round cross-section of the hose gets compressed to being a little oval-shaped. I wonder what happens when I hit a bump. Did anyone try a different routing that worked? Has anyone tried this routing (over the sway) and run it a few months to see what it looks like after some wear and tear? Wondering if this will become a problem over time.

Check out my description and photos of how I routed the hose in post # 85 of this thread (page 4). No issues with interference or rubbing with the suspension and out of the way of the 20 X 10 1LE front wheels and tires even with the wheels turned to the stops.

[JusticePete]

Originally Posted by SSSoon

All done! Pix below. Overall very happy with this. A lot of work, but I like the look and I am happy that I did not drain off air from the main grille area (because I have an extra rad in there for the supercharger plus a big oil cooler and need all the air in the grille area to cool that stuff).

Suggestions to anyone wanting to do this:

- the ACS T4 ports I received were not well finished at the point where the external port snugs up against the bumper. I did as much shimming as possible to get bumper up against the port, but in spots the port is not level and so there's nothing you can do. Looks fine from 3 feet away. Closer inspection, meh. But it's not a show car, it's a track car.

- I bought a 10-foot section of 3" neoprene duct. It turned out to be pretty much exactly the right length. If it had been 1" shorter per side, it would not have reached. Counting myself lucky here.

- The downward sloping vents out of the back of the ducts was exactly the right solution to getting the hose pointing in the right direction. If I had not done that and just had put the funnel pointing back horizontally, would have run into problems at the fender liner I think.

- I used someone else's idea for securing it, heavy duty velcro loops. That way it (hopefully) won't rub through the hose.

- There is a bolt on my front endlinks that is damn close to the hose. Dunno if it will rub through. I may get under there and add some padding and duct tape just in case. Not sure how others got around this.

- Running the hose over the sway bar and under the tie rod looks great when it's up in the air, but when the suspension is at rest the round cross-section of the hose gets compressed to being a little oval-shaped. I wonder what happens when I hit a bump. Did anyone try a different routing that worked? Has anyone tried this routing (over the sway) and run it a few months to see what it looks like after some wear and tear? Wondering if this will become a problem over time.

- The ACS light bars inside the T4 ports are really bright and shine all over the place. I would not want to be driving down the road at night with these on all the time. Would piss off oncoming traffic for sure. Luckily I put in a harness and a switch so I rarely drive with my fogs on. Daytime would be fine - these would just add a little light accent. But won't run them at night unless I need fog lights.

[SSSoon]

Originally Posted by td195f

Check out my description and photos of how I routed the hose in post # 85 of this thread (page 4). No issues with interference or rubbing with the suspension and out of the way of the 20 X 10 1LE front wheels and tires even with the wheels turned to the stops.

I spent a lot of time looking at your pics before I did my routing. I think you have a slightly different setup; I tried routing it over the flexible rubber boot as you did, which leads it to the engine side of the body-colored sheet metal. Once I am in there, there is no way out for me. Maybe it is because I have a JRE CAI scoop, or the extra crap from the supercharger, but it is incredibly tight and complicated on the engine side of the sheet metal. Remember that I have to come back to the outside of that body-colored sheet metal in order to connect to my air ducts. I think if you are running off the typical spots just left and right of the radiator, you do not have to go back to the outside of the sheet metal. (rats)

Originally Posted by HRD_WRK

Looks nice SSSOON- thanks for the updates.

Thanks again for all your PM support on the AutoX wheel setup also-much appreciated.

Tim

No probs Tim! Glad the info was useful, man. Pete

[h018871]

Great thread

[SSSoon]

A few other things occurred to me:

- Surface prep is vital. ACS recommends washing areas with 50/50 water / isopropyl alcohol, which I did. But on my test piece (scrap bumper material) I did not and the stuff popped off with very little effort after curing 24 hours. Yikes.

- I used lined hose clamps on all four ends (like regular hose clamps but they have a long metal extension on the inside so that the teeth never touch the hose, i.e. won't rip it while you are tightening.

Now I need to figure out some way to block off the ducts for when I am bedding brakes. I am thinking of some kind of rubber material (like a doormat or maybe a piece of that flexible plastic commercial baseboard material you can get at Lowe's) cut to size to fit in the front openings. Would tuck nicely behind the yellow horizontal bar in the middle of the unit, and push up against the screen.

[bannonm]

Originally Posted by SSSoon

Now I need to figure out some way to block off the ducts for when I am bedding brakes. I am thinking of some kind of rubber material (like a doormat or maybe a piece of that flexible plastic commercial baseboard material you can get at Lowe's) cut to size to fit in the front openings. Would tuck nicely behind the yellow horizontal bar in the middle of the unit, and push up against the screen.

Why don't you just use painters tape. I did that on the vents on my hood when I was doing temperature comparisons to determine the effectiveness of heat extraction. You aren't going to be driving that fast that the tape will come off.

[SSSoon]

Originally Posted by bannonm

Why don't you just use painters tape. I did that on the vents on my hood when I was doing temperature comparisons to determine the effectiveness of heat extraction. You aren't going to be driving that fast that the tape will come off.

Good idea! Never even thought of that.

I gotta go bed my brakes today, will give is a shot. Thanks man.

[driser]

I installed my kit (from JDP) and ran the hoses like SSMIKE (his pictures are a ton better than mine).

All of the prior posts really helped with my install, so thanks to all.

A question for those who have had these kits for a while....any issues with water etc getting in the inlets/hose?

I should be giving them a good test at Road Atlanta in March, so hoping to be able to tell a real difference.

SSSoon - awesome job with your install.

[Avalnch]

First off, I'd like to give kudos to JDP for an excellent product and member BC2010 for his inspiring setup (aka I'm going to reproduce it).

One thought I've had is the greatly reduced size of the dust shield (especially the top quadrant).
Anyone experience excessive dust inside their wheel well now?

[bannonm]

Ok, so those that bought the JDP Quantum kit, how did you manage to make 4 feet of hose work? I know when I did mine in 2-1/2 I had at least 4 foot per side, and SSSoon bought 10 foot and he says any shorter and he wouldn't have made it.

I would like to switch to the JDP kit, but if the supplied hose isn't long enough I might as well just buy the plates from Lambert and get my own hose.