Gq upgraded brakes

[gudge]

Just rebuilding my front diff on the comp truck and thought about upgrading the brakes while I'm at it. What model gq was is it that had the bigger calipers and disk on the front and would they fit inside a 16" rim?

[toughnut]

Depending how much you are looking at spending you can contact BrakeFab WA for their upgrade kit. It has calipers off a Nissan GTR and 330mm discs. The kit is also ADR approved and bolts straight on. They make their own discs for this kit. It costs about 2k. Not cheap but an awesome upgrade and is one few true performance kits. It is also designed so you run the same booster and master cylinder.

This is the way that I'll be going with my truck but haven't got the kit yet so can't comment directly.

http://www.brakefabricatorswa.com.au/home

Cheers
Steve

[gudge]

Yeah I don't want them upgraded that bad lol. Does sound like a sweet conversion though.

[toughnut]

I'm pretty sure it was the EFI GQs that had the better brakes. You can also put GU calipers on with the GU brake master and booster.

[MikeH]

This is the prototype kit. Production versions use a slightly different looking caliper but its still the same dimensions where it matters, it has nissan cast in it too.
If you want to go cheaper look for an EFI TB42 front diff which has two piston calipers.
the GU calipers *from memory* have a different bolt spacing on the caliper. the knuckles are definitely a very different casting. You should check they will fit before paying for GU Brakes.

You may notice in the picture the caliper is forward of the diff in the GQ big brake kit, not at the back but they are up fairly high so they are still protected. the GU upgrades have the caliper at the back close to the standard position, the different knuckle design on the GU has more room.
Repeated stops from well over 160kph without any fading in a wagon which is pretty heavy. The high speed testing was not on the street of course.
We absolutely destroyed the normal GQ brakes in the same conditions, they had high performance pads and slotted rotors.
If you run significantly upsized tyres or tow a van you really should look at an upgrade of some sort.

[toughnut]

Thanks Mike. I wasn't sure when you'd chime in.

I have a GQ and a GU front diff in my shed at the moment so I'll have a look tomorrow to see what the differences are.

[MikeH]

No worries, I was a bit iffy at the cost at first too but I'm a convert. I now have the trust in the car to push it a lot harder.
Next project is a high performance TD42 clutch with a lightweight flywheel.

[toughnut]

You'll love the light weight fly wheel. The engine will be way more responsive.

[Borris the Blade]

just received my upgrade kit in the mail from brake fab... looks the goods... minimum 16" rims needed

[Skegbudley]

You can fit pads from a 4.8 into standard GU calipers for much better braking.

[MikeH]

just received my upgrade kit in the mail from brake fab... looks the goods... minimum 16" rims needed

Post some pics once they are fitted, it would be good to show the current calipers that are in the kits.

[Borris the Blade]

just received my upgrade kit in the mail from brake fab... looks the goods... minimum 16" rims needed

Post some pics once they are fitted, it would be good to show the current calipers that are in the kits.

same callipers as in above pic... just waiting on some new rims to fit this kit then ill post up some pics

[GUtripper]

As Skeg said, 4.8 petrol pads in the front of a diesel Pootrol, and if you haven't done already flush the standard junk brake fluid out and bleed some new high quality fluid into the lines.

Cheapish to do, and quite a difference.

Oops just saw the reference to GQ by the op........ Meh.
Change the fluid either way.

[ozy1]

GUtripper,

in regards to upgrading gu brakes bu fitting the 4.8 patrol pads to the diesels, ive just had a look at the bendix website and they list the same part number for both, can you shed any more info on this?

[Patrolgod]

I put an extra booster inline with my existing booster and it gave me plenty of stopping power.

Only thing is extra pressure means having to up grade the flexible lines.
Also you get a half second delay for the pressure coming off when you let go of the pedal.
But maybe a bigger lines to the booster would fix this.

[91Mav]

I put an extra booster inline with my existing booster and it gave me plenty of stopping power.

Only thing is extra pressure means having to up grade the flexible lines.
Also you get a half second delay for the pressure coming off when you let go of the pedal.
But maybe a bigger lines to the booster would fix this.

Could you post up a pic of your two boosters in series? Pretty idea... in a ghetto kinda way.

[Patrolgod]

I put an extra booster inline with my existing booster and it gave me plenty of stopping power.

Only thing is extra pressure means having to up grade the flexible lines.
Also you get a half second delay for the pressure coming off when you let go of the pedal.
But maybe a bigger lines to the booster would fix this.

Could you post up a pic of your two boosters in series? Pretty idea... in a ghetto kinda way.

sure i will as soon as my status changes from red to blue as i belive i cant post pics yet

chris

[Patrolgod]

Turns out i have done 5 posts

So see below for the inline booster that is spliced into the existing booster
As i said there is a little brake lag when you take your foot off the brake but it can lock up 4 35x12.5 cooper stt's no problem all on standard brakes
All i did extra was put in new flexi lines from the diff to the brake housing incase they wanted to split but its been 4 years of hard driving and never had a problem.







The lines run across the fire wall maybe if they were closer or bigger the lag would go away?
But i got used to it quickly and dont even feel it now.

[GUtripper]

GUtripper,

in regards to upgrading gu brakes bu fitting the 4.8 patrol pads to the diesels, ive just had a look at the bendix website and they list the same part number for both, can you shed any more info on this?

Use Nissan genuine pads, Bendix are garbage.
Nissan have two part numbers for GU pads, one for diesel, one for petrol. The petrol ones are different compound and way better. I could hardly get the fronts to lock up with the diesel pads, and once they were hot they got worse.

[Borris the Blade]

[MikeH]

oh god, what made you pick PURPLE?

[toughnut]

oh god, what made you pick PURPLE?

Aren't they purty!?!?!?! haha. Do they make those for men as well?

I'm just waiting for mine to arrive now.

Just be warned that not all 16 inch wheels will fit on these brakes. Some 16 inch wheels (Namely alloy rims) use the same 15 inch center and just dish the rim down in the center to fit the 15 inch center so they have a 16 inch bead for the tire but still have a 15 inch center.

[MOO_R32]

2K seems like ALOT for these? where i work, they sell these calipers for under $200 a pair, they are the same caliper as an R32, R33, R34, 300zx and R32GTR skyline.. braided line costs aprox 150-200 cant imagine the discs cost 1600? surely they would just be a 2piece disc off another vhechle.. ? i might try and figure it out, as id like to put these calipers on my gq..

[Borris the Blade]

Haha the flash makes it look quite bright it's much deeper in person and looks really good with the silver over black body

Very happy with the upgrade ... Driving 35"s daily and pulls up on a dime ... Can actually drive it hard and rely on pulling up in time now

[toughnut]

2K seems like ALOT for these? where i work, they sell these calipers for under $200 a pair, they are the same caliper as an R32, R33, R34, 300zx and R32GTR skyline.. braided line costs aprox 150-200 cant imagine the discs cost 1600? surely they would just be a 2piece disc off another vhechle.. ? i might try and figure it out, as id like to put these calipers on my gq..

The discs are not an off the shelf item. They manufacture both the hat and the disc as well as make modifications to the calipers. The also make the bracket required to mount the caliper and they have also had it passed ADI standards so they can sell it as a legal on road kit. So yes the sum of the parts is no doubt much less but you also have to pay for intellectual property because they have done all the development on this kit.

[MOO_R32]

ah yea, fair enough... looks the goods tho

[MikeH]

Believe me there is not a lot of margin in it. It may seem like a lot, but price up an aftermarket brake upgrade kit for a commodore or equivalent sports-taxi and you'll see its not a radical price. We knew if it was too high they just wouldnt sell and have taken a long time to break even.
There is quite a lot of machining time in these kits and there are a lot of high quality fasteners required to make it all go together.

If it was easy someone else would have done it a long time ago. GQs are getting past 20 years old now.
If you don't want to pay that much for brakes that's fine, but it isn't expensive for what you get..

[toughnut]

Still waiting for mine to turn up. It was meant to be sent last friday. I hope it gets here today or Monday or I won't see it for another 6 weeks. Thats if it doesn't get sent back. I didn't think it would take longer than a week just to get here from W.A.

Just called them. The kit that was sitting on the shelf last Thursday is still sitting on the shelf and hasn't even been sent yet. So now I have to wait until I get back from work before they get sent. The service could be a little better.

[cavalry]

If your looking for a cheap upgrade RDA rotors and bendix pads are a good way to go but as you can see from the posts above, the sky is the limit on brakes. All out job will be around the 2k mark or more... Just depends on your wallet.

[toughnut]

Well mine were still sitting on the shelf a week after they were meant to be posted so I'm goint a different way. I have to drop my front diff off to a workshop in Sydney and they are going to build up a kit for me. We're going to find the best calipers to run inside 16 inch rims which will be either Wilwood, Brembo or AP Racing. Won't know until we fit it up and see which ones fit the best. Then a complete custom system from the pedals to the brake rotors.