Front Caliper Upgrade

[Paul2x]

I have 34' brembo's and rotors on all 4 corners of my car currently, and had 33 brembo's up front for a short period (swapped b/c 34's had less miles)

But Both 33 and 34 front calipers were the same(also R32 GTR V-spec) I didn't need to drill anything, just need to get slightly shorter bolts for the fronts and the rears bolted right up with the OE hardware.

13' up front and 12' in the rear...

The cool part of it all was the the whole swap only added 2lbs to the car b/c the Brembo calipers are less than half the weight of the OE S15 units.

Only issues:

I'd recomend getting a 33/34 master cylinder b/c pedal gets a little lighter and their is a little too much rear bias with the OE S15 MC.

And you lose your hand brake , but you can get a few extra parts and your good.

Once set-up u can't beat it IMO

Zero brake fade or loss of peadal feel at the road course.

stops way better than my S13 w/ r32 gtr (non-brembo's) and friends S14 w/ Z brakes on all 4

Oh and they look sweet too! :thumbs:

But if you don't want to fork out the $$ I think "Nicely" has the next best thing

 

[dcoghlan]

The R32, R33, Z32 calipers (front & back) are straight fit onto 5 lug silvias S14 and S15. The R34 range uses bigger bolts by one size. Not too sure about the Z33s...but they sure wouldn't fit.

I can confirm that z33 brembo's do fit on the front of an S15. Just need to drill the mounting holes out to 14mm.

But Both 33 and 34 front calipers were the same(also R32 GTR V-spec) I didn't need to drill anything, just need to get slightly shorter bolts for the fronts and the rears bolted right up with the OE hardware.

Both Z33 and R34 front brembo's require the mounting holes to be drilled out to 14mm. I know this cause I have had a set of each for my S15. I had to get rid of the R34 ones due to some issues with them and I replaced them with Z33 ones. The bolts used on them are EXACTLY the same.

Rear 34 GT-R brembo's will bolt straight on as you said.

R33 ones will bolt straight on without the need for drilling, like you said, just shorter bolts are required for the fronts.

 

[sillbeers15]

I can confirm that z33 brembo's do fit on the front of an S15. Just need to drill the mounting holes out to 14mm.

Ah,...I did not specify earlier that I was refering to the rear Z33's mount that differ, cause I remember a Z33 owner tried to swap R34 rear Brembos caliper onto his ride but found that they didn't fit.

Anyway, I swaped the Z32 rears onto my S15 and everything fitted exactly except the 2 items require that require changes. One, the handbrake cables requiry changing in length, I opted for the GT-1 engineering (Japanese supplier) customized handbrake cable instead of retrofitting the length as I was told that it could be done and two, the different mounting on the brake hose to use Z32 rear calipers onto S15, so I opted the customised part from PDM racing (Canadian supplier) for proper fit.

My front uses a customised bell housing (common size as EVO VII) and mounts to accomodate AP Racing CP5200 calipers w. 330mm disc.

I know that few of you recemmend changing the master cylinder pump to a R33, R34 or Z32 item for better brake bias and padel feel. Strangely, I find the stock feel good and the bias well sorted so instead I ordered another new S15 brake master cylinder when I upgraded the brakes and clutch padel frame to the reinforced Nismo item. This is to reduce flexing of the stock housing under heavy footwork.

 

[ichi-go]

^^ A trader was saying the brembos found on the Z33 is identical mechanical wise but is actually sits slightly outer than the R34 brembos so you will need a lower offset to clear it.

 

[Nicely]

One, the handbrake cables requiry changing in length, I opted for the GT-1 engineering (Japanese supplier) customized handbrake cable instead of retrofitting the length as I was told that it could be done

Or just get a set of R33 cables. They fit straight on.

 

[sillbeers15]

Or just get a set of R33 cables. They fit straight on.

- Nicely

Before I did my Z32 rear brakes (full set of 48 Nissan stock parts, including every nuts and bolts) onto my S15, I've searched through almost all related Japanese and US sites to locate for part numbers of stock Z32 parts and the 2 customized parts (which one of then is the handbrake cable). No kind soul mentioned about R33 cables that could be suitable for use in the conversion then. So I went ahead to order all the parts after my homework was done. I'm certain that it would have cost less than the part I've ordered from GT-1 Engineering! But since my brake conversion was done, it was too late for me to use the information. Perhaps others thinking about the conversion could benefit from it. Anyway it was really great fun then to see all the 48 parts come together to form the rear drumb, disc and caliper of Z32 before they were fitted onto my ride! To my pleasure, it was sort of like building a full scale 1:1 model kit!

In my opinion, the Cusco brake stoper and the Nismo brake/clutch padels housing contributed to lots of braking improvement on S15 as it reduces lots of firewall flexing when the brake padel is depressed to pump up the brake master cylinder! The rest of the braking work is then done by the hydralics in the car.

 

[dcoghlan]

^^ A trader was saying the brembos found on the Z33 is identical mechanical wise but is actually sits slightly outer than the R34 brembos so you will need a lower offset to clear it.

thats correct

The Z33 ones sit 5mm further out.

The outer part of the Z33 caliper is identical to the R34 ones, its the ineer side of the caliper which is different, and thats the part which affects the offset of the caliper.

 

[sillbeers15]

Lots of S15s in Japan use the Z32, R32, R33's 2 pot/300mm dia. disc. OEM rear brakes setup to match a aftermarket front caliper/disc setup.

The lightweight 1240kg S15 takes advantage of the heavier other Nissan siblings' rear brakes swap to improve braking power!

Even the HKS drift S15 uses this combination:

 

[ichi-go]

Personally I think all drift cars used this setup to benefit from the independant drum setup. Handbrake is more important to them than sheer braking power which aftermarket brakes dont offer. I'm sure if they want to run 6pot rears, they will. They just didn't want to.

 

[sillbeers15]

Personally I think all drift cars used this setup to benefit from the independant drum setup. Handbrake is more important to them than sheer braking power which aftermarket brakes dont offer. I'm sure if they want to run 6pot rears, they will. They just didn't want to.

- Ichigo

Aftermarket brakes also utilise the identical rear drum setup!

Show me one S15 with 6pot rears setup? :rotfl: I'll belive you if I see one.

For a front weight bias car, the front brakes are always the main! For a rear engined and mid engined car then some uses same disc size and caliper/pad size. For FF car like the DC5 type R, only front brake calipers are brembo while the rears remain single floating calipers. Thats b/c of front weight bias more than a FR car! I'm sure a pro drift car like the HKS sponsored team have all the budget to get a pair of aftermarket rear calipers like some other teams do!

For a 1240kg car, the Z32 rear setup is more than adquate. Front to rear brake balance is very important. I say that because I had my front AP racing brakes installed 2 days before I had installed my rear Z32s....my ride braked real badly..the ABS would easily lock up due to the unbalanced tight front brakes!

 

[ichi-go]

Well I've never seen 6pot rear on an s15 but have seen in other cars before. Identical 6pot front and back

 

[gunner93]

Front to rear brake balance is very important. I say that because I had my front AP racing brakes installed 2 days before I had installed my rear Z32s....my ride braked real badly..the ABS would easily lock up due to the unbalanced tight front brakes!

Guys, with stock four-pots in front and uprated two-pots R32 at the rear, any idea if the ABS will lock-up and how bad the rear bias will be?

 

[TriniGT]

Question, does the S15 have the same brake shoe and caliper combo like a R32 or do all you guys just bolt up caliper and leave out the brake shoe setup? I am in the process of upgrading my brakes and was thinking about getting the R33 front and rear setup with ebrake lines and brakes shoe setup but was wondering if I have to put on the entire brake shoe setup and run the R33 ebrake lines? Anyone with passed experience please enlighten me.

 

[Nicely]

If you're fitting R32 rears, you will need the shoes and R33 cables or you'll have no handbrake...

 

[Topper]

Will the R33 Brembo's be a straight swap?

 

[ichi-go]

Yes it will be a straight swap

 

[Topper]

Thanks :thumbs:

What about disc size? for the R33 caliper

 

[sillbeers15]

Tropper,

For R33GTR, disc size is f:320mm/r:300mm.

Gunner93,
I've explained in my earlier post, the brake pad & disc size upgrade for front and back should be propionate not to upset the f/r brake bias.

It does not matter the number of pots in a caliper as the more number of pots only means the caliper can apply more even force to push the brake pads against the disc for more effective braking. For AP Racing 6pot and big 4pot caliper comparision, the 4pot pads cover >90% of the 6pot....so the incremental braking power between the 2 are say 20%.

Now many choose to upgrade to the R33 Brembos over the stock S15 4 pot for bigger brake pad area and lighter calipers as the Brembos are aluminium alloy while the stock S15's are made of steel! Above all, they're simple swap and available used.

Increasing disc rotor size is simple cantilever effect theory, so the bigger the disc, the same force applier by the brake calipers will make braking much more effective and bigger surface discipates heat better, thus reducing brake wrapping.

So a simple rear brakes upgrade to the R32 setup can upset the brake bias.
Btw it is lots more work to upgrade the rears as the whole e-brake assembly needs to be installed onto the S15 before the simple looking R32 2pot calipers and disc can be hooked up. The stock s15 rear calipers take care of e-brake and the r32's does not. So why not just go a step further to increase the front disc setup. Stock disc. are f:280mm/r:250mm diameter.

 

[gunner93]

Thanks Sill for that. Would love to get my hands into that but I'll do the PFC first. :nod:

 

[Topper]

Tropper,

For R33GTR, disc size is f:320mm/r:300mm.

Thanks Sill, I think :wack: