Brake Upgrade on the way.

Done anything to upgrade or personalise your club car? Wanting some advice on upgrades? Then talk about it in here.
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Smithy
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Brake Upgrade on the way.

Post by Smithy »

Picked up some 620ti calipers on Friday, just got to get myself some ZR160/ZS180 discs and pads now.

I don't know how many of you have driven a turbo, but the standard brakes are scary :shock: Same vented brakes as on the 216/220 , etc.

I thought there was something wrong with mine when I first got the car, turned out it was normal.

The 620ti calipers upgrade is supposed to make it a little less scary and much safer. I thought if I was going to mod the car at all, it is going to be something which will be beneficial. Also the bonus part is they apparently can fit under the 15" 7 spoke alloys. (I am thinking of changing my car back to standard wheels).

I will report back when I have them fitted and tell you about the difference they make.

Going to tidy the calipers up with some paint first though.
Rover 220 GTi Turbo.
Adrian
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Post by Adrian »

I was told to switch to 620 calipers, also Honda Accord calipers are supposed to be good ... would be interested to see how you get on, as I never got round to sorting mine, running drilled and grooved discs with EBC pads, and normal discs, EBC pads on the back .... but they are still rubbish for tarmac rallies, but good enough for the forests....
mach1rob
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Post by mach1rob »

I reckon its due to the lighter weight of the 2/400s but on the Ti they don't inspire THAT much confidence :*laughs*:
Adrian
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Post by Adrian »

I got the following from Gary Boxall, in New Zealand, over a year ago, his website seems to be down at the moment, but he raced a 220GTi, sorry its so long, but thought it might be helpful in the braking dept ....

Adrian
I assume then that you are running standard brakes - easy to see why you arehaving issue on Tarmac stages then. The OE 262mm discs are woefully inadequate even for road use - let alone on a competition car. However, youcan improve things drastically without spending big bucks. If you look at mysite, you'll see that there is a brake conversion using Honda Prelude partswhich takes the disc size up to 282mm and a larger pad area. This was the first ever 282mm conversion on a Rover 220. I was 'forced' to look into this due to the lack of off the shelf parts. Now, Prelude bits are common here,but not in the UK - however, you can do the same conversion by using the discs and calipers from an MG ZS.

Simple bolt on job. You can also use theZS discs and Rover 620 calipers too, but these need a couple of washers to act as spacers to 'off set' the caliper correctly. There can be a tiny clearance issue with the later Rover 6 spoke alloys, but the ones you are using are okay (Otherwise requires approx 1mm to be filed off the caliper body on the edge). This will increase the surface area of the disc andimmediately improve the braking efficiency. And it would be a relativelycheap conversion from a scrap yard.

The rears can also be upgraded by using off the shelf Rover bits as per mywebsite. As far as I know, the caliper carriers on the rear that I've usedin the upgrade are the same as from a ZS. I would definitely ditch the x drilled discs. There seems to be a popular misconception that these are the bees knees. The issue with them is thatthey are very prone to cracking. After getting hot, they surface area willcool unevenly due to the holes. As a result of this uneven cooling, extrastress is put on the material which can lead to cracks forming between theholes. Driving in wet conditions can make the issue even more worse as watersplashed up from a large puddle, for example, can cause great thermal shockto the discs, again causing it to fail. Only recently someone on a Roverforum had this issue on their road car!
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Smithy
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Post by Smithy »

Cheers for the Adrian.

Well I have just ordered some standard vented discs and some ebc redstuff. Hopefully arriving Friday.
Rover 220 GTi Turbo.
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matthewsemple
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Post by matthewsemple »

Look forward to seeing the pictures
Matthews2k
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Post by Matthews2k »

Instead of uprating my front disks on my 220 nasp i bought some EBC Vented and grooved disks with green stuff pads front and rear. And painted the calipers and carriers for good measure. Wanted drilled disks but was informed that this weakens the disk and they can crack and dont last long :( . And it improved the braking no end. The Standard brakes on the 220 are shocking :shock:

Image

Good luck with the disks and pads. if there anything like mine they are now half desent :D
Image
Rover 220GSi nasp / 220GSi Turbo / 420 GSi Turbo
E_T_V
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Post by E_T_V »

The car already has (EBC?) grooved discs, (not sure on the pads), and the brakes are truely dire, I've turned them blue on a few occasions :*laughs*:
They work fine from cold, its just they overheat and fade so fast when you drive enthusiastically.
Long_guts
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Post by Long_guts »

what sort of price is a realistic price to pay for a pair of 620 ti calipers ?
E_T_V
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Post by E_T_V »

You'll need the carriers too, and you'll need to be prepared to grind a little material off the inside of the caliper as well. Having said that prices vary enormously, anywhere from £50 or perhaps less if you remove them yourself from a scrap yard, to £150 for the most expensive ones.

Also remember that you can also use the MGZS180 or ZR160 setup straight from those cars as a direct bolt on upgrade with no modding required.
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