Took me most of the afternoon - had to fight the lug nuts first, then had to make two runs to the parts store. Of course no one at home has any idea where all my metric sockets are, and I really did need a new torque wrench. I bought the set off another member here, and he had already painted them red before his swap - I plan to paint them white in the next week, keeping with my car's "theme".
The swap is very easy - 4 bolts per side, the GT and V6 calipers are the same so the only parts that have to be swapped are the rotors and the mounting brackets. Luckily a friend told me about simply using a C clamp to compress the front brake pistons so I could put it all back together. Took the car for a drive and everything works fine (which was my wife's worry - I haven't wrenched on my own car in a long time)
GT rotor and V6 rotor:
It's a little hard to see the bolts involved here
(hopefully the excess anti-squeal compound dissipates)
Before upgrade After upgrade, notice the difference in the rotor
And the next phase
_____________________________
Auto, C&L, 89 tune by Lidio, 3.73, Tlok, J&M LCA; LPW cover; SS Superstripe, Roush scoop. Dual GT500 take offs. Black bullitts. Shaftmaster aluminum drive shaft.
I bought everything as a set from a member at Black Mustang Club, he upgraded to GT500 brakes and had everything sitting in his garage.
Very easy to do - I only swapped the brackets so I didn't have to do anything to the brake lines. All that you need to get to do the job is a set of GT brackets and GT sized rotors. The calipers are the same - put a C clamp on the piston to get it back to clear with the new pads and reinstalled everything - only took a few minutes on the second side.
So I now have in my garage an old set of V6 rotors, V6 brackets, and a set of calipers painted red. And the dust shields, they are the same for the V6 and GT so I didn't do anything to those either.
< Message edited by JimC -- 4/6/2008 5:36:26 PM >
_____________________________
Auto, C&L, 89 tune by Lidio, 3.73, Tlok, J&M LCA; LPW cover; SS Superstripe, Roush scoop. Dual GT500 take offs. Black bullitts. Shaftmaster aluminum drive shaft.
I can feel an increase in the stopping power - part of that could simply be new pads of course. But it seems to grab harder and pull the speed down quicker. Weather is too bad here to get back to the track and see how it is at the end of the 1/4 with the bigger rotors.
I don't know if it is because I know that there are bigger rotors up front so more rotating mass, but the first couple of days the front felt 'heavier'. Not a handling problem or decreased performance, it just felt like once up to speed that there was more weight. My wife took the car the other day and said that she didn't notice any difference, but she doesn't drive it very often.
_____________________________
Auto, C&L, 89 tune by Lidio, 3.73, Tlok, J&M LCA; LPW cover; SS Superstripe, Roush scoop. Dual GT500 take offs. Black bullitts. Shaftmaster aluminum drive shaft.
2005 Torch Red V6: C&L intake, X-Cal 2, Zabteck Throttle Body, ASP U/D Pulley, Coil Pack, Livewires, MAC Headers, MAC Prochamber, Bassani Mufflers, PowerHouse Driveshaft, 4.10 Gears, T-Lok, and a bunch of other stuff... (Best ET: 14.312)
This may be a double post, for some reason my network went down right as I hit the "OK" button, sorry if it ends up that way.
The rear brakes and rotors are the same for the V6 and GT Mustangs, no difference in the parts or size. So no, I didn't swap anything to the rear. I had the rear brakes done a month or so ago when they wore through the pads on the driver side.
I bought the set up from a member at Black Mustang Club who upgraded his brakes to GT500 style and they had about 5,000 miles on them (a lot more pad than my old brakes which needed to be replaced in the next month). He had already painted them red so the bracket is red for now. The only differences in the front brakes are the size of the rotor and of course the bigger bracket to clear the bigger rotor so I re-used my stock caliper (no bleeding of the system needed that way).
If the weather cooperates this weekend I will be repainting all 4 calipers. I bought white G2 paint to stay with the black and white look of the car. Almost everyone does red it seems, and nothing on my car is red. I thought about black, but after photoshopping it they just disappeared and made the black bullitts look "chunky" so went with the white. I had a friend photoshop the red and black first and then someone suggested the white.
All that you really need to get to complete the swap is a set of GT rotors and the brackets for the GT front brakes which you can order at the Ford dealer (if the parts guy knows anything I discovered - he insisted they were exactly the same, but I had already seen the parts and they are even stamped with GT and V6 and there is a big difference in the brackets and the rotors).
< Message edited by JimC -- 4/16/2008 5:27:18 PM >
_____________________________
Auto, C&L, 89 tune by Lidio, 3.73, Tlok, J&M LCA; LPW cover; SS Superstripe, Roush scoop. Dual GT500 take offs. Black bullitts. Shaftmaster aluminum drive shaft.
Right - the red bracket is the GT size. Take a look at your brackets and one will be stamped "S197 GT" and the other "S197 V6". At least as I recall they had the "S197" on them, but definitely they have the GT and V6 stamped on them. They are different sizes - I think I have some pictures to post that I pulled from another forum ----
Found them:
_____________________________
Auto, C&L, 89 tune by Lidio, 3.73, Tlok, J&M LCA; LPW cover; SS Superstripe, Roush scoop. Dual GT500 take offs. Black bullitts. Shaftmaster aluminum drive shaft.
You need 2 caliper brackets part #6R3Z-2B134-B, the same left and right. I need to do the job because I am going with FRPP 18x8.5 Polished Bullitts and the V6 caliper bracket just barely clears the spokes of the rim. Just need a reputable source for cheap GT low mileage take-off rotors or expensive aftermarket GT rotors.
< Message edited by 157db -- 4/18/2008 1:02:14 PM >
Had a chance to make several passes at the track today and test the bigger front brakes. Big difference, brought the speed down much quicker, in fact I was able to take the first turn off at the end even after several passes in a row.
Although my times were higher than normal today (basically because I was trying a lot of different launch RPM and tire pressures and trying to determine how long a burn out is needed with the Mickey Thompson ET Streets) - maybe it was the bigger brakes and their bigger rotating mass - was still able to beat the Honda and Acura crowd that was there and kept trying to line up against me each pass, left them at the tree and they were still trying to catch up at the end every time.
_____________________________
Auto, C&L, 89 tune by Lidio, 3.73, Tlok, J&M LCA; LPW cover; SS Superstripe, Roush scoop. Dual GT500 take offs. Black bullitts. Shaftmaster aluminum drive shaft.
Had a chance to make several passes at the track today and test the bigger front brakes. Big difference, brought the speed down much quicker, in fact I was able to take the first turn off at the end even after several passes in a row.
Although my times were higher than normal today (basically because I was trying a lot of different launch RPM and tire pressures and trying to determine how long a burn out is needed with the Mickey Thompson ET Streets) - maybe it was the bigger brakes and their bigger rotating mass - was still able to beat the Honda and Acura crowd that was there and kept trying to line up against me each pass, left them at the tree and they were still trying to catch up at the end every time.
My best time was down on these runs - only a 15.02, usually I run mid to upper 14's. I was trying a lot of different things that day to find the right combination of factors. Will be trying some new things this weekend again and shooting for the 14's again, all NA with mild bolt ons.
_____________________________
Auto, C&L, 89 tune by Lidio, 3.73, Tlok, J&M LCA; LPW cover; SS Superstripe, Roush scoop. Dual GT500 take offs. Black bullitts. Shaftmaster aluminum drive shaft.
Printable Version
Upgraded to GT front brakes on my V6 today (56 K beware) - 
I bought a second pair of mount then. Oh well... guess more is better than less. 
- was still able to beat the Honda and Acura crowd that was there and kept trying to line up against me each pass, left them at the tree and they were still trying to catch up at the end every time.
