Silvia Club of NSW

Hey guys. i have just recently done a manual ca18det conversion on a s13 silvia and am now looking to upgrade the brakes to match with a my performance goals.

i was just wondering if either z32 or r33 brakes are a straight bolt on for my s13. im planning on buying the whole car, prob as a wreck so i will have all the parts i will need and just swap everything over including hubs and rotors as i want 5 stud aswel.

Also, would it make that much difference if i bought a non turbo one over the turbo version as im guessing the turbo ones would obviously have better brakes.

Any help would be appreciated

thanks.

Turbo R33 and non-turbo R33 are different.

The turbo brakes have bigger rotors, and are a four-pot monoblock caliper.

The non-turbo brakes have smaller rotors, and are a twin-pot two piece caliper. They are also four-stud, whereas the turbo brakes are five-stud.

what about z32 300zx ones, i know they are 5 stud. is there any modifying requried or is it a straight swap. i read somewhere that you have to change the handbrake aswel.

you want the r33 turbo brakes for a couple of reasons.

1) bigger front brakes than the z32
2) you need the r33 handbrake cable bits to make it all work

Unfortunately for the front hubs neither the z32 or r33 are compatible with the s13 chassis. You will need either some converter hubs or some s14/15 hubs to get the 5 stud front.

You will have to do some messing about with brake lines but you could probably use the r33 lines for the job or just do the shortened banjo trick with your s13 front lines.

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meh

hmmm... sounds like a bit of work.

what if i just swapped over the calipers? would that make much of a difference or would i need the discs to be larger for the calipers to even work? im not really expecting more than 150 kw atw so would any of this even be necassary or should i just get my discs machined and get some good brake pads and that should be enuf?

yeah,upgrading brakes properly is just too much hassle...

Personally,I don't think your brakes can ever be too big.

if you're running std CA18 NA brakes,they're actually illegal if you're now running the turbo engine. the chassis must match the engine variant.

the cheapest upgrade is to SR20 single piston fronts. you'll need two callipers,lines,discs,pads,and will also need to swap the master cylinder for a 15/16" unit.
If you're going to that much trouble,you may as well spend a few hundred more on top of what pissy std sr brakes will cost,and go for the R33 setup.


Justin...

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STI - Made in Texas,not Japan.

the CA18DET had the same lame brakes as the n/a

It really depends on what sort of driving you're doing.
If you like to drive fairly hard, or drive through mountain roads, or go to the track you'll want to upgrade the brakes.

As said above, the SR20DET brakes are the minimum upgrade - and with decent pads they'll work fine unless you go to the track.

The next step is S14/15/R32/Z32 front calipers and discs - which will then do the job for 95% of people, even with some track use.
After that you have R33 or GTR brakes, then Brembos.

Even the standard brakes are plenty to stop the car once in an emergency - but if you've already heated them up with a lot of braking they won't be enough.


So, for a street car not driven particularly hard you don't need to upgrade the brakes.
If you give it a bit of a fang or like to go for a run through the twisties, get SR20DET brakes or better.
If you go to the track, get 4 pots.

You don't need to upgrade the rear brakes unless you're doing really serious track work and going very fast.

With any brakes, the pads make the biggest difference, so make sure you run good ones.

I upgraded from SR20DET brakes to R32 brakes once and it was *much* worse - because the pads weren't as good as the ones I had in the old brakes.

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The Engine Whisperer - fixer of things

Thanks for all the info guys. I agree that you can never have big enough brakes coz i do enjoy the occasional fang and i think its really dangerous driving harsh with the stock brakes.

Im putting the engine and all that in this weekend so i guess ill just see how it goes when its done and if i still think the brakes are really shitty then i might just get them machined and put some decent pads on and see how that goes for a while.

So will i pretty much need to upgrade the lines and master cylinder for any upgrade i wanna do as in s14, s15, r32, r33? like if i just get s14 rotors and calipers (and i guess hubs as well since theyr 5 stud rotors) would i be able to swap the parts and thats it or do i need to upgrade the lines and master cylinder too?

you'll need an SR20DET S13 master cylinder to get decent brake feel with the 4 pots. That's the easiest one to use - otherwise you can get an S14 non ABS one (unless you have ABS!)

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The Engine Whisperer - fixer of things

you'll end up with a very long pedal if you keep the stock master.

s14/15 is the way to go if you are retaining stock rear brakes with 4 pot fronts, either way you are up for a bit of bending and adapting the lines to fit as they aren't the same style as the s13 masters.

r32gtst/gtr if you go the skyline brakes all round as it's a bolt up with the right bias.

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meh