ROTOR Qs

acb92sc

Registered User
i can get slotted or cross drilled rotors through work for $55/ea. My question is whats better, slotted or cross drilled, or no difference? And if i'm better off going w/ Powerslot or Powerstop rotors? Just wondering before i buy, i want to get the most bang for my buck.

On a side note, has anyone ever heard anything about EBC pads for our car? THey are about $40 my cost and advertise better than your typical carbon- metallic pad.
 
i wouldnt bother with cross drilled rotors. the holes weaken the rotor and they dont take very long to develop stress fractures, which tend to shred pads. id go for the slotted rotors. and with prices like that, you should try to see if theres any interest around here for them. also, can you get them cadmium coated where you work? thanks..

Moses
 
PowerSlot rotors are decent, I'd suggest those out of the two choices.

I don't have any experience with the EBC pads to offer feedback there. Hawk, Performance Friction, and Porterfield are all good names for brake pads, but typically they would cost more than the EBC pads.


cheers,
Ed N.
 
i can get my hands on Hawk brake pads for around $45 a set Front or Rear. is that a decent price? ill see what i can do about a group buy if anyone is interested.
 
I would stay away from the cross drilled if you want the brakes for function rather than style. Some people like the look, but it just weakens the rotor and reduces the mass available to accept heat.

It's more about the metalurgy of the rotor itself and the quality of the manufacture. Power slot has a history of having good quality steel in their products. I've heard some complaints lately, but it could have just been an isolated experience.
 
acb92sc said:
i can get my hands on Hawk brake pads for around $45 a set Front or Rear. is that a decent price? ill see what i can do about a group buy if anyone is interested.

That sounds like a good price for the Hawks. I believe they just make the MN-12 pads with their high-performance street compound, they don't offer any of the more aggressive compounds for the application. That's fine, the other ones can be tough on the rotors.

cheers,
Ed N.
 
I have had the cross drilled rotors for over 50,000 miles so far and have been please with them. They have provided for more stopping power over the stock ones, but they are more expensive. I have heard that slotted ones are better than cross drilled ones, but I have never heard that they are "weaker" than rotors that are not cross drilled. What others have said before about absorbing heat or what not makes sense, but I am not too sure that it "weakens" the metal. I can legally drill holes in aircraft that fly over 500 miles/hour if the structural repair manual says so, so make your own call. I would think that the holes would provide pretty good ventilation for heat dissapation. Just my .02 though.
 
Most holes are drilled in the rotors with a straight bit, leaving sharp edges at the entrance and exit points of the bit. Then the holes are drilled close together. These sharp edges plus the closeness of the holes create stress points in the steel surface that during heat cycling can lead to cracks between the holes.

A few cracks won't hurt the rotor. But more than a few could cause the rotor to fail. A cross drilled stock rotor on our cars I wouldn't expect to last long. Especially if an agressive pad is used. The stock size brake is too small to deal with the amount of heat that will be generated. A 13" rotor I guess I wouldn't worry too much about unless I was road racing. In which case I don't think a cross drilled rotor would last.

Some newer "cross drilled" rotors are coming out with chamfered holes. This eliminates an area of stress in the steel. And some are even doing some complex curves into the hole to further remove any stress points.
 
Oh, I see. Now that I think about it, I have chamfers also. I was worried when I had them turned that the chamfer might be eliminated. But, after I picked them up, chamfer was still very much there. I am only using stock brake pads. Got them thrown in with a new (used) car deal at Ford. Salesman could have been lying, but he claimed that in 23 years of selling cars, he had never had anyone ask for parts as part of a sale :D .
 
After 3 SC's and over 400,000m I've come to the conclusion that other than installing 13" rotors (which although having 17" wheels I haven't installed, because with all my highway driving I like to be able to rely on using the donut spare) it's best to go with the cheapest stock rotor. The best lasting I've found are the Wearever house brand at Advanced Auto for about $25. Then you don't bother to have them cut when they warp (for what - $15ea ?) just replace them.
 
while we're on the subject of rotors, these are for the 93+ spindles, which i have. since im switching to this system, what is needed besides the calipers and brackets to put mustang brakes on this? and is it worth it or is the 93+ calipers performance good enough?
 
The 1993+ brakes on the SC are no better than the brakes on the pre 93 cars. It's just a different method of mounting the brake caliper. The rotors are effectively the same except for a change in 1991+ to a slightly different front hub. This modified front hub has a machined lip to help center the rotor on the hub rather than relying on the bolt holes.

The Mustang PBR calipers are a dual piston design. You'll want the caliper, the bracket and the bolts. You'll re-use your existing brake line, as the mustang one won't thread into the SC line. You use the same SC brake rotor though.

As far as is it worth it? Depends. Braking force is improved, but with the stock rotor size, concern about fade and warpage is still there. I would bolt on the Mark VIII rotor and caliper+bracket if there is any consideration of doing road racing or autocross with the car. It's a bigger rotor and a single piston caliper, but the piston is big and the surface area of the pad is larger.
 
I did the conversion to the 11.57" Mark 8 brakes on my 93 and, besides being expensive (even with remanu. calipers) they didn't seem any better or the rotors last any longer (I think my old "how to" article is still on this web site, under Publications). However, on my '94 I installed the Mustang GT 2000 (PBR) brakes and they are much better , even with retaining the stock rotors. You just need to buy the first set of pads from Ford because you'll need the pad hardware - it didn't come with the calipers & bracket. See the articles on the TCCOA web site for more details and, how to modify the passenger side banjo connection. Grinding the back of the passenger side caliper or alternatively the banjo, is the only mod needed to fit our cars.
 
i picked up the mustang calipers and brackets- $70 for all of it- but the brackets dont seem to bolt up to the spindle the right way to mount the calipers over the rotors-- do i need the 93+ tbird caliper brackets instead?
 
acb92sc said:
i can get slotted or cross drilled rotors through work for $55/ea.

There is a group buy going on for slotted, cross drilled and zinc plated rotors for $154.99 shipped. Seems like a good deal.
 
OK, I have spindles off a 93- But the dust shield on the back is mangled beyond recognition. Can i either remove it all together or use the one from my 89? Or fabricate it from sheet metal? And can the abs sensors hook up to my wiring on the car?

And finally, what mods are necessary to install KYB GR2 struts in place of the factory electronic ones? From my understanding, if i get a new strut mount i should be able to mount the whole thing in w/ ease.
 
The sensors may or may not just connect. Some have found they need to cut the connector off and build their own connection for the wires.

If the shocks are the right ones, there isn't anything special you need to do. The electronics just clip to the top of the shock. Once you take that off, it's just botls sticking up.
 
What do i have to do about shorter swaybar endlinks? Can i just cut down factory ones?

Does anyone know of any aftermarket alignment specs for lowered cars?
 
cross drilled

Michael Mattix said:
I have had the cross drilled rotors for over 50,000 miles so far and have been please with them. They have provided for more stopping power over the stock ones, but they are more expensive.

My '90 5-speed SC had KBR cross-drilled rotors on it when I purchased the car. (Got a pile of receipts with the car when I bought it.) They seemed to work so well, I purchased and installed a set my '97 LX with the sports suspension package.

Before I switched to cross-drilled on the '97, I kept two sets of stock rotors so I could switch them each time they warped. So far I haven't had rotor warping problems with either car.

I don't know what pads are on the '90, but on my '97 I have semi-metallic from NAPA.


Eddie
 
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