Nova Disc brake conversion - easiest bolt on kit

[MC71Nova]

I'm running 17 x 8 American Racing CL 205s. Or will be once Brownz mails them to me! 235s in front and 255s in the rear. I'd like to lower it 2" from stock but will mount the wheels first to see what clearance I have first. I'd be willing to go narrower on the front tires to get the car lower.

[MC71Nova]

Sorry, had that completely wrong. The fronts are 18*7 with 4.5 back space with a 235-35 tire and the rear are are 18*8 with 5.25 back space with a 255/40 rear tires, the tires are sumitomo HTRZ 2

[Mrfixit]

On the front, I'm using C5 hat style 13" rotors and calipers with the Speed Tech (http://www.speedtechperformance.com) caliper adapter (slick part for $189). If you don't go for the slotted/dimples rotors and are satisfied by stockers, the factor rotors are cheap. Look at your local Auto Zone (etc). All that should fit nicely behind your 18" wheels. I got the calipers (rebuilt) off of ebay for cheap.

The rears can be handled in different ways. I used a 1989 Corvette/Camaro/Firebird style caliper with an integrated parking brake and 11.25" (I think) rotors. I modified the factory caliper bracket by re-drilling the mounting holes to fit my 9" and used spacers (washers) to center the caliper. Again, ebay parts with cheap factory rotors.

So far I'm at about $600-700. I still need to buy and install the parking brake cables, hard brake lines, flex lines, master cylinder, booster, and proportioning valve. I'm hoping to have around $1000-$1200 total in it when I'm done.

I've done a lot of work and head scratching to get this far. A complete kit will be a lot more money but would make it so much simpler. If you don't have the ability to make stuff yourself, I'd highly recommend you save the money and buy a complete kit.

I hope that was of some use to you.

[MC71Nova]

Yes, that did help, thanks! I'm actually zeroing in on a more expensive option I think, with AFX spindles and the SSBC brakes that are made for them. Just one thing I'm confused about. If I go with that setup and I already have power drums, do I need to change out my master cylinder? What if I just do the fronts and leave the rears for a while until I switch rears... do I need to change the master cylinder and/or proportioning valve out too?

[Mrfixit]

Originally Posted by MC71Nova

Yes, that did help, thanks! I'm actually zeroing in on a more expensive option I think, with AFX spindles and the SSBC brakes that are made for them. Just one thing I'm confused about. If I go with that setup and I already have power drums, do I need to change out my master cylinder? What if I just do the fronts and leave the rears for a while until I switch rears... do I need to change the master cylinder and/or proportioning valve out too?

I'd be interested in hearing opinions on this question as well. I know that replacement MC come as drum/drum, disc/drum, or disc/disc so there must be a difference. regardless, unless your running a prefab front and rear system designed specifically for your car, you'll need to use an adjustable proportioning valve to adjust the front-to-rear bias.

[realcoray]

Originally Posted by Mrfixit

I'd be interested in hearing opinions on this question as well. I know that replacement MC come as drum/drum, disc/drum, or disc/disc so there must be a difference. regardless, unless your running a prefab front and rear system designed specifically for your car, you'll need to use an adjustable proportioning valve to adjust the front-to-rear bias.

Someone with more specific knowledge can point you guys to the right master but it's mostly about the bore size of the master relative to the caliper piston area. A supposed disc/disc master cylinder may work with a stock set of brakes fine but may not work that great with different brakes.

The company who sells you brakes should be able to tell you and if they can't, then I'd suggest going with someone like Tobin @ Kore3 who can tell you exactly why you would want to use x with y.

[strtlegal]

Originally Posted by realcoray

Someone with more specific knowledge can point you guys to the right master but it's mostly about the bore size of the master relative to the caliper piston area. A supposed disc/disc master cylinder may work with a stock set of brakes fine but may not work that great with different brakes.

The company who sells you brakes should be able to tell you and if they can't, then I'd suggest going with someone like Tobin @ Kore3 who can tell you exactly why you would want to use x with y.

C5 brakes like alot of pressure not volume so a 7/8" master cylinder is used instead of a 1" bore thats traditionally used on a power assist setup.

Talk with the guy that sold you the brakes I'm sure they would recommend a good setup.