How To: Evo 8/9 Brembos on 240SX

[CTblack240]

I looked around for a while to find a clear write-up on installing the Evo 8/9 Brembos on a 240 and couldn't find one that I thought was very straight forward so I figured I'd make my own when I did mine

Here is a comparison of Evo 8/9 vs 300zx calipers.



First off, I got a set of Brembos off a Evo 9. Came with the calipers, pads and rotors. Rotors are in eh shape so I'm either going to be buying new ones or having my buddy resurface them. Pads have some life on em so I'll keep em for now and the calipers are in decent shape until I want to powdercoat them.

First step is to jack the car up and remove your lug nuts and wheel.

Next step is to remove the 12mm nut on the back of the stock caliper that holds the brake line to the caliper. Watch out because there will be brake fluid in it and will run out of the line. I just threw a cup underneath to catch all of it. Next step after that is to remove the (2) 19mm bolts holding the caliper to the nuckle of the suspension. Once those are both off, the caliper will come off the rotor and the rotor will come off the hub. Here is a picture of where the bolts are on the back of the caliper.



The next thing I did was cut the dust shield for clearance of the new rotor. I started by cutting the 90 degree bend off...after that I cut the corners off so that I had even more clearnace and didnt need to worry about anything rubbing at all. Heres a picture of once I cut it all off and hit it was some sandpaper.







Heres also a picture of side to side comparison of size.



I than dropped off the rotors to the machine shop for a quick resurface and started to strip the calipers. I took some sandpaper to them to get them scuffed up and took off all the rough spots in them. I than hit them with a nice coat of filler primer. I let that flash over night and than applied some paint the next day. Finishing them off with brand new Brembo stickers off eBay! (I know their missing the "B" in the middle of the circle for some reason...) Here's some pictures.





I went with the Version 1 Evo 240sx Brembo brackets off of MadParts.net. They ran me $100 shipped. The installation was very easy from this point on. The bracket attached to the caliper with 2 bolts which I put some Lock-Tite on and torqued down. Than I slide the rotor on, put a lug nut on to hold it in place and set the caliper in place. 2 more bolts with some Lock-Tite slide through the OEM knuckle and thread into the adapter bracket. Then torque them down, bleed the calipers and your all set to go ! Here's a picture of the completed product!

[Turbo Nismo]

Nice! Keep us updated. I want to see how it looks done. GL!

[sickstatus]

I plan to do this as well. I have rotors,calipers,pad sitting in the garage. Going to resurface rotors. I planne on using the touge factory brackets. I'll read on and see how these are. Thanks for the write up.

[tapdeznutz]

dumb question here we go...what is the comparison of these vs the z32's?

[CTblack240]

Well the fronts are both 4 piston but the Z32 brakes are only a 11" rotor where as the Brembos are 12.6"...For the rears, they are also both only 2 piston but I believe the rotor size is yet again bigger. In my opinon, they also look alot cooler than Z32s and are slightly bigger of a caliper too.

[florante rea]

Nice write up. u can also check tech section on superstreet website.

[Edwin562]

what BMC is recommended when converting to Brembo set up?

[CTblack240]

The Z32 BMC is a perfect upgrade for the Brembos.

[mike_holes]

ive been wanting to do this for a while now... i have alot of friends that are evo guys that will love this swap... are you only doing fronts, rears or all 4 corners???

[CTblack240]

I'm going to try doing the rears as well, I might just have to go with a hydro e-brake setup, I haven't looked into it just yet. Rotors finally got back from the machine ship today so looks like they are going on tomorrow! Pics coming!

[GrimDrifter]

I wonder how it compares to this:
240SX Brake Upgrade - Import Tuner Magazine
(Pricewise)
How much did you snag your setup for?

[CTblack240]

Well I actually got these for a stupid steal haha, all 4 calipers, the 2 front rotors and %50 pads, for $250 haha

[Beejis60]

Originally Posted by mike_holes

ive been wanting to do this for a while now... i have alot of friends that are evo guys that will love this swap... are you only doing fronts, rears or all 4 corners???

You can't get the rear evos to work without grinding off A LOT of material from the calis. I even went as far as to use rustang rotors and an approx. 1" thick bracket still needing to grind off some material and I'm just not gonna do that. The only way to get brembos in the rear is either Gtr rears or STI rears with a 3mm spacer between the mounting tabs of the clapper and upright. Or you could attempt to find and use a rotor of about 12.25" or larger.

And OP, you could have made the brackets for half or even less. I just needed to buy a tap, which cost me $7 iirc, since I had all the other materials and tools on hand.

[Johnphen]

Nice writeup, I recently put a set of Evo X calipers on my S14 up front, after originally looking for VIII / IX calipers. The X rotor setup is significantly larger at 13.9 inches, and I'm running a carbon Centric setup with a 17/16 BMC.

Don't want to jack thread, but the writeup can be found here :

Project 240SX – Installing EVO X Brakes | StockSpyder

[Beejis60]

Why on earth do you feel like you need a 14" rotor? Hell, evo VIII/IX rotors are still too big IMO.
And fwiw, the evo X rotors are 13.78".

[Johnphen]

Originally Posted by Beejis60

Why on earth do you feel like you need a 14" rotor? Hell, evo VIII/IX rotors are still too big IMO.

Why on earth do I feel like i need a 14" rotor? I never said I did, but if im going to "upgrade" why not the bigger setup?

Originally Posted by Beejis60

And fwiw, the evo X rotors are 13.78".

and FWIW, my rotors are 13.9 inches. thanks for playing

[Beejis60]

Originally Posted by Johnphen

Why on earth do I feel like i need a 14" rotor? I never said I did, but if im going to "upgrade" why not the bigger setup?

Your opinion but it adds more weight and more rotational mass.

and FWIW, my rotors are 13.9 inches. thanks for playing

http://www.mitsubishi-motors.com/cor...008/20e_07.pdf

350mm = 13.78"

or you can also check napa as all their specs are 100% correct.

[Johnphen]

Originally Posted by Beejis60

Your opinion but it adds more weight and more rotational mass.

Really? wow.. i guess I should rip my X calipers off then huh? cuz its SO MUCH MORE weight than the IX setup.

Originally Posted by Beejis60

http://www.mitsubishi-motors.com/cor...008/20e_07.pdf

350mm = 13.78"

or you can also check napa as all their specs are 100% correct.

Yay! you can search on google! Sadly your reading comprehension isn't quite as sharp, if it were, maybe you'd read the fact I am running Centric Carbon discs...... which are 13.9 inches!

again.. thanks for playing...

[bllabong89]

Johnphen, how does that bmc feel. I've got Evo 8/Sti set up waiting to be put on and I bought a 17/16 bmc but couldn't find any feed back as to pedal feel

[Johnphen]

If you look at the writeup, i was forced to use a banjo bolt with a short line to a 10mm inverted flare. With that line i found the pedal to be stiff, with about 1.5-2 inches of play before the caliper started to bite. Modulation isn't too great, but its a firm bite and there's more than enough feedback for me to get the job done ( no ABS )

I've since converted that banjo bolt nonsense to a fitting that simply screwed into the third brake fitting, the pedal is much more responsive and firmer now.

I assumed the hokey shortcut line I used was putting some play in the line when the hydraulic fluid was being passed through it. I've had similar issues in DSM's when converting hardlines to braided, especially with the clutch master.

[Beejis60]

Originally Posted by Johnphen

Really? wow.. i guess I should rip my X calipers off then huh? cuz its SO MUCH MORE weight than the IX setup.

Rotor weight, daveman. I still feel the evo VIII/IX rotors are too heavy and too big and I'm at 520 something hp

Yay! you can search on google! Sadly your reading comprehension isn't quite as sharp, if it were, maybe you'd read the fact I am running Centric Carbon discs...... which are 13.9 inches!

again.. thanks for playing...

No, I know the dimensions and the fact that I made a large excel sheet of brake rotor dimensions not too long ago means that the info is fresh in my mind. And I was referring to Evo brakes; clearly the stock dimensions, not Centric rotors. Whatever they do for their apparent oem replacement is their deal, I guess.

[jrivera]

CTblack240, great pick on brake set up

Originally Posted by tapdeznutz

dumb question here we go...what is the comparison of these vs the z32's?

I had these brakes years ago and took pictures of it.

From right to left: stock s13 front caliper, J30, Z32, Evo


J30, Z32, Evo


Top is Z32 front pad, bottom is Evo front pad


Left is Z32 rear pad, right is Evo rear pad


Stock S13 caliper vs. Evo caliper

[jrivera]

Originally Posted by CTblack240

I'm going to try doing the rears as well, I might just have to go with a hydro e-brake setup, I haven't looked into it just yet. Rotors finally got back from the machine ship today so looks like they are going on tomorrow! Pics coming!

Just a suggestion for the rears...

[Beejis60]

Originally Posted by jrivera

Just a suggestion for the rears...
[IMG]http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a138/joshrivera/Brakes/P3100019.jpg[IMG]
[IMG]http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a138/joshrivera/Brakes/P3100021.jpg[IMG]
[IMG]http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a138/joshrivera/Brakes/P3100020.jpg[IMG]

As I stated before, you cannot get the rears to fit without A LOT of work; trust me, I spent three months trying to get the rear Evo's to fit without removing material from the cali. If you want to grind material off your cali and tap the body, or make a bracket and use Rustang rotors, you will need much less grinding but a lot more machining time, then you can probably get them to work... Or a 12.25" rotor should space the cali up high enough to allow for the piston to clear the mounting tabs. I can post my rough template I had designed for Rustang rotor use though; not CAD designed, just a draw program I have.
Conversely, STI's fit with a simple 3mm spacer between upright mounting tabs and cali mounting tabs. Your absolute best bet is to just find STI calis and use Evo rotors or simply run Z32s if you want little to no work.

[jrivera]

Originally Posted by Beejis60

As I stated before, you cannot get the rears to fit without A LOT of work; trust me, I spent three months trying to get the rear Evo's to fit without removing material from the cali. If you want to grind material off your cali and tap the body, or make a bracket and use Rustang rotors, you will need much less grinding but a lot more machining time, then you can probably get them to work... Or a 12.25" rotor should space the cali up high enough to allow for the piston to clear the mounting tabs. I can post my rough template I had designed for Rustang rotor use though; not CAD designed, just a draw program I have.
Conversely, STI's fit with a simple 3mm spacer between upright mounting tabs and cali mounting tabs. Your absolute best bet is to just find STI calis and use Evo rotors or simply run Z32s if you want little to no work.

I was posting a pic of the set up we worked on back in '07. He mentioned he planned on putting the rears on later so I posted a pic. That's all. They can work but the caliper won't be in the same location as the factory caliper. I don't want to this to become a form of thread jacking.

Also, I posted pics of the wilwood caliper as a possible e-brake solution since that's what I bought back in the day.

[florante rea]

I like the sti as complete swap. Second choice is sti/evo fronts n z32 rear. yeah u can put the evo rear but needed mod on the caliper ears to make new mounting holes! This takes alot of time plus it weakens the calipers since your cutting a big chunk! make it simplr guys, sti/evo fronts and sti rears or z32!

[jrivera]

I definitely agree that it will be more work. Back then, no-one offered brackets for the front either so the whole swap was inherently a lot of work.

What I meant was having the rear caliper positioned like the rear caliper on the Dodge Charger.


Anyhow, I'm done. I'm interested to see CTblack240's ideas for rear calipers.

[Beejis60]

Originally Posted by jrivera

I was posting a pic of the set up we worked on back in '07. He mentioned he planned on putting the rears on later so I posted a pic. That's all. They can work but the caliper won't be in the same location as the factory caliper. I don't want to this to become a form of thread jacking.

Also, I posted pics of the wilwood caliper as a possible e-brake solution since that's what I bought back in the day.

Originally Posted by jrivera

I definitely agree that it will be more work. Back then, no-one offered brackets for the front either so the whole swap was inherently a lot of work.

What I meant was having the rear caliper positioned like the rear caliper on the Dodge Charger.
[img]http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7235/7245795030_a823a37300_c.jpg[img]

Anyhow, I'm done. I'm interested to see CTblack240's ideas for rear calipers.

Fair enough. No one offers brackets for the rears because no one has done them properly yet. If I had the free time and/or wasn't still in grad school, I would do it.
As for the charger setup, that will not work due to the rear link in the way. The only way to fit this by repositioning the calis is by either welding on new mounting ears or drilling into the body of the upright with your own sort of mounting ears, on the lower side of the upright towards the rear of the car. You have the right idea though. Someone I know is either in the process of doing this, or already has done this. But still is a lot of work to get a cali and rotor to work. At that point, I would just find a radial-mount aftermarket caliper and a floating rotor setup to get to work in the stock position with very minimal bracket fabbing, which again, would be something I would do if I had the time.

[jrivera]

CTblack240, great job on cutting the dust shield. Most people do a really crappy job on it.

[CTblack240]

I'm most likely going to go with STI rears with Evo rotors...Seems like the most efficient idea so I don't look like an idiot with huge brakes in the front and stupid little rears. And thanks, I like to do my mods correctly and not just hack it all up haha