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Brake Blowers...anyone have any experience with them...?


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Posted

Looking to supplement the cooling ducts I already have on the car but don't want to add additional openings and duct work but need to run more cooling to my calipers. Has anyone used blowers for their setups and had good luck with them? If so, which brands are you using?

 

Thanks!

Posted

Do you already have dual ducts on each side and spindle duct setups??

If you still have problems I would almost just go to bigger rotors. Never personally used blowers though.

Posted
Do you already have dual ducts on each side and spindle duct setups??

If you still have problems I would almost just go to bigger rotors. Never personally used blowers though.

 

Single to the spindle/rotor only. Bigger rotors aren't needed, just need to cool the fluid in the caliper. Once the pads get to half worn, the larger amount of fluid in the caliper is getting too hot. I am already using the motul 660 and start to experience a slight fade after about 30 minutes on track after getting through the CMC field.

 

Just started having the problem when I had to add 115 lbs of ballast to the car.

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Posted

Quite often if the pads are too hot it is because the rotor is too hot.

This is my problem too.

A heavier rotor will help.

Try to cool the rotor better. I have been told a 13” directionally veined rotor at speed can pump more air than a 3” duct can supply. A larger duct may be required or two 3” ducts.

It won’t hurt to cool the caliper, but you are simple generating more heat than the rotor can dissipate in the time of a race. Be sure the duct is getting to the center of the rotor and not just blowing on the inside face of the rotor. Many race rotors have a smaller annulus which allows more room to get more ducting into the center. Try looking at a StopTech or Brembo two piece hat and floating rotor that will fit your existing caliper. These rotors can have a lot more veins to cool better as well. Also the expensive Castrol SRF fluid may take the fluid boiling point to the next level that may prevent the problem.

I am guessing you are already bleeding the fluid out of the calipers prior to each race.

 

 

Jay Andrew

Posted

If you can, run a second set of ducting to the rotors. It cured my problems on hot days at tracks that are hard on brakes.

 

I believe Scott Whitehead has blowers on his AIX car, someone here will have his contact info. (or search his name on CC's)

 

Brian

Posted

Have you considered installing a brake fluid recirculating system?

Posted

I've run brake blowers for about 8 years now. I started running them at Waterford Hills, because the average lap speed was so low, and they certainly helped. There is no doubt though that at some speed the blowers become a restriction to flow, rather than helping it. The blowers, along with a sealed duct, also serve another purpose - they allow you to pump air through the rotors even when the car is not moving. This has completely eliminated rotor warping for me - I simply leave the brake fans on for about 5-10 minutes after the car hits the paddock. And there is yet another advantage to this - less heat soak from the brake into everything else around them, and a much cooler and easier-to-work-on front corner. After 10 minutes of cooling, you don't need to worry about burning yourself.

 

On tracks where the brake usage is less, but involves fewer stops from very high speeds seperated by long fast cooling periods (ie Road America) I doubt they would help, but in my experience they are a big help on very short tracks (Waterford) and medium speed tracks with very aggressive braking zones (Gingerman).

 

Keep in mind that all the temperatures in the braking system are linked together. Brake pad surface temp and rotor surface temp will be nearly identical. The only thing insulating the fluid (which is extremely sensitive to temperature) from the pad/rotor surface (which is much less sensitive to temp if you're using good pads) is the pad material, the pad backing plate, and the caliper piston.

 

Once the pads get to half worn, the larger amount of fluid in the caliper is getting too hot. I am already using the motul 660 and start to experience a slight fade after about 30 minutes on track after getting through the CMC field.
The critical thing to understand here is the relationship between pad thickness and both pad wear and fluid temp. As the pad wears down, there is less insulation between the friction surface and the fluid, and the fluid temp rises. It's not the additional fluid in the caliper, but the reduced pad thickness that's allowing more heat transfer. Oh, and I assume you're talking about Motul 600, right?

 

Try to cool the rotor better. I have been told a 13” directionally veined rotor at speed can pump more air than a 3” duct can supply. A larger duct may be required or two 3” ducts.
That completely depends on the design and the thickness of the rotors. In cup we use rotors that are less than 13" in diameter, and often run three ducts with blowers to supply the duct.

 

Have you considered installing a brake fluid recirculating system?
They're a nightmare to get bled properly. BTDT, Got the T-Shirt.
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Posted

I have run with blowers in previous cars and I can vouch on shorter more technical tracks (CMP) they help tremendously. To get enough air through a 3in hose you really have to go fast, on the tracks with shorter straights you'll never get enough air to cool them w/o blowers. I am also a big fan (pardon the pun) of one duct to the center and one duct aimed at the caliper.

 

FWIW - I used the NASCAR style bilge blowers that Scott talks about to cool my brakes.

Posted
Oh, and I assume you're talking about Motul 600, right?

 

 

I am fairly sure it's the latest 660 stuff. Just got it on the shelf a couple months ago and figured I would give it a try.

 

We have a short track here at MSR Cresson, their 1.3 mile track which has 5 heavy braking zones from mid 90's to 40 and lap times hovering around 1 minute or less. After about 6 laps at full tilt, the pedal goes to the floor. This has been with two different brand pads, two different weight of wheels, two different brake fluids and prior to the ballast I just added. It's the only place I have ever had a problem till this last weekend....and that's even with only flushing the fluid maybe every 3rd race weekend with a couple instruction events in between and that was running the Valvoline fluid. Lap times haven't gone down but maybe by a second over the last year so it's not like I stepped up the pace, just seems to have been the weight. I am going to go back over my ducts and look inside them for a restriction/debris and then look at a supplementary blower setup. If that doesn't work, I will start looking at rotors but finding a CHEAP two piece rotor for the brembo setup seems to be a pain in the ass. If someone would just sell them complete so I don't have to search for part numbers at coleman and assemble them, it would be a heck of a lot easier. I may also go ahead and put fresh stock rotors on the car as I think the current ones have been on there for a year and half!

 

anyway, thanks for the help but does anyone have any links for the blowers? Someone mentioned bilge blowers...from a boat? If that's the case, I can find them right away and probably pretty cheap.

 

Thanks!

Posted
Have you considered installing a brake fluid recirculating system?
They're a nightmare to get bled properly. BTDT, Got the T-Shirt.

 

That must depend on which system you use. The recirculating system I have been using for the past several years bleeds itself.

Just pump the petal a couple dozen times and it's bled.

Posted
Oh, and I assume you're talking about Motul 600, right?

 

If that doesn't work, I will start looking at rotors but finding a CHEAP two piece rotor for the brembo setup seems to be a pain in the ass. If someone would just sell them complete so I don't have to search for part numbers at coleman and assemble them, it would be a heck of a lot easier. I may also go ahead and put fresh stock rotors on the car as I think the current ones have been on there for a year and half!

 

I ran the two piece Brembo rotors on my Cobra R actually had more brake fade problems. (this was at Road America versis the tight tracks you are referring to) The Brembo two piece rotors have been sitting in my trailer for three years now.

 

If you need the part numbers for the Coleman two piece rotors(parts), pm me and I will get you in contact with someone that has done all the work.

 

Brian

Posted

Found the bilge blowers but most of the 3" are only rated at 150-170 CFM and the 4" are rated at 240 CFM. Is that really enough to even make a difference? Granted anything would be better than what I have now, but are these really what you guys are using for brake blowers?

 

Thanks!

Posted

Look at the DETMAR units. They do the best with high restriction ducting without undo current draw...

Posted

Detmar 758's are only $29 each... seems to be quite a bargain.

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