Brake Cooling / Ducting Thread

[tdott]

Thought it would be good to start a thread dedicated to brake duct cooling mods, where everyone can share setups and information, and make this info easier to find for future use.

That said, I wanted to share something recently shared to me (Thanks Nick M.)
This was new info to me and goes against what I initially thought was the better option, but it is from a trusted source (Vorshlag) with some real world testing.

Quoted text:

Originally Posted by Vorshlag

For the 3 decades I have been doing regular track events, I just assumed that corrugated brake ducting connected to a backing plate inside the rotor was the best solution for track brake cooling.

After an aerodynamicist told me 3 years ago how badly air flows through corrugated brake hose, from testing he did at a major manufacturer's race team he ran (poor boundary layer flow), we began looking for ways to replace this with another type of hose (which has to be flexible to turn). We tried a number of items with no luck. Not to mention that wide wheels on late model Mustangs just crush any hose flat at steering lock. We tried oval tubing, smooth bore silicone hose, wacky hose routing (up and over) - but nothing worked as good as the old way.

That was until Marco Garcia clued us into the benefits of the cooling solution on the 2015 Mustang GT Performance Pack Mustang solution for the factory 15" 6-piston Brembo brake package that he developed and tested at Ford. We had seen this type of "scoop and flap" cooling starting back in the mid 1980s on Porsches (and others once the patents ran out), just never gave it much thought. He told us it worked BETTER than direct corrugated hose cooling in testing. That did not compute! I was *extremely* skeptical but he kept pestering us to try it.

So we this year did. Over the last 6 months we designed and built 3 different iterations of "brake deflectors" for the S550 chassis, all bigger than the original plastic PP1 deflector. We settled on the biggest dimensions that would fit inside an 18x11" wheel. It is 3x the size of the OEM PP deflector (which was restricted due to various OEM constraints) and then we added 1he PP1 undertray to get the tunnels that force air to the deflectors. We even made "add-on" aluminum tunnels for flat bottomed splitters, which we will refine and make production versions of soon.

We quietly tested these tunnel/deflector solutions on track for several months, changing things, trying additional ducted inlets, while using our 4" ducted brake cooling solution on one side. I would measure rotor temps side to side, and the biggest deflector with just the basic tunnel was always cooler, usually by at least 100°F. MASSIVE amounts of airflow - when the wheels are straight - won out over ducted hose with the internal flow restrictions of the necessary corrugations to allow them to turn.

Will people believe us, even after seeing our test videos? Doubtful. Scientific facts are openly questioned these days - so I'm not going to "argue" with the "experts" here or elsewhere. Believe what you want to believe. We will continue to sell our ducted brake backing plate cooling solutions that use an inlet duct and corrugated hoses. But our S550 brake cooling deflector is cheaper, easier to install, and has no "consumable" hoses to get in the way of the tires that need to be replaced periodically.
We put the final iteration on our shop 2018 Mustang GT right before posting it for sale. We ran the same sized units on this car using SPL Parts spherical arms all summer, but made this version for the base GT control arms, as well as a 3rd version for the PP1/GT350 arms (which can bolt on). All 3 will be listed on our website later today - and we are adding this type of brake cooling for many other chassis in the coming months!
The attached pics show some steps we have done for S550 Mustang brake cooling testing over the past 6 months. #TestingMatters #OldSchoolIsntAlwaysBest

Source: https://www.facebook.com/46071783011...2447917035113/

This is an intriguing option, but requires those inlet tunnels molded into the under-tray to be effective which I haven't seen before on an E9X M3. Will be looking into this to see how we can potentially add something like this to our cars.

I currently run the GT3 deflectors without a backing plate.



That said, lets share some setups, any testing you've done and discuss the topic of brake cooling.

[Redd]

Interesting article. Thanks for sharing. I love my GT3 deflectors, I think they work very well and you can't argue with the price. I hope they make a deflector kit for E9x chassis.

[VtecforV8]

Here's the thread re the GT3 deflectors, btw. (Just posted in the other brake thread.)

https://www.m3post.com/forums/showth...1406400&page=3

[MineralWhiteF80]

Here is my example of the "common brake cooling duct" option for the OEM E9x brakes. I installed Burkhart Engineering carbon brake cooling plates and 63 mm hoses to a GT4 lip. They went together very well. The hole in the carbon cooling plate is centered halfway between the rotor center hat and inner rotor face, but it seems like air would want to move back toward the center hat when the car is at speed. With an 18X10" +20 wheel and 275/35/18 tire, the tire does not rub holes in the ducting at full steering lock.

Does it work? I have no idea.

[tdott]

I'm toying with the ideal of ordering the Ford undertray and seeing if it can be cut to fit the M3.

I found it new for $154 shipped.

[tdott]

Looking closer, I dont think it will work, the overhang on the M3 is so small, there isn't enough room for a tunnel like that.

[VtecforV8]

This ~7-min video talks a bit about ducting (and agrees that it shuould be ducted into the middle, as others have said), albeit for the F80.

In general, this channel seems pretty solid.

[Track/S]

GT4 ducts

[sperkins]

Originally Posted by Track/S

GT4 ducts

That's definitely "Race Car"!!

Entry and exit is the easy part. Running the actual air tubing for these cars is the challenge.

[tdott]

I found some universal tunnels that can be used to direct more air into the wheel wells.

https://www.professionalawesome.com/...iffusers-pair/

I plan to cut and add these into an undertray.

[Bimmer Barney]

I run at Laguna Seca on 200TW tires without any real aero. I cooked OEM calipers using Hawk DT70 pads. Like almost started on fire cooked.

Then I installed the Slon Brembo Kit up front on OEM rotors and ran Pagid RSL29. Without ducting they were still smoking.

I switched to F80 OEM rotors (larger diameter) and added a GT4 ducted lip with hoses connected to Hard Motorsports backing plates. I can run hot laps for as long as I want now with no brake fade.

I have stainless lines and run SRF in all of the above scenarios.

My point is that brake cooling really works. I’d love to swap to a front and rear AP Racing kit with their J Hook rotors but I haven’t pulled the $9k trigger yet. My setup was about $3k.

[Bimmer Barney]

Here’s a video I made using my fog machine last Halloween to show the airflow. Pretty impressive:

[tdott]

Originally Posted by Bimmer Barney

My point is that brake cooling really works. I’d love to swap to a front and rear AP Racing kit with their J Hook rotors but I haven’t pulled the $9k trigger yet. My setup was about $3k.

Nice, great example of a working setup!

[Redd]

Originally Posted by tdott

I found some universal tunnels that can be used to direct more air into the wheel wells.

https://www.professionalawesome.com/...iffusers-pair/

I plan to cut and add these into an undertray.

Subscribed. I'm keen to see the final result.