drum to disc

We may earn a small commission from affiliate links and paid advertisements. Terms

M

mrnice1058

Senior Member
i have a civic lx and it has drum brakes and i am sick of them they are ugly and i want better braking power, so what i needed to know was what do i need can i buy the calipers and rotors at the auto store and get the brackets from the junk yard and i know i need the lines from the ebrake handle, what else do i need to get also if i get the stuff from a 91 acrua? let me know thanks
 
Discs in the rear won't do a damn thing for your braking. Keep the drums and put some fake rotors on there if you don't like how they look.
 
Hey Loco, so rear disk breaks wont be much of an improvement? That was the next thing I was gonna do after my ZC swap is do a rear disk break conversion. I have a CRX DX by the way. But if im not gonna notice an improvment then I wont waste my time and money. What about bigger breaks in the front? I dono if they make big break kits for Rex's but if they do would it help any? Thanks

Jeramy
 
ok anyhow just answer the question what else do i need to do it
 
Originally posted by Loco Honkey@May 13 2004, 10:40 AM
Discs in the rear won't do a damn thing for your braking. Keep the drums and put some fake rotors on there if you don't like how they look.
Click to expand...

Not to test your logic Loco but........... whys thats? A stock discs brake system off another honda WILL improve your baking and fade limit, but theres more to it then just slapping the spindles and rotors on.
 
Originally posted by UDT@May 13 2004, 05:09 PM
but theres more to it then just slapping the spindles and rotors on.
Click to expand...

Actually, depending on the set he can source, there isn't much more to it. brakelines, and cables.
 
Rear disc isn't worth it on a passenger car for a few reasons...

1) Brake bias is such that the front brakes do 80% of the braking under threshold braking.

2) The CG in a passenger car is above the axle, so weight transfer will shift forward, lightening the rear wheels, reducing their braking effectiveness.

3) Drums will produce higher braking forces than disc, but do so at the expense of more heat.

I've done a few rear disc swaps and haven't been impressed. The pedal feels a little more solid, but that could be from the SS lines we've put in each time. Other than that, there's no difference.
 
ok thats more informative. All the weight transfer stuff really made sense when i thought about the geometry of the car. But still!

I got in my moms 91 accord the other day and whent down the street ,the difference in my GSR's four wheel disc was like night and day vs the accords disc/drum set up. And i think the SS lines had something to do with the stiffer feel in your friends car's but i can say now one of the things that shocked me a little was how big the difference was as far pressure applied to either brake pedal was so significantly different. My GSR had rubber lines at the time and my moms brakes are in good shape and work fine, just the GSR'S were that much better at first feel and brake pedal travel. Now on overall baking performance i cant say one way or the other, but as he stated drumbs = heat and that alone makes the swap almost worth it to me.

I think its still a good idea but if you got other things on your mind then maybe this shouldint be first. As we all know heat is the enemy, the way i see it heat and friction should almost always be avoided (if at all posable) they have there applications IE brake pads and what not but for the most part a better designed perfomance car is gonna be built around the idea of dispersing heat away from mechanical objecst on the car with stationary objects coming in second.

See if you do a disc swap you can get a more aggersive pad with out even going into a real perfomance type pad simply because something like what was in the drum may have faded at 800 degrees and the drumbs normal operating temp might sit around 350-500 witch leaves you 300 degrees of room for mistake befor the brakes hit there fade limit and start glazing (super heated) Where as a disc pad will be allowed a higher fade limit cause the disc is able to disperse the heat more efficiently then the drumbs, witch means you can play around with the different pads that are out there vs OEM.

Disc is basicly the technolagy in are newer cars shining threw, and the Tech on new cars is almost always backed up with some kind of R&D experience, even on things like kia's. They all get there bright ideas from the track, where ideas are tested and either proven or dismantled by harsh road wearing facts.
 
Your mom's Accord is a pig compared to the GSR, so yeah, the GSR will feel better. Also, Porterfield makes R4S compound shoes for Civic drums, so you can have "real" performance friction surfaces and keep your drums.

And yes, the SS lines most likely were the reason they felt better, as I stated. The reason "performance" cars have rear discs is to shed heat and look better. From a purely performance standpoint on a 2000- 2300 lb. car with the CG above the axle, rear brakes aren't as important as the front. I had drums on my CRX, and rear discs on my '93 Si hatch. I didn't notice any difference in braking performance. Then I installed some Wilwood brakes on a friends '94 Si hatch and holy sheep shit, you could ride the ABS all the way down from 140 MPH and not fade the brakes at ALL, and the braking distance was greatly reduced, as well. I'm willing to bet that if you installed the Wilwood brakes on the front of a Civic with drums in the rear, you'd be plenty happy. Or hell, Porterfield R4S pads/ shoes and some SS lines all around, some Brembo blanks up front, HF drums in the rear (they have heat sinks on 'em)... You'd be surprised how much just that would wake up the car. Other things to consider would be wheels with larger voids between the spokes and the removal of the dust shields. I took my dust shields off and noticed less fade.

Then again, if you're going for looks... paint the drums yellow or some shit. ;)
 
Cool, I dont feel anything major that you or i said contradicts itself. Good exchange of fire ;) :thumbsup:

Hope it helps the poster.

oh yeah i agree its biger but if you look at the difference there both on the same end of the spectrum and its really not that much more of a pig then the teg (at least as far as hondas go) and what i experienced was more then just a weight to braking power differeance.



Ps. honky knows his shiznaps
 
Yeah i agree, basicly not one thing Loco said was wrong, what it boils down to, is it still worth it to you. If it was me i would still wanna do it.
 
Originally posted by mrnice1058@May 13 2004, 02:05 PM
ok lovely guys fight on my post it doesn't help me to know what i need to do it
Click to expand...

If you'd pull your head out of your ass for a second and go back and actually read what we posted, you'll see we weren't fighting. Duh.
 
then again even if the CG is above or below the axle line , you're still looking at almost 2/3 of the weight transferring to the front axles under braking.

so as loco said, all you need is a better compound shoe
 
I prefer the rear discs over the drums for 2 reasons

1. they look better behind a set of Circuit 8's (or any spoked style wheel)

2. easier to work on (I hate drums)
 
The fact is he would be fine with the drumb with a few cheap upgrades, and not see any major gains with the disc, but disc is preferd method and not hard or expensive to come by.



Ps. yeah you should read better, if you ask me this was very civil.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top