Dougs951S

I'm looking for some information regarding swapping the big lexus ls430 front calipers onto my car. They are 4x42mm aluminum calipers, nice units and available for 100 bucks a piece rebuilt. You use the 318x28 mm 986 Boxster S front rotors ( 40 bucks a piece ) with them and it all fits perfectly under 17 inch wheels, with the proper adapters and centering rings of course. Common practice is to use the stock 951 front calipers on the rear of the car, and I'm told the balance this way is very good with the factory master cylinder and that they put M030 brakes to shame. This swap is common with the V8 guys using the 76mm spacing late N/A spindles but I cant find any information about anybody doing this with 86T spindles. Could anybody here whip up some adapters if I had the needed measurements?

homerj

id say the person to talk to would be xschop. i was talking to him awhile ago about doing brakes on my car.i just cant sort the bugs out of engine to worry about brakes now. he was fabbing alot of the kits for 944 ls1 conversions

Dougs951S

Homer, I have not spoken to Rob about this personally but when I was doing some research on the subject, it seems that he had figured this out only for the N/A spindles and he seemed the believe the 86T in particular would be the most difficult to adapt, being the red headed step child of the 944 world that it is. This may have been some time ago so I dont know if he has figured it out by now. I do know he was manufacturing and selling the adapters for the N/A spindles but I dont know if they are still available through him. Guess I'll try to shoot him an email. I'm about to get a substantial power increase in my car and I'm due for brakes anyway. For the price of new rotors and pads, I'll just as quick upgrade to bigger brakes.

Reimu

Are there good pads for the ls430?

Dougs951S

EBC ceramic and organic compounds and porterfield R4-S seem to be the only performance pads available. The porterfields are supposed to be excellent pads and are ~120 a set.

pormgb

http://944hybrids.forumotion.com/t7-...big-brake-swap

admiralkhole

Go snag the spindles off of the '86 at wrench a part in Austin, I'll see what I can do about getting some adaptors for you. That way the design wouldn't have to change and all you would have to do is swap over spindles. I'll take your rear calipers when you do the upgrade and move your fronts

Dougs951S

^ If I snag the spindles off that 86, I'll need new control arms and bushings too. My struts wont bolt up either since I modded them to turbo bolt spacing. I dont know if I want to swap my whole front end to early N/A stuff.

The caliper mounting for the 86T is 18mm wider than all other non-M030 mountings at 94mm. Apparently its not just the early 944 N/A which are 76 mm but all other 944 as well, including S2. The ls430 caliper mounts with a 130mm spacing. Seems like it would just take a resigned adapter with modified bolt spacing to make them bolt on to 86 951 spindles. I really need to get Rob's email so I can try and get the information from the horses mouth. Is anybody in touch with him?


As far as putting the front calipers on the rear goes, this is possible but again the 86T is an oddball. All other year, non-m030 turbo fronts will bolt to the rear of ANY year 944 be it N/A or turbo, but you must use the 951 rear rotor. However, 86 951 front calipers will only fit on the rear of an 86 turbo. Other year turbo fronts will NOT fit the rear of an 86.

Dougs951S

I have been informed that to fit the boxster rotors to my car, I would need to slightly machine my hubs. Wanting to avoid that and seeing as how the boxster rotor is only 19mm larger and the stock rotor weights less, I am looking into using the lexus calipers with the stock 86 rotors. It should still offer a substantial improvement and make it less costly to adapt.

lee101315

Everything sounds great, except for moving the front calipers to the rear. Ive read in several places that it causes a spongy brake pedal...

Most of the work is done by the front brakes anyway. Id install new rotors and some aggressive pads in the stock rear calipers, it should be plenty.

Dougs951S

I've seen that concern pop up too, but from what I've read its only in the mornings and a few pumps of the pedal firms it up. I just dont know if using the (relatively) tiny stock 86 rears with the huge fronts would throw off the bias. I guess the rear pads/rotors would wear real well though!