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I want to go a little over board with brakes. My brembo blanks with trw pads just suck to me. Stock was worse. But they get way to hot, and with the speeds I hit with my car it's somewhat scary.

I was thinking, what would be neccessary to mount OEM front calipers and discs to the rear of the car; so I can buy power slot discs and ebc pads for the back. Then do a REAL big brake upgrade kit up front. ( I got a killer price on the brembo gran turismos). I want insane and reliable braking power. Is my only option EP3 hubs for the back?

 
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I am very interested in that say thought... is it possible and if not what other rear disc brakes can we use for a convertion???

 
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i think, could be wrong, but the topic has already been mentioned and couldnt be done. i'm not sure of the specifics, just remember it not being possible. since you're in the US your only option is the EP3 rear brakes. the only other rear disc brakes that could work are Acura 1.7 EL brakes but those arent available in the US. so you could always try a junkyard in Canada.

 
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Look Here mid way down post

And as far as they get too hot how are you judging the tempature? cause its not uncommon on brakes that get worked hard for rotor temps in the 500 - 1000 degree range and above......



http://www.shotimes.com/brakes/survey/brakes2.html


I guess my first question is are the brakes fading cause they are getting hot? Are the rotors cracking from the heat? Or is it you just feel alot of heat coming off of the brakes?

 
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^^^ dam man, i love your rims...

 
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Thats your problem right there.... TRW Pads are little more then Higher perfomance OE replacements. I.e. they are Marginally more resistant to heat then the stock pads.

If you are having Brake fade problems then you need a Higher temp pad. Try Axxis ultimates Or Hawk Hp or HP+ pads. I have Porterfields R4S pads and shoes, and I'm happy with them. I haven't been able to get them to fade yet.

 
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Of course!!!! Who doesnt like chrome??

 
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No Chrome here, all Polish!

 
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And if you use OEM fronts on the rear, you loose your E brake.

 
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I know I need higher temp pads. But I slam the brakes from about 130 and need to drop down quick. Isn't my best bet discs in the back larger diameter brakes up front?

 
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Nope... If you want to shorten braking distances, Get better tires. Better pads and bigger rotors only let you run the brakes Harder longer, they dont have much affect on the actual braking distance.

(You can only stop as quick as your tires will let you).

 
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Zzyzx is completely right, the tires are the problem 90% of the time. Sticky tires will drop your stopping distances faster than anything else.

Also remember that in our Civics, unless you have a new adjustable brake proportioning valve, 80% of the braking is done with the front, only 20% in the rear. So it's going to be a lot more effective, and a LOT more cost effective, to just do a good job upgrading the front brakes and don't do a rear disc conversion. Using 02+ SI parts, this will cost about $1,000 for all new parts from a dealer. Junkyard will be less, but not by a whole lot. You will also have problems with brake bias unless you redo your brake proportioning system.

Other things you can also do to help without converting your rear brakes:
Stainless steel lines (more for pedal feel, but can help as rubber lines do stretch)
Good braking fluid. I can't stress this one enough. ATE Super Blue or Motul will boil at a much higher temperature, leading to a lot less brake fade. Also keep your brake system bled, and do it correctly-farthest from the MC to the closest.

I run Hawk HP+ pads with ATE SuperBlue fluid in both my 01 Civic and my 95 Miata-M on open track days, and have never had a problem with brakes using those pads, race tires, and the upgrades I have listed above. My 60-0 distances have been cut by 2/3 on both cars with these upgrades as well, but a note of caution- if you do all these upgrades without good tires, you're just going to lock up and slide, and you won't stop at all.

 
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OK thanks guys. I'll look into all this a little more soon.

Any companies do premade brake lines for our cars? I remember seeing goodridge (sp?) and neuspeed.

 
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Goodridge has a stainless steel brake line kit, you can buy it through Tire Rack if you don't know of any other vendors that sell Goodridge. You can also get good brake fluids through Tire Rack, usually better than what you can find at a local parts store.

 
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what about baer ?they send you everything you need to do the upgrade even a larger slave cylinder and steel braided lines

 
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Baer is nice... but for the money you'll spend doing that, someone else can just do better tires/pads/fluid/rotors and stop just as well if not better than you will with just the bigger Baer system and stock tires/fluid.

Now that I've said that... the Baer and Brembo big brake systems (AEM's big brakes is ricer crap) do have some great features. Mainly, you can have a brake system that will not fade or overheat as easily for open track and autox conditions, especially if you have a turbo car that will move around that track a lot faster. Your car will stop beter with the Baer or Brembo system, but it is a LOT of money spent that you may not really need. You'll be suprised what some good pads and fluid will do, it's a night and day difference from stock or stock replacement pads and fluid.

The best of all worlds is to have a big brake kit, good fluid, gift-from-God pads and rotors, and tires so sticky they won't last more than 12k miles, but that's a lot of money, close to $5k if you buy good quality parts. For the money, pads/tires/fluid are more than adequate for what we all use our cars for, even those of us that open track and auto-x our cars.

 
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I happen to like my Ricer CRAP. And have noticed Improved braking power

 
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Do you have the two piece rotor design with the aluminum bolts and the colored center cap? That's the AEM big brake system I'm talking about, and I've seen many of them fail due to heat warp or bolts coming out of the center cap/outer rotor junction.

If they finally figured out that their materials were causing problems and have since fixed it, then I'll retract my previous statement... I have only seen the two piece design, and I've seen it fail at auto-x and open track days.

 
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Awesome thanks man!!!