240 brake upgrade

[Oldman]

Hi, have a engine less engine bay and thinking of an LS swap into my 240.
Obviously I’ll need a brake upgrade, I’d like to get brakes sorted before engine goes in.
I’m in NSW so need a decent size upgrade to keep engineer happy.
What have others used? And where could I buy or whom can I call??
Thanks any help would be appreciated ..

[283SD]

I have A Chevy 350 in my wagon that I installed in Dec'88. I installed all new rotors, pads, and calipers, from Volvo in 1991 with the later vented front rotors,cross drilled all rotors,[120 holes per rotor]. I have put 275K miles on them since, and they are still fine, haven't changed pads yet, the Volvo brakes work just fine if they are all in good condition.

[blkaplan]

What size wheels do you want to run? Thats probably the first question you should ask when you are determining the best brake setup.

[culberro]

Also, what kind of driving do you want to do with the car?

[brickcupra]

Hello Mate , Well I used a whole bunch of things . kinda Frankesteined it. I re-drilled the rotors for a Nissan, Toyota , Lex , Mitsubishi pattern. I used Lugs from a US Chevrolet Model , rotors from Infinity, bracket from a Maxima, Brake lines from an Altima, calipers are WRX and brake pads are Suzuki. Ir took me 6 months to assemble this. Master Cylinder from a USDM LEXUS LS400 , which is a Toyota Excelsior JDM and the brake booster form a Toyota Corolla. Rear brakes are Volvo factory. I swapped a 7MGTE from a supra and they do the job well. I really haven't tested them in the Highway yet. This is what I've done. Good Luck. Cheers from CHICAGO!!!!

[2turbotoys]

Brakes calipers and rotors from an S60R (Mustang GT Corba master cylinder) is fairly common. Kaplhenke Racing offers a nice alternative. I'm doing the 17ZL Brembo upgrade on my LS swap.

The R and 17ZL conversion require 17" minimum rims. I think the Kaplhenke setup can use 16's, idk.

brickcupra, that sounds like a lot of extra work. Hope it works well though.

[blkaplan]

Originally Posted by 2turbotoys

Brakes calipers and rotors from an S60R (Mustang GT Corba master cylinder) is fairly common. Kaplhenke Racing offers a nice alternative. I'm doing the 17ZL Brembo upgrade on my LS swap.

The R and 17ZL conversion require 17" minimum rims. I think the Kaplhenke setup can use 16's, idk.

brickcupra, that sounds like a lot of extra work. Hope it works well though.

We also offer the 17Z kits, just not on the site quite yet.

[brickcupra]

Hey 2turbotoys thanks , but it was actually fun and very rewarding to know they really work. I havent really tested it yet cause of an unbalanced driveshaft , but they lock up, no abs pump. See ya !!!


QUOTE=2turbotoys;6160958]Brakes calipers and rotors from an S60R (Mustang GT Corba master cylinder) is fairly common. Kaplhenke Racing offers a nice alternative. I'm doing the 17ZL Brembo upgrade on my LS swap.

The R and 17ZL conversion require 17" minimum rims. I think the Kaplhenke setup can use 16's, idk.

brickcupra, that sounds like a lot of extra work. Hope it works well though.[/QUOTE]

[bartman]

These brake upgrades are interesting...exactly what other modifications are required? Do the multi-piston calipers take 1 line or 2? Do you have to plug the remaining holes at the junction block? Can the OEM brake booster and proportioning valves work with them...etc.
It would be helpful if someone could further explain some of this. Stopping quick sounds almost as good to me as quick speed!
But like 283SD, not many of us are at a track very often.

[Toybox]

Originally Posted by bartman

Do the multi-piston calipers take 1 line or 2? Do you have to plug the remaining holes at the junction block? Can the OEM brake booster and proportioning valves work with them...etc.

I've always admired the twin-hydraulic-circuit-per-caliper as the most amazing, over-engineered braking idea in the world. It's so amazing that the average driver couldn't even tell if a failure happened, so Volvo needed to add a separate Brake Failure light to the dash. (Is there any other car that offers that? Or needs to?)

On the other hand, it's more complicated, and 30-40 years later when the "octopus" malfunctions, it's a pain in the arse to replace and extremely costly. And people have pointed out that plenty of millions of cars work just fine with a single hydraulic circuit to each caliper. We've come a long way since Henry Ford proclaimed his lack of trust in hydraulics with the slogan, "the safety of steel, from the pedal to the wheel."

My understanding is every other option or upgrade, even the later model ABS setup, utilizes a single line to each caliper. I would love to be proven wrong, but have seen literally zero support for the twin circuit caliper idea, other than OEM Volvo.

[2turbotoys]

Originally Posted by bartman

These brake upgrades are interesting...exactly what other modifications are required? Do the multi-piston calipers take 1 line or 2? Do you have to plug the remaining holes at the junction block? Can the OEM brake booster and proportioning valves work with them...etc.

You use Volvo part # 1387506 (qty 2) to plug the extra junction block holes. Brake booster is fine, but you need a Mustang Cobra master cylinder (I don't have that p/n on hand). It works without it, just not as well as it could.

You can use the proportioning valves. Mine were super rusty on the last R brake swap I did so I replaced them with SS 240 front brake lines. Just fit in place of valves. Not everyone is comfortable doing this.

The only other "mods" I did was buy SS brake lines for the S60R and replaced the stock lines. Of course you need the caliper adapters as well.

I haven't finished the Z17 swap yet because I'm attaching them to a Ford 9" rear and have to make my own adapters. I need to buy axles to do that.

Davebarton.com has a few different brake upgrades on his website, worth reading them if you want to do an upgrade like this. There is also a lot of info here, best to do a google site search for R brakes or whichever you find interesting.