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RX7 Brake Pad Recommendation

Alan.K

New member
Joined
Sep 9, 2018
Location
Boise, Idaho
I?ve got all my RX7 big brake parts gathered except for pads.
Does anyone have a recommendation for some performance street compound pads?
Source and part number would be much appreciated.
Cheers!
 
I can't give you recommendations on what to buy, but I will say I've been underwhelmed with EBC greenstuffs in mine. They took forever to break in and even after they're just meh. Plus the rears are ungodly loud with all the grease and shims in them.
 
I’m just looking for a decent street compound with good cold friction. If it can handle a little more heat than a cheapo stock pad, that’s all the extra performance I’d ask from it.
 
I?m just looking for a decent street compound with good cold friction. If it can handle a little more heat than a cheapo stock pad, that?s all the extra performance I?d ask from it.

Some guy name Rod Millen is the guy that put m onto the RX7 calipers when we were admiring the nice Toyota pick-up Sumitomo calipers on the front of my Saab 900....and the RX7 ones on his GTX rally cars...

He had used the Toyota calipers on the Toyota Mickey Thompson stadium and short circuit trucks he had been in recently (then).
He said the OEM Toyota Sumitomo (cast iron) pads--the LIGHT BLUE painted ones were fantastic pads and (then) cheap!
Worked good cold and worked good hotter than hell---like dull orange color on the rotors,

And cheap! He said to use them in RX7 calipers was easy---he said just look at the steel backing plate and there was one little lug that you just kiss with a angle grinder--3 seconds he said..

Might be worth checking at a Toyota dealer--they were under $40 (then).
 
Some guy name Rod Millen is the guy that put m onto the RX7 calipers when we were admiring the nice Toyota pick-up Sumitomo calipers on the front of my Saab 900....and the RX7 ones on his GTX rally cars...

He had used the Toyota calipers on the Toyota Mickey Thompson stadium and short circuit trucks he had been in recently (then).
He said the OEM Toyota Sumitomo (cast iron) pads--the LIGHT BLUE painted ones were fantastic pads and (then) cheap!
Worked good cold and worked good hotter than hell---like dull orange color on the rotors,

And cheap! He said to use them in RX7 calipers was easy---he said just look at the steel backing plate and there was one little lug that you just kiss with a angle grinder--3 seconds he said..

Might be worth checking at a Toyota dealer--they were under $40 (then).

Sounds promising. Do you know what model and year Toyota pad I would be looking for?
 
I had some Hawk HPS 5.0 and really didn't like them. They squealed a ton on light braking. I swapped to some Porterfield r4s and love them, although they do make a lot of dust.
 
http://www.racingbeat.com/RX7-1986-1992/Brake-Pads/Hawk-RX7-8695-Four-Front.html

Hawk HPS and HP+ both served us well on our 24hr lemons car (240 wagon w/RX7 4-piston calipers). Worked well for endurance racing, certainly no problems with fade or modulation. Wear was fine, no complaints. Our Volvo brand pads in the stock calipers would wear about twice as fast (if not faster), so even though they were cheaper, we got slightly better performance out of the Hawk pads & Mazda calipers for similar operating costs.

It's subjective, but I felt that I could jump on the pedal hard if I needed to and didn't have to worry about lock up. Some pads get 'grabby' when hot, but these aren't very aggressive and worked great with the 200-treadwear street tires we race on. They are a street pad, afterall.

We used the HP+ first because I thought it was the more appropriate pad for racing. We then used a set of HPS when the HP+ weren't readily available when we needed them, and they did just fine. I'd opt for the HPS for a street car, since they are cheaper. The link above will give you part numbers if you want to shop around.

edit: dust, probably. noise, yep, sounded like a race car. all positives in our opinion. ;-)
 
Sounds promising. Do you know what model and year Toyota pad I would be looking for?

early 80s to sometime in the 90s... Check Rockauto under calipers and look at the piccies.

Look like this:


: A-1 CARDONE 19826 Caliper
TOYOTA 4RUNNER 1986-1989
TOYOTA LAND CRUISER 1976-1990
TOYOTA PICKUP 1986-1988
Please refer to catalog for application details.

https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=23394&cc=1277502&jsn=17

Inlet Port Size M10 x 1.0
Piston Material Steel
Color Gray
Package Contents Caliper, Hardware Kit
Bleeder Port Size M10 x 1.0
Brake Caliper Finish Unfinished
Brake Piston Count 4
Installation Hardware Included Yes
Pads Included No
Mounting Bolts Included No
Piston Size (OD) (mm) 43, 34
Piston Size (OD) (in) 1.69, 1.33
Alternate/OEM Part Number(s): 4773060021


Center to center on the mounting bolts is the ever popular 3.5".

transpurple100.png


So the pads are:
d137-7069__ra_p.jpg


And the RX7 pads
308.03310_125889_ZZ2__ra_p.jpg


You should note that the RX7 mod----which I invented like 16 years ago---work only if you retain the brake booster.... The piston sizes are significantly smaller than stock..36mm vs stock 38mm...none of the various guys copying the design for the adaptor brackets --which I foolishly published to allow guys to easily and cheaply do the brackets for under $10 ever mentioned the smaller size which "we"--the owner of the first car we did it on and I----eventually discarded...We had done dual-master system with a balance bar and we could not lock the fronts on loose gravel...


The Toyota pick up Sumitomos are better and closer to what we'd want, but they're cast iron and so not hip enough, even if they would work better as an UP-grade.



A MUCH better victim caliper would be Nissan 300ZX, with 4 x 40.4mm

CE_14142074_Fro__ra_p.jpg


Slightly easier to clear many wheels without that bump outboard that the RX7 have.
 
Do you have the part number for the Porterfields?

You can just call Porterfield or email them. If they don't have the pad in stock, they will custom make them for you. I sent them a picture of the pad for my 740 and they custom made me a set with Raybestos ST-43 compound for my Lemons car. For the race car, the pad was the size of the entire backing plate.

It might be a little overkill for the street though if you can get off the shelf pads like others recommended.

https://www.porterfield-brakes.com/
 
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