As far as I know, the Sharkwerks guys are not exactly aiming for low-cost...
Ownership Verified: The "RS" stands for "Really Slow"
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As far as I know, the Sharkwerks guys are not exactly aiming for low-cost...
GRtak
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Titanium is a massive increase in cost. It is foolish to think that that cost is not taken into effect, even when the work is being done by people known for doing high quality work.
equiraptor
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We're looking into having items made from the parts. Thoughts are something like lamps for the (race car themed) guest room and potentially earrings for me, if we can find some appropriate parts.
They recommended steel, rather than titanium, as the steel rods they recommended are expected to be more durable. The Sharkwerks guys know the components they choose well, and they know we're more concerned with long-term durability than peak power output or light weight. So they selected rods they felt would best fit these goals. Other Sharkwerks builds will get other internals, to match those customers' goals best.
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Yeah the Sharkwerks guys did not recommend titanium for cars that will see a lot of track time. Cost was not a factor in the decision.
My understanding is that the total weight of the whole rotating assembly is still a net reduction on account of the lower weight of the pistons used, despite the heavier rods.
My understanding is that the total weight of the whole rotating assembly is still a net reduction on account of the lower weight of the pistons used, despite the heavier rods.
equiraptor
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Between the added power and the heat of summer in Texas, the OEM Pagid Yellows were just not holding up to track use. They faded pretty badly. We'd been planning to change pad compounds in the near future anyway, but decided to do that now rather than continuing to run the car this summer with fading pads. Our rotors were pretty heavily cracked, too - not quite to the replacement spec, but getting close. So, new rotors it was. While I was out of town, Nugget did some research, and found some two piece rotors that'll have similar running costs to OEM, but provide better cooling. We chose AP Racing "J-hook" rotors and Ferodo DS1.11 pads. We installed the things today.
The rotors before installation:
One of the nice things about the front brakes on the GT3 (and many other Porsches) is that the calipers don't have to be removed to swap pads. They come out the back of the rotor. One of the unnice things about this is the spring & pin that are used to hold the pads in. Fortunately, there's a specialized tool to hep manage the spring! I shamelessly stole this image of the tool in use:
With that tool, the front pads are easy and quick. That's great, but since we're changing rotors, too, we still had to pull off the calipers. It seems the best way to do this is to take out the pads, then pull the caliper off the rotor/wheel carrier, change the rotor, then put the caliper back on, then install the new pads. Of course, we didn't manage to do it that way, but oh well! In this image, I'm taking out one of the caliper bolts from the front right... with the Pagid Yellow pads still in (look for the yellow loop out the back of the caliper). You can see the OEM drilled rotor there, too.
Still, we got it done. The same corner, new J-hook rotor and if you look closely, you can see black from the new pads where the yellow loop from the old pad was:
I didn't snap photos of them, but the rear assembly is more typical. The caliper has to come off for the pads to come out, so the order there is obvious. I did manage to grab this photo of Nugget putting the rear wheel back on, though:
We didn't bed the pads today. Ferodo says we need to get them up to 500?C, and the pads aren't recommended for street use, anyway, so they need track bedding. We'll get that done when we head out to H2R next weekend, and in the mean time it'll be the Cayenne and the Miata on the street.
I'm excited to have the car out at the track next weekend.
ETA: The security camera caught us working on the car, too:
The rotors before installation:
One of the nice things about the front brakes on the GT3 (and many other Porsches) is that the calipers don't have to be removed to swap pads. They come out the back of the rotor. One of the unnice things about this is the spring & pin that are used to hold the pads in. Fortunately, there's a specialized tool to hep manage the spring! I shamelessly stole this image of the tool in use:
With that tool, the front pads are easy and quick. That's great, but since we're changing rotors, too, we still had to pull off the calipers. It seems the best way to do this is to take out the pads, then pull the caliper off the rotor/wheel carrier, change the rotor, then put the caliper back on, then install the new pads. Of course, we didn't manage to do it that way, but oh well! In this image, I'm taking out one of the caliper bolts from the front right... with the Pagid Yellow pads still in (look for the yellow loop out the back of the caliper). You can see the OEM drilled rotor there, too.
Still, we got it done. The same corner, new J-hook rotor and if you look closely, you can see black from the new pads where the yellow loop from the old pad was:
I didn't snap photos of them, but the rear assembly is more typical. The caliper has to come off for the pads to come out, so the order there is obvious. I did manage to grab this photo of Nugget putting the rear wheel back on, though:
We didn't bed the pads today. Ferodo says we need to get them up to 500?C, and the pads aren't recommended for street use, anyway, so they need track bedding. We'll get that done when we head out to H2R next weekend, and in the mean time it'll be the Cayenne and the Miata on the street.
I'm excited to have the car out at the track next weekend.
ETA: The security camera caught us working on the car, too:
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Yeah, that's actually fairly common from what I've seen, although I haven't seen that design before in my very limited experience.
All 6 of the calipers on my Viper are Brembos and they can have the pads be swapped without removing the caliper. Super dirty photo of mine:
No special tool needed -- you just hammer the pins out and then the pad slides out.
equiraptor
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You don't need a special tool for these, either. It's just a little bit easier with it. Arranging the spring can be an annoyance without it. This was our first time to use the spring, and we've had calipers like this since 2007.
The pads can be spread while still around the rotor. Do it however works best for you. There are little tabs that come out from the backing plates and various gaps and spaces. Those can be used to get leverage even with the rotor still in there.
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I've once swapped pads on an old Benz CLK, same procedure - pins out, pads out, job done.
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Well, obviously also new pads back in and pins back in.. I AM NOT EVIL!
equiraptor
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Is it Saturday yet?
GRtak
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WDWBen
Subaru Killer
I can't 100% remember, but I believe the pin-and-slide was also used on the Brembos on the STi, from 2004 until at least 2007...
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Today we performed the first oil change since the rebuild. Unfortunately, the collection of the used oil for Blackstone analysis didn't go as well and we probably won't be able to get a good analysis done from this time. We'll know better for next time.
9.0 quarts of DT50 and a new OEM filter. Took us about an hour, all told, working methodically and over-cautiously.
9.0 quarts of DT50 and a new OEM filter. Took us about an hour, all told, working methodically and over-cautiously.
equiraptor
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Our first oil change since the rebuild. Sharkwerks changed the oil after their break-in driving.
The methodic instructions say to drain from one plug for 20 minutes, re-insert plug, and then drain from a different plug for 20 minutes. I'm not sure it's necessary to do this separately, but our catch pan isn't large enough to reliably catch from both simultaneously. So... we waited for one and then waited for the other.
