Brake Booster delete

[Mr. J]

I saw this kit on Zilvia and am curious as to what people's opinion of it is, from a performance perspective.

Chase Bays Booster Delete (http://zilvia.net/f/brakes/343172-chase-bays-brake-booster-delete-brake-line-kit.html)

[Def]

Sounds like a stupid idea, and way too expensive for what it is, just like everything else from "Chaser Bays." Just a bunch of overpriced "make your engine bay look cool while you hard park at the local car meets" crap.

If you're willing to toss the brake boost, go with a dual MC setup and a balance bar.

[Cory]

Don't delete your booster. I gutted one that failed and tried running it for a while. It sucks.

[Mr. J]

That's kind of what I thought. It seems like a lot of effort and money for a 'cleaner' engine bay without any notable performance enhancement.

[Matt93SE]

Crap design. stay away.

You can do a true dual MC setup for same money and have much more performance and adjustability.

[Mr. J]

I don't plan on converting to a dual master cylinder because that would be enormous overkill on my car, but am curious about how it would be set up in a S13. Would it be something were the master cyclinders are contained with the pedals, like a Tilton setup?

[Matt93SE]

Various people (Wilwood, Tilton, coleman) make pedal assemblies and you can get master cylinders that will fit inside the dash or on the firewall- just depends on what you want.
you can also put the master cylinder under the dash and use a remote reservoir on the firewall or elsewhere to store fluid.

[WorkInProgressK]

Brake booster doesn't work on my 240sx and it sucks.

[gawdzilla]

i'm looking to reduce the sensitivity of my brake pedal. right now the z32 17/16 master with manual booster (as far as i know the least sensitive bolt in setup available) is too sensitive with 350z brembo fronts and z32 rears. one option i guess would be a smaller bore MC with no booster like this chasebays thing. or a functional equivalent - disconnected booster with 7/8 master. or finally a fully custom setup which i probably don't have the time to figure out

[floodo1]

Wow, that's a lot of hate.

If you want to find out what your breaks will be like with this just stop the engine while you're driving....brake booster will stop working and you'll get an idea of how hard you have to push.

Theoretically no booster is better, but I don't think I'd want this on any car I had to street drive.

Finally, for 500 bucks I had better be getting a balance bar!

[gawdzilla]

i've felt the brakes without a booster and they feel like crap. but when the booster is working it is TOO sensitive.

Ideally i'd like some sort of adjustable brake booster (restrictor maybe??) to modify my pedal feel, but that is probably wishful thinking. or is it?

from what i'm reading about the balance bar, inline restrictor, etc. they just change the bias from wheel to wheel/front to back, but nothing will affect the pedal feel except for changing the MC itself

[McCoy]

i've felt the brakes without a booster and they feel like crap. but when the booster is working it is TOO sensitive.
What brake pads are you using? I've found some pads feel better than others on track. And when I say feel better, I mean they don't grab hard, and have good modulation as I get towards threshold braking.

I also use an auto BMC, which is supposed to be a dual-stage booster like the Z32 IIRC and I like the amount of pedal travel I have... not rock hard, but doesn't go down to the floor either.

[gawdzilla]

hawk blues all around. can't say i've tried other race pads on the track in my limited track career. open to suggestions though for my next set (as long as they're offered for 350z brembo front and z32 rear). the issue isn't so much the travel as it is the sensitivity of the pedal. the difference between my foot applying pressure for hard braking and for locking up is a very thin margin. it's almost as if i went back to the z32s with the oem 7/8 master. not that extreme but i hope you get the idea.

that's why i was thinking going to a small mc with no booster would make the pedal feel less sensitive. not saying i'm buying this kit, but it looks to have some promise for pedal feel.

[McCoy]

hawk blues all around. .
Let me quess, you are using a street tire with these? The hawk blues have to much coefficient of grip (Cf) for street tires, even cold they're to much. With the sticky RE-01R's or Advan A048R's I was able to lock up the tires WAY to easily on the street, track was a little better but not ideal. Throw on a nice set of RA-1's or R6 hoosiers and the hawk blues feel right at home, mash that pedal as hard as you want and just hope you don't hit a bump in that braking zone!

The solution is to either step-up to a track tire or go down a notch on the pads. That's probably the easiest way.

I am using a 1" Z32 BMC, btw.

[gawdzilla]

Interesting. What brake caliper setup are you on? I liked the 17/16 feel with r33 gtst calipers all around . Yep street tire. Kumho xs that were officially ruined by some moron who decided to threshold brake at thefront of a train of cars at the end of a long straight cuz he saw a red flag. Never thought about checking mirrors. Facepalm. Slid fully locked on all 4 corners for about 300 feet. Awesome.

I'm probably gonna hit the last NASA day at my local track and look for some ra1 takeoffs for next season.

[McCoy]

I was running Z32 F/R with Z33 brembo rotors up front and hawk blues on both ends.

You'll be fine on track with the hawk blues, you just have to be careful at threshold braking because it won't take much to lock up those kumho XS's. The RA-1's have a lot more grip/braking power than any street tire I've ran.

[gawdzilla]

alright, i'll give that a shot next season... thx for the tips. i'm an r-comp virgin :) sorry about the super off topic discussion.

[Jonty]

I can't see that this booster delete is as terrible as people make out if it maintains standard balance (does it?) as you can get an element of adjustability with a bias valve just like you can on a stock m/cyl... but for the cost you can get most of the way towards a twin m/cyl setup and have real adjustability.

I find I have poor feel of how close I am to locking currently, even on pretty fresh slicks which should be pushing the pads really hard... I may give some different pads a try before taking the plunge for a twin m/cyl setup, although you've got to think that quick rack unassisted (or mappable electrically assisted) steering and unboosted brakes have got to be the best thing for driver feel... I want to feel like my feet and fingertips are draggin on the tarmac!