Slotted rotors & hawk or greenstuff pads - improvement?

any better than stock brake parts make a big difference on a fox


kyb rear shocks aren't bad for the street

i didnt notice that big of a difference in overall braking power with hawk pads and FRPP drilled/slotted rotors (although i also switched the calipers to sn-95 up front, still didnt really notice)... but they help HUGELY for dissipating heat if you're gunna track-day your car.

When I was at SEMA I was talking to the EBC guys about their product. They said that unless you have a car that's primary use is as a track car, they recommend Red Stuff pads rather than Green Stuff. They said that the Red put off much less dust and will be quieter than the Green, while still being a major improvement over stock.

Mustang5L5 said:

No they don't. In fact, if you are a hard-core Autocrosser or open-tracker, you do not want crossdrilled rotors on your car. You want the normal plain-jane solid face rotors because they contain more mass to help dissipate heat.

crossdrilled holes are for venting gases from exotic race pads. They do nothing for cooling at all.

I've been autocrossing my GT and it gets the brakes VERY hot. Everyone i go with tells me their crossdrilled rotors lasted 1 or 2 sessions before cracking due to the heat. My plain-faced Brembos are still running strong on the car.

Click to expand...

+1

From what I've heard, the primary function of slotted rotors is separating idiots from their money.

Slotted rotors do serve a purpose; they scrape brake dust off of the pads so you get a better contact patch (and less noise). Better pads and rotors will help keep the brakes from fading, but won't do much more than that. Bigger rotors (and eliminating the drums) and tires are the only way to help stopping distances.

slotted or plain faced are best. Plain faced are best for most applications. Green stuff pads wear a little fast for me. I use the Yellow stuff pads which are VERY aggressive but pretty gentle on my rotors.

hawk pads squeak too much. Can't tolerate squeaking.

Slotted rotors won't make any difference but the Green stuff or yellow stuff pads definitely grab a lot harder. Change your brake fluid to a high temp fluid like ATE Super Blue or Castrol. Hotter pads cause more caliper heat which causes the fluid to get hotter. Don't want it to boil.

lets gets some correction here. slotted is different from cross drilled. I could go on for pages about brakes, but lets keep it short. I auto crossed my svt for a few years and belonged to a club that had some pretty heavy hitters and learned some cool stuff. there are some huge factors to consider and to even go by the road racing concept forget about it. first off those brakes don't even work until they get hot they need a certain amount of heat on the rotors to work to cold and they are scary, hence junk for the street, but one they they all share is gas slotting which is just what it means it has nothing to do with reducing heat persay but it's job is to release the gas that forms under the pad during braking, this gas reduces brake force. they don't use a solid rotor has this traps gas and heat. they also need more effective cooling due to hauling the car down from high speeds and on the brakes for long peroids of time.

Brake dia. is the biggest factor for brake force and stopping power. you sometimes when you see large brakes you notice the pads don't go far down on the rotor even on big brake kits for our cars with cailper brackets. don't matter, the more swept area the more braking surface the more stopping power, but there is weight cost, unsprung weight sucks hp, that's why exotics use ceramic brakes for less weight and better braking.

cross drilling is used on very large dia. brakes for both weight reduction and very limited cooling but mostly weight reduction(you see this on production cars like bmw, porsche, etc.). they want the larger diameter for more swept area this larger swept area increases braking leaverage and force but at the cost of unsprung weight. crossdrilling has do be done correctally and on designed rotors to avoid cracking. problem is the fast and furious crowd loved the look and every cheap knock off company drilled everyday rotors and most to close to the vanes and thats when they crack. crossed drilled rotors are way over kill for the street, they do crack, and are for looks only on the street, but they do look good. baer brakes and brembo of hand are some companies that make correct cross drilled and cross drilled/slotted rotors if you really like them.

slotted, like power slot, which doesn't cross drill is good. remember during braking you are heating the rotor which you need to start the braking force to heat the pad to get the bite, what happens is has the pad heats the off gasing of the material gets trapped under the pad this gas also gets hot which does transfer to the rotor, if you don't lift you will get brake fade, but remember this happening within seconds and lifting of the brake isn't always an option so then you get that spongy mushy pedal or fade, the gas slots allow the gas to drop onto the slots and exit out giving both braking power and cooling. brake pads are better at resisting this due to better materials and the fact that most cars are not driving hard every day.

another huge factor in braking or stopping distance that almost everyone over looks is tires, all the racers will tell you and the big magazines like motortrend, etc talk about it, but it's always over looked but something I consider when buying a performance tire . A grippier summer tire will stop a car better than a all season harder tire, a all season performance tire will stop better than a regular all season tire, it will bite and not slide. also going to larger brakes, better calipers, braided lines( gives a much firmer pedal), better fluid( mostly if your racing, or really, really hard on them on the street) etc. etc.

I ran ebc greenstuff on my stock svt rotors which warpped them, then ran plain brembos and did okay. I switched to goodrich lines, ebc sport rotors and greenstuff pads and my braking was much better than stock and at the track my times came up. I don't do track times anymore but I still run the sport rotors and moved to redstuff on the svt. for the mustang I run powerslots, and red stuff and love them has well for the street and huge improvement over stock, plus the tire/wheel and suspension upgrade helped out to.

I have some good books on solo racing, road racing and some online articles that talk about this stuff, like braking, tires etc. probally interesting to some boring to others but I love this stuff. speed channel is great now V8 supercars, german touring car series, btcc, porsche super cup I'm loving it .

oh yeah so slotted like power slot is good. better braking for the street. red stuff god too.

bloopbloob said:

haha that was short!!!?????
thanks for the info though.

i know i didn't want cross drilled rotors. My car is only street driven. Basically, i'm going to need new pads and rotors pretty soon. Changing the brake system is out of the question, so i'm just looking for the best pads & rotors, with a reasonable price range....
something like powerslots with green/red/yellow (i didnt even know they had different types than green)-stuffs, how much better than stock would that be, if any? i have new 275 bfg kdw's in the rear and 245 bfg (somethings?) in the front.

Click to expand...

LOL like that. alot of people get this messed up so I wanted to be clear. powerslots will be an improvement due the fact they will along with better pads like ebc red stuff reduce brake fade and heat over stock period. ajusa sells brake stuff (and other stuff) for a really good price. check them out I got my mustang brake stuff and my svt stuff there, anyhoo.

look at it this way ;

1) stock brakes and pads. just okay maybe. less available emergency braking due to heat build up(got to wait for them to cool to get maximum braking back).

2)stock rotors and performance pads. a little better, but still can fade and warp. still have some less available emergency braking due to heat build up(got to wait for them to cool to get maximum braking back).


3)slotted rotors and performance pad. big step up, less fade, less heat build up = short stopping distance and more available braking due to less heat. you can still over heat them just not has quickly and alot harder on the street.

add in braided brake hoses to #3 or #4 and you get a stiffer pedal giving better pedal effort meaning the pedal wont travel down has far to push the fluid ( you aren't wasying energy expanding the rubber hose) to the calipers, thus giving you a quicker brake firmer pedal. you go further with bigger brakes, etc. but I'm showing you a pratical street setup and the gains from the pads, stock diameter rotors and if you wanted braided brake hoses.

other guys in my club where running the hawk hps (this is what you would get) and the hp plus and I never heard much from any of them. here is a trick, do you have dremel or small grider? a dremel is yor friend . I take the stone attachment and bevel the outer edges and middle channel, I put a nice 45 degree bevel this work nice to take a chance of any noise from the pad, yes it works. also don't overlook caliper grease, and quite stop for the back of the pads all available at your local store, these are spots for noise. I'm going to try hawk myself on my mustang, I like to change it up every now and then.

I also ment to add I ran satisified pro ceramic's with power slots on my 2004 explorer, I tow a trailer and warped my stock rotors just for another example . I'm going to do the same for my 07 when they come out.

oh and another thing, you don't turn these rotors and you must bed them in. nice easy stops no emergency stops if it can be helped for about 300 400 miles to heat cycle. once they are bedded in you are good to go, this prevents pad glazing. also once the pads wear out has long as the rotors are not warped you just put new ones on and rebed, if they are warped or worn down, you repalce the rotors.

ajusa has the rotors for $98 free shipping. the part #'s for powerslots are 8126psL(left) & 8126psR(right).

goodluck .