Anybody with experience with water cooling the brakes? Toying with the idea of either placing a spray into the brake ducting or running a jet straight into the veins of the rotor. System is used to remove as much heat from the system as possible to prevent overheating, giving you better braking performance and better wear rates of pads and rotors. Thoughts?
My thoughts My thoughts Cracked disc. Added weight (water tank) that needs to be slowed. Is brake fad my issue?
First thing that popped into my mind too... Wiz, didn't you have trouble with cracked discs from water before? Or was that Wykked?
You would consider getting cracked discs from a red hot disc going through a puddle of water causing shock cooling and the like. But a light mist spray wont have any chance at cracking a disc.
considering brakes get red hot then get chilled; massive temperature difference. this would make the discs brittle then crack. oh... too late lol
Not quite No different to driving your car in the rain, also no different to your turbos, they are water cooled and get red hot, havent seen them cracking. Would need to be activated when brakes are applied, simple switching arrangment on the brake pedal would do it. The whole idea is to keep the system cooler so that you don't crack rotors. It's not a new idea it's been around for a long time, as stated the racing trucks use it, trying to pull those heavy rigs up generates massive heat, also some of the V8's,and others. heavy cars like ours, or any of the imports for that matter, what about the new GTR, $1300 for a new set of pads, they would benifit from a system that prolongs the life and wear of the pads. Chrispy, i cracked one at Oran park through heat soak (not enough cool down before parking it) R33k, water would turn to steam, brakes get up to 600 degrees, so not going to get much on the tyres. Black beast, Stop techs will be fine, just looking to prolong the life of them with a cooler system. More thoughts?
the idea of spraying cold water/mist on very hot rotors doesn't sound too good in my books.. turbos are different where as the water that passes through (constantly)is at least 80-90 degrees in temp.
Wizard, I think that I better explain myself a little more clearly as it seems as if this has not been a passing thought for you. There are many ways that the water cooled brakes are set up. In the Late 90s early 2000s the WRC used water cooled callipers which had their own little radiators. But, the V8 supercars water cooled arrangement aims to cool the inlet air entering the brake ducts. They do this through evaporation of the water in the inlet air, they have a little water mist nozzle early in the front ducting allowing it to phase change to steam (absorb energy) as it travels into the front up right and then the disc. So it should be highly unlikely that water would enter the discs. As such they are not really water cooled disc, but still air cooled, with ducted evaporative air conditioning. I would be concerned that the water mist setup you are suggesting is spraying water into the discs. Yes this will evaporate instantaneously, however, not before quenching the surface. This will lead to the disc surface having minor surface hardening, and a blueing effect. As such the hardness layer will eventually crack, and that crack will only propagate. I am a big one for ensuring you discs and pads are correctly matched to you expected temperatures. Wizard, why don?t you get some temperature paint and paint your discs, before your next track outing. Then you will know what tempo range your disc operated in and you can get some pads to match, but also be aware that you may need to get your discs? material to match as well. If you temp is too high you might need to think about upgrading your brake pad to disc contact size.
Are you sure you're not getting confused with water-cooled calipers? Those have been around in motorsport for yonks, and are a proven means of keeping brake fluid from boiling. See below. Also, driving a car in the rain and using a system like you've described on the track are two very different things. For one, your brakes won't be scalding hot when you're just driving along in wet weather.
Water cooled rotors No, direct cooling of the rotors, see system here for the GTR-35 http://www.gtrblog.com/2009/12/13/willall-racing-wr35ws-brake-coolin/ All good info Dave, Used to run a UAS big brake kit, have recently fitted even bigger Stop techs for improved braking at the track. plenty of big name manufactuers, Brembo, Alcon, AP racing all manufacture water cooled kits, you can even buy dedicated enclosed systems with their own radiator for same. At this stage i'm leaning towards spraying a mist into the brake ducting, water boils at 100 degrees and with the water turning to steam before it reaches the rotors it will absorb the heat, reducing the temps.
...and the driver behind you can't see a thing because of all that steam, and misses his braking point for the next corner? :bash: :bash: :bash:
:rofl: We are talking very small quantities of water here, there will be more dust coming off the track than steam from the brakes Misting the water is the key here, as I'm sure you all know if you just squirt the water in vast quantities at the brakes it will all go bad fairly quickly. Fit a temp sensor to one of the calipers (front would be best) buy a little control box from Jason @ Blazt, set it up so the pump only operates above a certain temp & then maybe only while the brakes are on - maybe two controllers & switch it on permanently above another temp. Misting through the ducting is a good idea IMO. You may even be able to fit a sensor to the front pads if you are that way inclined, the temp changes would be read faster there than on the caliper.
Folks - is old-hat technology .. on a heavy car like 300ZXTT, anything you do to help the brakes has to be good. Grab a brass garden-spray nozzle from Bunnings (or the Kiwi equivalent) and plumb into lines that spray into the the brake ducts - DO NOT spray direct onto the rotor surface ... NAGI .... Hook up the pump to trigger off the brake light circuit ... windsreen washer bottle is a good size "water-tank" and washer bottle pump will also be right size. Between 1 and 2 litres (1-2 kg) is all you need for sprints and short races ... You want fine-spray in the duct as atomised water in the cooling air is the best way to reduce heat in the brakes .. Spraying the rotor directly will crack rotors ... V8Supercars have used "mist-sprays" in brake ducts for years (I am fairly sure that "water-cooled" calipers were outlawed in the last cost-reduction exercise .. if not, they will be in the current Car of the Future exercise). R
Yes will wire it Up to the brake light switch, also fit an arming switch to turn it on and off, don't want it spraying when the car is stationary with your foot on the brake. Might run an intercooler spray off the same set up if i'm going to the trouble of fitting a tank. More teams running water straight to the rotors with out cracking, see this again. http://www.gtrblog.com/2009/12/13/willall-racing-wr35ws-brake-coolin/
For a few extra bob I'd just get the nozzles from aquamist or devils own. You'll get much better atomisation of the water with those, and they will only cost about $20. In saying that, if you didn't have the pump already I'd consider grabbing the base model water injection kit from devils own and rigging it up like GB said off the brake light circuit.
