Brake Upgrade Info.

[Guest gtmdriver]

Hi again,

 

Once again I'm hoping to pick your collective brains for a proposed magazine article.

 

I need as much information as possible about upgrading the Sierra braking system using parts from other Ford vehicles rather than buying after-market upgrades from specialist manufacturers.

 

Any knowledge you have will be gratefully accepted and the more technical detail (and part numbers) you can provide the better.

 

John Dickens

Technical Editor

 

Complete Kitcar Magazine

[Grim]

a good one is for the sierra rears to upgrade from solid to vented discs. I found this useful for trackdays where my rears were a bit borderline / smelly.

 

Use a 253mm vented rear disc from a mk4 scorpio estate (also cougar rears) and a rear caliper from mk4 scorpio estate (also sierra cosworth 4wd, despite the different disc diameters). Pad is identical to the solid discs. No changes required to mounting points, no spacers, brackets or compromises to get it to fit.

 

Any further questions etc please ask. Currently using mintex 1144 pads, and very happy with them.

 

Andy

[ibrooks]

The biggest non-Cosworth Sierra fronts were the 260mm vented discs but you need to be careful as the 2wd and 4wd discs and calipers apparently have different offsets.

 

There's a nice easy upgrade to 300mm discs by using MkI Focus ST170 discs and MkII Mondeo calipers. You need to drill the holes in the caliper mounting lugs on the hubs out from 10 to 12mm. On a 4x4 I think you also need an 8mm spacer between the hub and caliper mounting lugs. A couple of washers will do the job but a single plate is a nicer solution. On a 2wd I seem to remember it just bolts together. Take any measurements here with a pinch of salt as they are from long term memory and subject to degradation by time and beer. I've got all the bits kicking around as this is my intended setup on the front of the Focus but I've got a GTM to get back on the road first.

 

From memory the Cosworth 4x4 rear discs are the same diameter as the "normal" Sierra's rear disc but vented. The calipers are correspondingly just a wider version of the standard rear caliper so a Cosworth 4x4 rear disc and caliper is a straight swap for a normal Sierra rear disc and caliper (but tends to carry the Cosworth tax so Grim's mix+match setup is probably cheaper but wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if it even had the same part numbers).

 

Iain

[Grim]

iirc, the 2wd cosworth had 273mm solid discs, and the 4wd had 273mm vented, altho the calipers are the same as their 253mm variants.