Well as the description of the of the blog states “...I shall share my joys and frustrations with this transformation...” Well here’s a nice dose of frustration for ya!
In early November I decided to proceed with upgrading my brakes.The 350Z is a heavy car and although the Base version I have is the lightest of the various models, it’s still a tad over 3000 lbs. The stock brakes do a wonderful job hauling the car down on canyons and high speed runs but on the track the stock single piston brakes are known to cook. Now a Brembo upgrade from a track model Z would be ideal but at this time I’m not willing to spend the $$$ for this luxury. As luck would have it a fellow Z owner with a 2007 model year; bigger twin piston calipers, was moving to an after market big brake kit and had to unload his stock set up. Enter me with cash in hand and an open weekend at my dads.
Couple of shots from the old man's garage and his project cars
The job seemed simple enough; move from the current 2005 set up to the larger twin piston 2007 set up, the pads looked good so I kept them until I was ready to buy some track/street pads.
Specs 2005 350z brakes:
Front rotor-11.5”
Rear rotor:-11”
Single piston front caliper
Specs 2007 350z brakes
Front rotor-12.5”
Rear rotor-11.5”
Twin piston front caliper
2007 to the left and 2005 to the right
Additionally, I upgraded to stainless steel brake lines from Techna-fit and high temp ATE brake fluid.
A little bit of trimming would be needed on the rear dust shield but apart from that it should have been a simple “plug-and-play” affair…or not.
Well after about four hours of doing the actual swap I was ready to bleed the system and take the Z for a test run. Close to two liters of brake fluid later and nothing; the brake pedal was holding zero pressure and would go straight to the floor. My father, a mechanic with forty-years of experience was baffled too. He was pointing to the brake booster or may be the master cylinder. I was less certain of that, as I had done my research and found that others who had done comparable swaps never had to replace the MC. It was now approaching 10pm on a wet Sunday night and we where both spent. Could it be bum calipers, failing MC and/or booster? May be the stainless steel lines where a wrong fit. I was convinced it was air in the lines and we just hadn't bled the brakes enough. So back to the Z forum I went and I sent out a call for help. “Get a Power Bleeder!” was the uniform reply; Z’s are notorious for being a PINTA when there’s air in the system and the only efficient way to bleed the brakes from any trapped air pockets was with a power bleeder. I ordered a Motive Power Bleeder and 48hrs later we were at it again but this time the brake pedal was starting to hold pressure. The Motive Power Bleeder is a great tool and highly recommended if you’re doing a brake job by yourself. In less than an hour, pressure had built up and the brakes were good to go. Finally!
In the months since, the brakes have worked flawlessly. This past week, due to a lack of time, I dropped off the Z at Precision Z for a brake pad change. Sean and co hooked me up with some Stoptech club pads and gave the Z a once over. The brakes are biting nicely and with the hightemp blue fluid I should be able to hang with the best of them…we’ll see. My first autocross event will be February 27
