Viper Big Brake Upgrade - Gen 2 Viper

[Detlef]

I bought everything from PartsRack including the conversion kit (made by IPSCO), rotors, SRT calipers, pads, fluid.

[99RT10]

Ipsco is the only way to go. I bought 3 parking/emergency brake kits from Mark. Great guy, great company.

[Darth Menace]

is this as beneficial for non abs wheels? Or is it just locking your tires faster?

[Luisv]

Which kit from whom (vendor) or do you buy from wrecked Gen 3 or 4 and then buy the extra pieces needed or is there a whole kit that saves you time and money. What is the best and most cost effective way of putting something like this together

Having done a similar upgrade myself (except for the front calipers, which were sourced from a made-for-Ford Brembo application 'cause used black SRT calipers are nearly impossible to find), go to Mark (IPSCO) for the bracketry/e-brake calipers and X-builders for the SRT front calipers. Get the front rotors & SS braided hydraulic lines from your favorite supplier. Be sure to get new properly fitting banjo bolts/sealing washers for the front calipers. I used blue Loctite instead of red as I wanted to preserve the option to R&R in the future without a fight. Be cautious with anyone that is offering re-powder coated calipers as they may not have removed all the seals prior to hitting the oven. This mod should be high on your list.

Dead on... I mentioned it in the thread up top.... I gave you the P/N's as well....

IPSCO for the bracket kits and steel lines. Absolutely agree with Blue Eyes.... The quality of the parts is awesome and the fit is perfect.... Great kits. Mark is great to deal with as well.

X2builders for the calipers. They have calipers...

As for the powder coating I use a great local guy. He's done a bunch of things for me.... Supercharger kit on the Charger to match the factory paint, chassis and a bunch of components for a 1977 Vette we are resto-modding, the Viper intake and valve covers when they began to bubble... Awesome. I had him do the parts. All I did was pull everything apart for him, removed seals, bleeders, etc and gave him the bare calipers. As mentioned..... Be very careful of buying pre coated calipers... They can screw things up if they don't remove the seals and strip them right....

[Luisv]

is this as beneficial for non abs wheels? Or is it just locking your tires faster?

Of course.... You will need to get a proportioning valve for front/rear bias, but it will definitely help.

If you are using more modern rubber, it'll be harder to lock tires up.... The only difference between you and me if that you don't have a backup system to modulate the brakes. I don't just slam brakes on and hope for the ABS.... I control braking like I control throttle. ABS is a redundancy...

The only thing I will tell you is that you need 18" wheels. 17" won't fit over the SRT calipers....

[Darth Menace]

Dead on... I mentioned it in the thread up top.... I gave you the P/N's as well....

IPSCO for the bracket kits and steel lines. Absolutely agree with Blue Eyes.... The quality of the parts is awesome and the fit is perfect.... Great kits. Mark is great to deal with as well.

X2builders for the calipers. They have calipers...

As for the powder coating I use a great local guy. He's done a bunch of things for me.... Supercharger kit on the Charger to match the factory paint, chassis and a bunch of components for a 1977 Vette we are resto-modding, the Viper intake and valve covers when they began to bubble... Awesome. I had him do the parts. All I did was pull everything apart for him, removed seals, bleeders, etc and gave him the bare calipers. As mentioned..... Be very careful of buying pre coated calipers... They can screw things up if they don't remove the seals and strip them right....

how much do a set of calipers usually run with x2builders? for the gen 3/4 that can be used with the gen 2?

[Luisv]

how much do a set of calipers usually run with x2builders? for the gen 3/4 that can be used with the gen 2?

Sent PM

[Luisv]

Wanted to update this with some results. After the write up on this I've been driving the car for about 100 to 150 miles. Everything cool, no leaks, tight lines or cables... everything is pretty mush fine.

As for braking performance gains:

I never really measure 60-0 stopping distance for the Viper. However, I do have a bit of reference. Last year we did a brake upgrade for a buddy's car. It is a Miata they are modifying. They upgraded the suspension to coil overs, better sway bars, poly bushings at every point (arms and sways), lighter wheels with 225 tires. After we did the upgrade to that car we went to a nice remote road and did some 60-0 braking. The Vipewr, on average stopped about one and a half car lengths longer than the Miata. About 25 feet more. A couple of weeks later, he had measured a stop and it came to 96 feet. So, ballpark, the Viper was stopping about 118 to 120 feet. Seems about right. This was on old tires and the brakes had a reasonable amount of wear.

So, after the brakes were done, I went to the same road and did some 60-0 stops after the brakes were at normal city driving temps. The best stop I was able to get was a measured 103 feet. This is with the same tires as last year except that the tires now have another 5K miles on them.

Bottom line, the new setup dropped the braking distance by a good 13 to 15 feet. I am more than happy about that. So good news on that front. Granted... not a perfect indication of the before after, but good. I did not do this with any precise equipment, or anything like that... but, In the end, breaking is better than it was. Even if you go with published numbers of about 115 feet for 60-0 for a 2002 Viper, the 103 foot final result is great.

More importantly, there is room to improve that! The setup as it is on the car now, will engage the ABS on the front tires BEFORE they engage the rears. More clearly, the rears never hit ABS. This is typically not what you want. You typically want the rears to engage ABS before the fronts do. This means I may be playing with the master cylinder before I'm done. This makes me even happier... the reason is that if the rears are not engaging the ABS first, we can further improve the braking by getting the bias dead on. To do that and/or test for that.... I will first upgrade the tires to fresh rubber. (Just got the tires today!) Once those are on and I align the car again, everything will be set to really test the new brakes.

I'll start another thread and discuss the master cylinder and plans there a bit... I get into some specifics... should be a cool discussion.

[JonB ~ PartsRack]

LUIS

You are extremely Generous in compiling and sharing perhaps the THE most comprehensive, inclusive, detailed DIY I have ever seen in the HISSSTORY of Viper Forums! The Gen 2 and even G 3 community is in your debt. And "OGO Big Brakes Dave" would be delighted and singing your praises too.........

Gracias and Thank You...........

[Luisv]

LUIS

You are extremely Generous in compiling and sharing perhaps the THE most comprehensive, inclusive, detailed DIY I have ever seen in the HISSSTORY of Viper Forums! The Gen 2 and even G 3 community is in your debt. And "OGO Big Brakes Dave" would be delighted and singing your praises too.........

Gracias and Thank You...........

Wow.... Thanks. I appreciate that. Sometimes I feel like I go overboard so it's good to know folks found it helpful.

I had some trouble digging up some of this stuff and finding answers to a few details I had doubts about... I figured, once I got it all done, sharing the info could save others the trouble and give folks a great reference in the future.

Glad you found it to be helpful!

[GBS]

Very Nice write up! I hope to upgrade my Gen II brakes one of these days.

[Luisv]

Folks... as FYI... I started a thread to discuss the master cylinder and the possibility to further improve this setup.

I have some more details re: the master cylinder and details about the Gen 2 ABS cars.

I opened it in the General Tires & Brakes section because it'll cover more generalities than this which is more Gen 2 specific.

The link is here:

http://driveviper.com/forums/threads...5609#post55609

[Luisv]

BTW... If the mods want to move this over to the How-To Section.... Up to you guys.

Originally placed here because I figured it was a better match... but in hindsight, might have been better in the How-To...

[wkooiman]

New to the forum.

My opinion is that it should be moved to the how-to section. It is an excellent writeup, and something that I'm definitely doing eventually.

BTW, I have used IPSCO for Pantera parts. Mark is great to deal with, and the quality is excellent.

[Next Phase]

Great write up!

Thanks for all the pics. I bought my BBK last year and with my recent move, wasn't able to get started. Just put my car on jack stands this weekend. Wasn't planning on rebuilding my brakes, but will look into it now.

I am going with black calipers all around as well. BTW, you can get some Viper caliper stickers for your Gen 3 calipers on eBay.

[Luisv]

Great write up!

Thanks for all the pics. I bought my BBK last year and with my recent move, wasn't able to get started. Just put my car on jack stands this weekend. Wasn't planning on rebuilding my brakes, but will look into it now.

I am going with black calipers all around as well. BTW, you can get some Viper caliper stickers for your Gen 3 calipers on eBay.

Ahhhh... but the Gen 2 brake logo is different on the Gen 2... Check out the next post.... ;-)

[Luisv]

So this weekend I finally got around to putting on the finishing touch... I sat down and made a set of custom decals for the new front calipers. I created the logo on the PC and then had a series of decals made. The logo is just the standard Viper logo but has the center "blank" or cut out. The Gen 3 and newer have the solid logo, I believe. I wanted to match the calipers on the car already so I had these made.

Here are the new calipers with the Viper logo....

[Viper98912]

Classic color and logo...

[Next Phase]

Do you have any extra logos laying around?

I added the Gen 3 logos, and you are correct... they are different.

[VIPER BAZ UK]

Also did this kit on my 02 RT/10... HUGE improvement..

I went 08-ACR rotors all round.

Bought my Kit From Dave Cawthorn AKA Big Brakes Dave RIP Great guy ..

[Fadi Abizeid]

How much was the parts if you don't mind me asking?

[gerch85]

^^I'm wondering the same thing

[Luisv]

Do you have any extra logos laying around?

I added the Gen 3 logos, and you are correct... they are different.

So sorry... I had not noticed the question....

Yes I have quite a few. When I made them I had to make a large number of them.... I'll drop you a PM...

[Luisv]

How much was the parts if you don't mind me asking?

^^I'm wondering the same thing

Approximately...

Brackets, Stainless Lines, E-Brakes: $1,400
SRT10 Calipers (both fronts): $800 including Powder Coating Black
Rotors Front and Rear: $650
Rebuild Kits (all 4): $100
Brake Pads (Front and Rear): $250

Total was about $3,200

I also did the PS Bracket and Pulley... but that is not in the numbers above....

[95Viper]

that much money and all you got was a 13' to 15' improvement? Seems a little weak for that kinda money.... I too want to upgrade my Gen1 but I really expect to see improvement that makes the cost acceptable. Is that a normal improvement for a big brake kit? I love your write- up and all the detail you brought with it I just would have thought you would be flying through the windshield with those brakes...... am I looking at this wrong?