Easy brake upgrade?

[Om7]

Is there a common brake upgrade for a 300? My 1.4's brakes were nearly useless so when the 2.0 is in I am not going near it until it has some. :p

Either decent discs and pads or maybe an upgrade from another Volvo or similar perhaps?

Cheers!

[Bossie]

So people have used some Capri vented disks in the past together with the original V300 caliper. Don´t know how exactly since the disks are obviously thicker.
There was some guy from Belgium a few years back who used V740 disks and calipers on his 360 turbo.
Adam has done the Rx7 caliper with 280mm VW disk upgrade.

[Speedy88]

There are dimpled discs you can pick up on ebay. TBH though I'm running the same brakes as you with cheap pads/discs/fluid while running an F7R. Track/hours of road use will cause brake fade but other than that it still almost does a stoppie when I slam the anchors on. (Yes I'm exaggerating, but you get the idea)

You tried a full fluid change?

[Om7]

When it was on the road I just bled the system and it felt a fraction better. Everything is removed at the moment so it's going to have to have fresh fluid. I think really I shall have to restore the original brakes and try half decent disks and pads. Just wanted to know if there was a decent easy method people have been using!

Any recomendations for discs and pads? Mine is a '81 343, so do I need to buy stuff specifically for it, or will the regular 340 stuff fit too?

Cheers!

[Speedy88]

Yeah regular stuff will fit that. I think there's on the back the drums can be replaced by mk5 golf discs and Impreza calipers. I've only seen this on one of Adam's cars though so I'm really not sure. Can't remember which one it was either, search for C208 CTR

[Om7]

Stunning build. Not quite my thing, but quality of work is excellent! Prefer his grey one though. :p Think I'm going to go for discs and pads. Those eBay discs look alright. A little more than I was expecting (:o) but if they get the job done!

No recommendations for pads? Just for street use really.

Cheers!

[Speedy88]

mintex 1144

[Om7]

Okay! Struggling to find them though. :p

Thanks for your advice Speedy!

[SteveP]

Oh yeah, off topic I know but was that starter motor ok in the end?

[Ride_on]

Most 300 brakes are considered pretty good, the main thing racers report is to put in good quality fresh fluid every 6 months. Other than that make sure the standard ones are working properly.

[SteveP]

They are pretty good in terms of stopping power when running standard power and with fresh everything. The thing that gets them is when you give them a bit of punishment over a sustained period with good tyres. I can definitely see the need for upgrade with more power. I think I'd look at swapping in a 360 rear axle with bigger drums, and doing a caliper/disc upgrade on the front.

[Om7]

The starter was fine! Thank you. Needed a little modification as it was slightly different for whatever reason. :p

Is the 360 rear axle a straight swap? How much bigger are the drums?

Thanks again!

[SteveP]

Ah good! Strange - it came off a similar Mk2, one year newer- suppose they must've changed something??!

The drums are an inch bigger and yeah it's just a straight swap - ask Chris_C as to whether it was a worthwhile upgrade as he's running one on his with the 2.0 16v

[Chris_C]

The handbrake cables require a bit of fabbing to move the bracket, so you need to not be scared to make up a bit of metal or do some welding tbh.

Brake wise, it's better but not worth the effort. I don't run stock bias anyway though which makes it more worth it, if you run the stock pixie valve I doubt you'll notice much of a difference, handbrake mech is hugely better though.

[Om7]

Chris_C; Okay, thanks! Welding and fabbing isn't a problem, but if the work outweighs the result I don't think I shall bother. Hopefully with decent disc and pads upfront and some new fluid it may be able to slow down a little.

SteveP; Yeah, not a real problem. Just a bracket needed changed over for whatever reason. It was over a year ago so I don't really remember now. Unfortunately it came off the road a couple of months afterwards as it failed the MOT and has been sat around my unit for a year. Finally getting around to doing something with it though! Pretty excited about getting it back on the road!