does any one know what kind of performance brakes, i could put on my 1988 340 1.4 to make it brake sharper.

Apparantley BMW 325i or Ford Capri disks fit but you have to re-drill them.

Surely the standard brakes are fine for a 1.4?

Matt

How fresh are the existing braking components? It'll make a massive difference to braking efficiency

Well seeing as the stud pattern is the same as 4-stud Vauxhalls you can use Calibra 16v/Cav front discs with shims (256mm vented), anything larger comes in 5-stud only. Having said that a lot of Nova owners fit larger discs off the Calibra/Cav turbo (284/288mm) and late Vectra-B GSi (308mm) with them redrilled for 4-stud.

As for calipers using Vauxhall stuff and adaptors would work. Jaguar XJS calipers work well because they are made from steel (so can be welded easily to fit), are 4-pots (huge) and are cheap.

well , you can buy 305mm discs from tim stiles racing which have the 4 stud PCD , they even have nearly the required offset .

i think 256mm or 280 is the largets std onees available but they dont fit under our alloys .

wheres adam when you need him?

hes sorted out his brakes with impreza 4 pots and 280mm discs off a golf/corrado g60 (i think). just about fits under a set of 15's as well...

the brakes on the 340's are good enough as bennett is still using standard brakes on his 340 r drift car cheers josh

Bigbrakes on a 1.4... now that would be nuts..would probably work worse for low speed braking. You want sharper brakes? Get yourself a cheap rebuild kit for the front calipers, open them up, clean them up, reassemble. Make sure the slider pins are not too corroded and grease them well.
Also consider replacing the tired old brakelines for some fresh new rubber ones. When you're done with that, make sure you have a half decent pair of discs and pads and it should stop on a dime.
If it doesnt, invest a couple of quid in a sportier set of brakepads, mintex 1144 compound pads work miracles and stop well both hot and cold. (not available for volvo 300's, but some peugeot 405 ones fit)

You'd be amazed what a bit of standard maintenance can do for your car, but most 300's never get this thorough treatment anymore. I've been racing (trackdays) my 360 for 4 years on everything from the worn out stock system, to my current fully reconditioned / slotted rotors /mintex pads setup and have rarely had problems with the brakes.

Start thinking about different brakesystems when you've truly used the stock brakes at their full potential and still need more.

Can't 1.4 use Renault 5 brakes ?

The only time I ever cooked my brakes on a rally was when I had bad technique. Stock brakes hold her down very very nicely, even more so since I had the calipers apart as Ivan says, and new rear cylinders and master cylinder as well as new pads/shoes.

A bleed and a set of pads completely transformed the braking on my car, there's a hill near here that has about 45 corners in 11ks, almost guaranteed to lose all braking if coming down that in a spirited fashion when i first got my car, to the point that it would take over 100m to pull up from about 60kph. gave the car a bleed and things got a little better, but still not exellent, then decided to replace the pads despite them having heaps of life left, now i'm only just starting to get a small amount of fade at the bottom of the hill, and I didn't even go for a set of sports pads, just something that wasn't bargain basement.

I drove my car for 6months or so as a 1.4 with these brakes and it was awesome!!! I never had any problems and the stopping power will piss all over standard brakes. That said if the standard brakes are fairly new bled etc they will be fine for a 1.4 i did the brakes first as the insurance would allow it and i knew the engine was in the pipeline!!
Adam

http://www.volvo300mania.com/forum-uk/v ... php?t=2023

IvanAE86 wrote:Also consider replacing the tired old brakelines for some fresh new rubber ones.

Goodridge still do a kit of stainless flexis for the 300. Does anyone know if these make a worthwhile improvement to the feel of the brakes?

Make your own braided hoses its loads cheaper.

Matt

Making your own brakeparts.. not exactly good advice since your life depends on these parts. I wouldnt recommend spending yor money on goodridge brakelines. They are indeed expensive, and dont do very much at all for your braking power. I have them on my ae86, and hardly notice the difference. The most you can expect is to get a slightly firmer pedal feel, but I think you'd get that from some fresh OEM brakelines too since it's mostly the tired old rubber that causes the problem, not the fact that it is made of rubber if you get what I mean.

My stock 360 brakes have so far shat on most other old cars out there on the track (often equiped with ferodo ds2500 or better pads). As long as you can lock your wheels with the brakes you have, the brakes are good enough. The stock system can easily lock 195/55r15 advan semislicks so that should give you an impression of what they are capable off. Choose the right pads, and overheating wont be a problem anytime soon either. But for general street use stock pads will do (volvo OEM pads are quite good I might add).