dothemath

I first posted this thread in the Brakes and Suspension forum because I did not catch that the DIY area existed at the time. I hope the repost is not a problem and will not make a habit of this I did repost since so many people viewed this thread and I only post when I feel I have something helpful or informational to share. So...I hope some people find this helpful and enjoy the pictures.

If you have any questions, comments or additional pictures you think would help make the pictorial instruction better...let me know.

And let me say this set up seems to rock after bedding my brakes. My trip to Sebring in November will confirm this I hope...but I am VERY HAPPY at first impression.

Also...use this pictures as a reference, but also read the instructions from the Stoptech site...they are very good.

Jack up the car...duh


Put jack stands under frame rails or at jacking points


Make your friend who is letting you use his garage and helping pose for a picture


Loosen brake hose fitting with 10mm flare wrench


Remove retaining clip with needle nose pliers. After removing retaining clip finish disconnecting the hard line from the oem rubber line. If you are using Stoptech lines they supply you with plugs to put over the hard line to limit/prevent additional dripping out of your brake fluid. This is important since if you do not plug the line eventually your master cylinder will drain out completely...not good.


Remove the 12mm(i think) retaining clips/bolts holding the brake line to the suspension.


Use an ice pic to carefully tap back the retaining pins after pulling out the cotar pins




Use something to press back the pads. Make sure end of brake line is in a pan so when the brake fluid drains out...


Use a breaker bar to remove the 22mm bolts that hold the caliper in place...I am currently not holding a breaker bar.


Remove brake line from caliper and stick them in a box,pan...somewhere. Also go clean and inspect your calipers.


Should have said this sooner, like as soon as the wheel is removed spray PB Blaster around studs and center of old rotor. Now take a rubber mallet and bang around the edge of the rotor and slide the loose rotor off the the studs. Empty hub.


Project Mu Rotor. The slits do not determine the rotation of the rotor. The interior vains do, so read your manual or the marking on the rotor. I know for instance that Stoptechs mounted like this would be backwards which is not good for cooling.



Install caliper...though don't torque the bolts. Though I don't have a picture, you will want to remove the top retaining bolt and rotate caliper into a vertical direction when you bleed the front brakes. It made a big difference...and tap the caliper with a rubber mallet to dislodge air bubbles too.


Install SS brake lines using 9-12 ft/lbs of torque for banjo nut...or what ever your supplier/parts requires.


Attach clip to upright and route the lines back and around suspension and reconnect with body hard line with flare wrench. Reinstall retaining clip.


Install pads...using anti squeel compound. I used CRC Disc Brake Quiet I bought a local auto parts stors. These are the oem shims I am re-using. These are old pictures from a previous pictorial I made.










hooo...ahhh




Move to the rears. You will need to bang on the back rotors more than the fronts to knock them loose. Of course, they will never come loose if your parking brake is applied/on/in use...whatever. Make sure that you remove the rubber emergency brake adjuster hole plug from old rear rotor and install on new rear rotor. I did not take a picture of this.













Ok. There are a lot less pictures for the rear...but hopefully you are getting the idea. The mounting bolts for the rear calipers are torqued to about 60ft/lbs and the fronts will be torqued to about 100ft/lbs when you do torque them. You and a friend will be bleeding the rears first, then the fronts with top rotor mounting bolt out so you can hold the caliper nearly vertical while doing the initial bleeding. Watch the level in the resevoir OFTEN! Also, G35's and 350z's with VDC will need to have the negative battery terminal disconnected. Make sure your windows are down before doing this since they drop raise a half inch as you open and close the door. After you think you are satisfied torque down the front caliper mounting bolts. Put on the wheels and drive around gingerly and then throw in a few hard stops. I then returned to the garage with the car and bled the brakes again...and then again just being **** about it. You are also trying to flush out as much of the old brake fluid from the system as you can. We pumped 2 and half bottles of Motul RBF600 dot 4 fluids through the system during the multiple bleeds.

My friend has done brake jobs in the past but not on a G35 coupe. He was also not telling me what to do...it was my project and he was a helper. Steve was just going to let me know if I was going to make a mistake or guide me if needed. That being said you can consider me doing this project at a noob's pace, reading directions, and I was also cleaning everything as much as possible before putting everything together. The install of the parts was probably about 6 hours. The three bleeding sessions...just to be positive the old fluid was flushed and all the bubbles were gone...and clean up brought the total time to 8 hours. I don't think I will start doing this for hire I bled the brakes just enough to move the car around to do the front and then the rears since we needed the ramps to get the jack under the front of the car. The pedal was spungy as I kind of expected so we bled the brakes again after everything was installed. After bedding the brakes in and getting the ABS to engage we bled the brakes a third time to finish flushing the system.

dothemath

The direction of the slots do not determine the rotation of the rotor, the interior cooling veins do. These rotors do look backward however compared to say Stoptech rotors...or most others on the market for that matter.


Here is the stamping on the left rotor and top view.




Please refer to the manuals that you recieve with your hardware to determine proper installation.

dothemath

Here are pictures with the wheels installed.

dothemath

I can not believe what a difference there is. The car stops NOW! The cold initial bite feels similar ot the way it did with the OEM brembo pads when the car was new four years ago...only I don't have to press the brake as far down. I learned how to heel toe in this car and during street driving a normal stop would put the brake pedal and gas pedal on the same plane. If I press the brake pedal that much now it is almost like an emergency stop! So heel toeing will be a bit more difficult on the street at normal speeds but should be much easier on the track. During my previous Sebring days the brake pedal would be below the gas pedal which was a little annoying. I am anticipating much later braking into the corners compare to my stock rotors with the Hawk HPS.

I know the HPS pads are for the street but were sufficient for my novice status and slow learning curve at Sebring since I only go every six months. The last time I went it was obvious with my increased confidence they were very inadequate.

dothemath

If you look closely you can see the slots in the rotors...cool Photos by Colour Tech South Motorsports Photography.



But I give fair warning...new and improved brakes may cause an inflated level of confidence and oversteer!!!















HAAA....Anyway...The car was fine and only mildly wet my pants. Just kidding...I $h1t myself...no really...I was fine...I am still recovering...



The day was an absolute blast. The new brakes felt AWESOME. The initial bite was incredible compared to my old set up...which as stated before was only Hawk HPS pads and rubber lines so there should have been a big difference. I was able to brake later and harder with confidence. I still noticed a little fade, but it took longer to show up and was not as dramatic as with the HPS pads. I am not one to push my brakes after noticing any fade so I won't ever be the person saying I burned a set of pads in just one day. I am also still in the early stages of doing track days as this was my fifth event in 2.5 years. All this being said, any fade I did experience eased by just taking a couple of corners easy or a slow trip through the pits and heading back out. Recovery time was much less than what I ever previously experienced. My last session of the day was 45 minutes with just me in the car...my friend/passenger was just watching...and I never felt uncomfortable about the condition of my brakes. The track was pretty clear and I felt I was pushing the car pretty good. These Nismo pads are still no dedicated track only pad I am sure, but I have a good amount of front pad left without any noticable pad deposit on the rotors. I did observe pad deposit on my original Brembo rotors with the HPS pads...though it never turned into the throbbing pedal "warped" rotor situation. I hope my rambling here makes some sense and answers your questions. I am happy with my new setup and would definitely do another track day with the Nismo pads. I am very happy with the rotors and ss lines.

dothemath

My brakes are doing great. They did great at the track. Cold initial bite is still good even after the track day and there is no pulsation in the pedal, no squealing... nothing but strong braking. The brakes are easy to modulate and the brake pedal travel is less than what I remembered before doing the upgrade. After installing the HPS pads during my last brake maintenance I wish I had stayed with the OEM pads. This time there is absolutely no regrets.

Oh yes...and since the Project Mu rotors are basically black chromed or whatever that treatment is called and the rears are painted in the center there is no rust forming on the rotors outside of the contact surface.

I got the parts and advice from mynismo.com if I did not already mention that

Chad68

iTrader: (1)

Ummm how come in all the pics I've seen of slotted rotors they show the slots going in the opposite direction of yours?

Are you sure you didn't get the lefts and rights mixed up?

dothemath

I clarified that the slots are designed differently on the Project Mu's twice in my instructions in writing and with pictures of the...

rotation instructions



the stamping on the side of the rotor...notice the L for left





and here is a picture MethodRN posted in my original thread to back me up

"Originally Posted by terrasmak
Just make sure you mount the rotors on the proper sides , unlike what is shown here.

I'm gonna have to agree w/ OP. Here's my brakes, same rotors."



Here they are on the front of an RX-8

dothemath

One More

jbudnick504

iTrader: (7)

Nice write up

Parker01

iTrader: (1)

Great write up, good effort thanks! Very nice brakes to, how come there rear isn't a floating rotor? Is a floating rear rotor available for the G/Z for Project 'mu'?

OldDirty Z33

Nice wright up! Project mu are my dream brakes

dothemath

Thank you very much I really appreciate it. At the time I bought these there was no floating rotor for the rear. It is because of the emergency brake. If you need to use the e-brake with an aluminum hat, the hat will likely be ruined and need to be replaced. I don't do drifting so that did not seem important to me. I was going to buy stoptech rotors at first but was convinced to get the Project-Mu instead. So far...they are fantastic. Keep in mind this is not a big brake kit...I would assume the rears would be floating for that choice...but I don't know. That was too much money for me.

I am looking forward to my second track day with these brakes in the spring. That will be the first track day on my Nismo suspension too. I put some nice parts on the car and then skipped some track days to balance the budget some...then gas went through the roof...and now my retirement savings are sinking. It will be over a year without going to Sebring and I am having withdrawals.