Big Brake Kit-3rd Gen?

Copy thank you. Just hit them up with this part # and it’ll cover everything I need? Including lines?

I am running a 17” whee at the moment.

 

Looking to upgrade front brakes. Is there a kit/company that makes a similar kit to this for 16" rims?

 

I’ll jump on your thread-bump wagon. I’m interested to know the best front brake kit for a 3rd gen with stock 16” rims, as well. Not interested in drilled rotors; slotted maybe.

 

For 16” wheels I’d look at upgrading the stock brakes with this:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/brake-upgrade-stoptech-rotors-trd-performance-pads.523829/

The 16” BBK is only a few mm larger than stock. You get a nicer caliper, but the near stock rotor size is hard to justify the price. For a BBK I’d strongly recommend going to a 17” wheel to get a larger rotor to make it worthwhile.

 

awesome, thanks for the link. That was the thread that convinced me against getting drilled rotors. I wasn’t sure if it was here or another forum that I found that.

 

For anyone interested we offer Willwood and I have reached out to R1Concepts to see what BBKs we can offer from them as well. Anyone interested in a quote please feel free to message me

 

So R1 does indeed offer a BBK for the Tacoma. Their kits will work from 05-2021. We offer this kit for many applications and it has been great. This kit offers incredible stopping power while being long lasting and low dust. These kits are fully customizable for colors of the calipers and top hats. These kits are also complete, they come with all needed parts for the install.



Message me for more details and pricing

 

I had your same concern before buying my drilled rotors from Wilwood but I did some research and every Wilwood rotor that was cracked was used at the track for racing. Since I did not plan on racing at the track I decided to get the drilled rotors. MB, BMW and Porsche all sell cars from their factories with drilled rotors on certain models which they wouldn't do if they had many problems with cracked rotors. Even the Wilwood web site does not recommend drilled rotors if they will be used at the track. I have had mine for over 3 years now and never had any problems. The drilled rotors provide a little better cooling and I just like the looks better. If you like the looks of the non drilled rotors better then get those but don't let the fear of cracked rotors be the reason. Hope this helps.

 

This is over simplified. OEM performance applications that use drilled rotors have upsized the rotor appropriately so that it is designed larger than necessary so that it will essentially run cool enough to prevent cracking. That is very different from taking a stock sized rotor and removing material, weakening the rotor and calling it a performance upgrade. Cooling benefits from drilling are negligible as the thermal cooling is done by airflow vertically through the rotor veins. Holes perpendicular to the air flow direction will not assist in that air flow cooling, and the increased surface area from drilling is trivial. However drilling holes will cause stress points which will weaken the rotor and make it prone to cracking.

Holes were originally added to rotors for old asbestos based pads that would off gas at high temps. The off gassing would create a barrier between the pad and the rotor when things got hot, which would induce a sort of brake fade. The solution to dealing with off gassing in performance applications was to drill holes in the rotor to give the gas a pathway to escape while still maintaining pad contact with the rotor. Modern pads do not use asbestos and do not off gas, so the holes provide no benefit. Removing material from the rotor reduces the rotors weight and thermal capacity and it will likely have brake fade sooner than a rotor of equal size that is not drilled, in addition to the drawbacks of a weakened the rotor.

Performance OEM applications do not have drilled rotors for performance, it is done for looks. If spending a lot of money on a fast performance car the customer wants it to look performant. There are numerous compromises like this in vehicle design that are done as selling/marketing tactics but not necessarily the best design. But the OEM systems are designed by the engineers to have extra capacity or safety margin if you will so that cracking doesn't become an issue.

My vehicle design professors friend was killed on the track when his drilled rotor partially grenaded, the caliper closed, locked one of the front tires and put him into a wall at racing speeds. Most people are not competitively racing their vehicles of course where something that extreme would happen. And the risk from a BBK drilled rotor cracking is less than a stock sized one, since you have added braking capacity with the BBK over the stock rotor design. Even StopTech's stock size Sport rotors had added mass and redesigned the vein cooling system for greater capacity where cracking risk would be lower (but then cost cutting happened and they reduced the weight to stock). Stock replacement drilled rotors should be avoided. Plenty of people still buy them thinking they are getting a performance upgrade, and for most it realistically isn't an issue. Brakes are a safety system, and you are compromising the system for zero performance improvements and plenty of negative drawbacks just for looks.

 

It is unfortunate that your professor lost a friend due to a cracked brake while racing. You didn't say whether it was a Wilwood brake but it would not matter anyway since I have already stated that I will not be racing my truck at the track. Please don't let that forever cloud your thinking toward any drilled brakes.

I know you are a StopTec fan but when I was looking for a BBK for my truck they did not have a 2 piece rotor option or a forged caliper option as well. Wilwood did which is why I went with their BBK. The unsprung weight reduction was over 26 pounds even though their rotors were larger in diameter and thicker than the factory ones. The weight reduction came from the aluminum hats, calipers and brackets. The thermal conductivity of aluminum is 237 W/mK while the thermal conductivity of steel is around 16 W/mK. That will vary a small amount depending on the exact alloy used but you can see the large difference. This means that the heat dissipation will be much higher on the Wilwood brakes than the StopTec single piece brake rotors. I have a B.S. in Aeronautical Engineering and a M.S. and ABD in Physics so I think I have a pretty good understanding of the thermodynamics.

Wilwood also uses curved veins in their rotors which increase strength and cooling. They are careful to make sure that all holes drilled do not penetrate any of these veins which would compromise the structual integrity. The iron alloy used is a derivative of the mil-spec rotors that the US military uses. I was a pilot and spent 20 years flying in the Navy so I have a pretty good understanding of what mil-spec standards are. I have had my drilled Wilwood rotors for over 3 years now and feel very comfortable with my safety. I like drilled rotors and you don't. That is OK.

BTW, I would like to thank you for saving me some money on my fog lights. A few years ago I was planning on upgrading my fogs lights to BD fogs with the so called "street friendly" design. After reading some of your posts I decided to get the Rigid SAE fogs and have been happy with them ever since. This was before you started your LED SAE J583 fog light thread. Even though I already upgraded my fogs I have still read every post on your thread. If I were upgrading today I would go with the DD fogs but they were not out then. Thanks again.

 

well, you might’ve sold me on the wilwoods. Do they make a non-drilled version? (I guess I could look that up fairly easily...)

 

I am not trying to sell you on anything. I was just trying to give some facts. Yes, Wilwood does make non drilled rotors. www.wilwood.com is the web site and you have to input 2016 or 2017 for tacoma as they have not updated it yet.

 

I'm familiar with the Wilwood BBK and agreed it is a very nice setup, particularly the curved veins in a rotor that will fit a 17" wheel size. That is a very good unsprung weight savings as well, I'd be curious on the rotational weight savings numbers. StopTech does make their 2 piece aluminum hat Aero rotor BBK with similar features, but only in sizes that require a less desirable 18" wheel in Toyota applications. The drilling being a danger was aimed at stock size rotor replacement. Wilwood also makes their rotors in the USA, where as most all of the stock replacement drilled rotors are made in China where some manufactures might be less stringent on quality control. What pad compound did you select for your Wilwoods?

As with all things, there are some things I like about StopTech and others I don't. One of the main reasons I promote them is they are one of the very few brands I am aware of that redesign the stock rotor internals for greater cooling performance. Options certainly open up with BBKs, but in stock size actual engineered performance options for rotors are few. Them and DBA are the only ones I am aware of, most others are just using an OEM style rotor blank and adding coatings/holes/slots.

For the fogs, I'm speculating that was before Rigid's selective yellow fogs came out? If using them in fog, the newer selective yellow products are really fantastic. If you are currently running the white Rigid's for poor weather use I'd consider pulling the trigger to switch. If you have the yellow Rigid's, those are pretty solid lights for poor weather and while DD's latest products are better it would be much harder to justify making the switch.

 

Wilwood does not release the exact composition of any of their pads as they consider it to be proprietary information. I am using their BP-10 pads that came with the kit. This is the basic street pad designed for normal street use. They make 2 types of street pads and at least 5 types of racing pads. They claim to have greater friction and last longer than the OEM pads and so far those claims seem to be accurate after 3 years of use. They also claim lower brake dust which has definitely proven to be true.

As far as the fogs go, Rigid did not have the selective yellow fogs available when I bought mine. I decided not to go down the rat hole of constantly upgrading my fog lights like I did with my y-pipe. I am currently on my 4th y-pipe. My truck is the only 3rd gen truck with a custom made JFR y-pipe and I am definitely keeping it.