FRONT BRAKE AIR DUCT KIT

[THEMASH]

What’s the difference between the Mopar brake duct kit (#5007074), which lists for $1,550, and the ARCHER RACING brake duct kit, which lists for $750? "Besides the obvious $800

" Which is better? Does anyone else make a brake duct kit for a Viper?
Thanks in advance

PS I already have the air deflectors

 

[Janni]

Stay tuned for an announcement within a week or so about a new duct kit that won't require any cutting of the front fascia....

 

[Hoosier Daddy]

If I'm not mistaken. Which very rarely happens. The recall for the front steering rack renders those kits un installable with the new supports that are welded in against the existing rack. I have the 750 buck kit in my possession and I know that the back of the housing will hit the new supports. This info I believe would not apply to any Viper not on the recall list for enhanced rack support.

 

[Tom Shapiro]

AutoForm(616-392-4909 Jerry) has a brake cooling kit that I put on my car. It will not interfere with the steering rack bracket recall and you don't cut through the front fascia. The front fascia comes off for installation. A small naca duct is riveted to the radiator support core at each end of the front fascia opening. You have to carefully cut two 3" holes in the radiator support core for the hose to snake through. Aluminum shrouds are screwed into the steering knuckle. You will have to tap 2 screws for each shroud. The hoses are then connected from the front naca ducts, thru the radiator support core, and to the shroud. They direct air to the caliper and the rotor. The driver side is a pretty direct route for the hose, but the passenger side is much harder to get the hose through. You can change brake pads with the shrouds in place. To change rotors you should take the shrouds off, but you can cheat. Take off the one screw that blocks the caliper bolt and bend the shroud in to get at the caliper bolt. Total cost for the kit is $435 + shipping. I had Autoform install(extra cost) my kit and it was a 4 hour job. I normally would go through 2 sets of front Brakeman #3 pads at Gingerman Raceway over a weekend. With the new brake cooling kit I ran the same pads Friday thru Sunday and there was still about a 1/3 of the pads left. I also took out the spring, not the o-ring, from my brake proportioning valve(per Sean Roe and Dean Word's advice)

 

[monnieh]

what benefit do you get from removing the spring from the brake proportioning value. Is this a track only value mod? What is the removel of the rubber gasket suppose to do?

 

[Tom Shapiro]

By removing the spring it gives you a little more rear brake bias, and I think it also doesn't overide the safeguard if you lose your front brakes you still have rears. By taking out the o-ring if you lose either front or rears you have no brakes. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Sean Roe said by taking the spring out it did shorten 100-0 mph stops in tests he ran by about 8-9' with his 96 GTS. That's 8-9' better braking in 5 of Gingerman's 11 corners. I'll take it.

 

[Henry Cone]

Careful studying of the cross section drawing of the proportioning valve in my '97 service manual indicates that it does not make any difference whether you remove the spring of the o-ring. Both will disable the proportioning valve and give more rear brake. We have done it both ways on our cars but I now highly recommend removing the o-ring and leaving the spring in place.

I had a bad experience with removing the spring - the o-ring apparently jammed inside of the valve and the result was no rear brakes. I actually ran the car in 2 Viper Days events until we figured out what had happened. We then removed the o-ring and put the spring back in and voila!! Problem solved.

Again, careful studying of the cross section drawing in the service manual shows that the proportioning valve is not connected to the front brake system in any way. Thus taking out the o-ring cannot cause you to lose your front brakes if your rears fail.


By the way, check the New Products Announcements section of the board for information on the Cone Cooling Kit - this is a front brake cooling kit that we have developed that does not require any modification to your fascia. And it is significantly cheaper than the Mopar or Archer ones!!!!