Brake Duct Blowers?

[Chris B.]

I have 3 track days planned for August. I'm adding a brake cooling kit soon to my car. I've seen several racing products web sites selling brake duct blowers for cars with brake duct kits. Some use boat bilge blowers. Others blowers seem to be designed for actual racing use. One of the blower manufacturers claims that it doesn't reduct flow by a signifigant amount when you are driving at a speed that forces air through the ducts above what the blower can flow.

Has anyone used them and seen any benefit compared to not using a blower? Most of the better built brake duct blowers I've seen were designed for pro teams and some even use 3 blowers per front brake.

One benefit I can see to using them is between sessions on the track, I can leave them running off the battery power to cool the brakes.

I really don't see a need to add them to the rear brakes, but I guess a blower would work well there if someone did need extra cooling there.

 

[SoundGuyDave]

Unless you're running a lot longer than the typical 20-30 minute sessions, and/or are running a VERY aggressive braking package with uber-sticky tires, I think you'll be quite happy with just the ducts. The difference really is night and day. Early this year, I was at Road America, and put on a fresh brake package to start the year: new stock rotors with Hawk DTC-60 pads. Since the weather was beastly (standing water everywhere), I taped off the duct inlets to help the pads bed. I came in after a total of two laps, one warmup, and one semi-hot, and the rotors were definitely blue from heat. After I unsealed the ducts, for the next session, though, no more heat issues. If you haven't ducted before, I would hesitate to set up blowers until you've experimented a bit. As for cooling in the pits, I've never found that to be a real problem, even with only a 15 minute turnaround between sessions.

 

[pcdrj]

What he said. You won't need any blower for your brakes. In fact some guys will partially obstruct their ducts for certain tracks to maintain proper brake temperature.

Agent47 makes a nice setup.

 

[Zexford]

not to hijack the thread, but are brake ducts ok to run on a daily driver?

 

[SoundGuyDave]

Absolutely. I would have some means to block them off if you drive in seriously inclement weather, but otherwise they're fine.

 

[Zexford]

Absolutely. I would have some means to block them off if you drive in seriously inclement weather, but otherwise they're fine.

Why block them in inclement weather? Keep massive amounts of water from going through them and onto your brakes?

 

[DusterRT]

Why block them in inclement weather? Keep massive amounts of water from going through them and onto your brakes?

That, extreme cold, and unnecessary debris (such as rocks, birds, vermin, imports, etc)..

 

[SoundGuyDave]

That, extreme cold, and unnecessary debris (such as rocks, birds, vermin, imports, etc)..

 

[StangMahn]

imports, haha!

for street driving you wont need them...well, you shouldnt need them. just as a word of warning, if your brakes are warm/hot...watch out for the puddles of standing water