S550- 6 piston Brembos on 05-14 GT Guide (affordable)

[Andrey Sidorov]

Hey fellas, i think it is not a surprise to anyone that stock s197 brakes are as* to say the least. So if you were thinking about upgrading your stock brakes to something better and not sell your kidney in the process or your calipers got bad and you need a replacement or rebuild - this will be the best route without selling any organs . So lets answer all the questions that usually come up and also at the end decide what we can do with the rears as well!

Question 1: 'Do I need any modifications or brackets for 6 piston fronts?'
Answer: Once and for all - s550 6 piston brembos are a DIRECT fit on our cars with the right parts! (05-14)
Question 2: 'Do I need a bigger Master reservoir or cylinder?'
Answer: No you do not
Question 3: 'Do I need to upgrade the brake lines?'
Answer: No you do not, but I highly recommend to do so to eliminate mushiness since you already there
Question 4: Fluid: My car is 5 speed TR3650 so i have to use DOT3

IMPORTANT INFORMATION: For this project you need:
s550 6 piston brembos - does not matter from what year
13-14 gt 500 15 inch rotors, DO NOT BUY S550 ROTORS, the caliper wont fit right and you will need washers
s550 6 piston brembo brake pads
Steel lines s197 for 05-14 - Recommending getting the ones with round fitting to avoid shaving corners off from rectangular one, same thing goes for oem lines - they will need to be shaved

BE aware of the wheel clearance, 17 and 18 will not clear the brakes - they are massive!
19s and 20s will (depending on the offset), spacers may be needed
My setup is
20x10/11 Velgen VF5
+33mm + 55mm, i think, might be wrong with offsets
I did not need to use spacers, also off topic, but with this setup you can run 265/35 fronts and 315/35 rears without rubbing Nitto nt555 fronts and invos rear


With that question out of the way, lets go into a part list!
Disclaimer: I got all my parts through Rock auto and those are links and names i will provide, but you can choose your supplier

Parts:

Rotors: RAYBESTOS 681047PER (High Performance) R-300 High Performance
Cost: 92$ per unit


Calipers:
Left: MOTORCRAFT BRCF431
Cost: 186$ + 50 core charge (refundable)
Right: MOTORCRAFT BRCF430
Cost: 186$ + 50 core charge (refundable)


Pads: POWER STOP Z261792 {Z26-1792} (High Performance) Z26 Street Warrior
Cost: 73$

Lines: Power Stop BH00115
Cost: 108$ front and rear

Harware kit: 15-22 6 piston harware kit
Be aware - brakes wont come with pins for pads, you have to get the kit
Cost: give or take 20-25 bucks

This is all you need, Total: 757$ + tax,
857$ + tax if you don t return your old brakes.



Additional:
If you want to do the rears - the best way would be:
13-14 GT 500 rear rotors 14 inches
Adapter bracket to offset the caliper
Brake line kit from above

Use stock caliper and pads. You can go without a bracket but you will need to drop diff and a bunch of other parts and replace the hub, caliper mount and a bunch of other stuff (not worth it- go with bracket)

Hope this was helpful, brakes are great improvement over stock without spending an uncomfortable sum, let me know if you have any questions!

 

[Davie P]

I searched YouTube to see what others have done for rear brakes and found a video showing a similar front swap (different color calipers) and the rear upgrade solution you suggest.

The rear upgrade uses your suggestion, the original S197 caliper and the larger 2013-14 GT500 rear brake disc. This puts 2013-14 GT500 discs all the way around the car.

Video Link -

One topic the video goes into at the beginning is brake balance. This is critical in keeping the car drivable and safe.

When you repurpose rotors front and rear from the same vehicle, it helps in maintaining brake balance if you can replicate the same brake piston area ratio, front to rear. This isn’t a sure fire method of getting the correct brake balance, but it will get you to a good starting point.

The 2013-14 GT500 calipers have 4 – 43.9mm pistons up front and a single 43mm piston in the rear. This makes the front piston area 4.69 square inches and the rear 2.25. Ratio – 2.04:1 front to rear. FYI 1.9-2.1:1 is the typical range for the vehicles I have checked over time.

The rear calipers on the S197 have a single 42.77mm piston with an area of 2.23 square inches. To maintain the original GT500 ratio of 2.04, the front brake piston area should be at 4.54 square inches.

I couldn’t find any data on the piston sizes for the 6 piston S550 calipers to verify the ratio. If anyone knows the piston diameters, please share. And if the data I am using is flawed, please correct me on that as well.

 

[Andrey Sidorov]

I searched YouTube to see what others have done for rear brakes and found a video showing a similar front swap (different color calipers) and the rear upgrade solution you suggest.

The rear upgrade uses your suggestion, the original S197 caliper and the larger 2013-14 GT500 rear brake disc. This puts 2013-14 GT500 discs all the way around the car.

Video Link -

One topic the video goes into at the beginning is brake balance. This is critical in keeping the car drivable and safe.

When you repurpose rotors front and rear from the same vehicle, it helps in maintaining brake balance if you can replicate the same brake piston area ratio, front to rear. This isn’t a sure fire method of getting the correct brake balance, but it will get you to a good starting point.

The 2013-14 GT500 calipers have 4 – 43.9mm pistons up front and a single 43mm piston in the rear. This makes the front piston area 4.69 square inches and the rear 2.25. Ratio – 2.04:1 front to rear. FYI 1.9-2.1:1 is the typical range for the vehicles I have checked over time.

The rear calipers on the S197 have a single 42.77mm piston with an area of 2.23 square inches. To maintain the original GT500 ratio of 2.04, the front brake piston area should be at 4.54 square inches.

I couldn’t find any data on the piston sizes for the 6 piston S550 calipers to verify the ratio. If anyone knows the piston diameters, please share. And if the data I am using is flawed, please correct me on that as well.

To be honest, i ran 6 pistons upfront and stock setup on the rear for some time and i experienced 0 issues with balance or anything of that sort, all i noticed is that car stops waaaaay better lol. Your cars 80 percent brake force comes from front brakes, after upgrading rear rotors to 14 inch gt500s with bracket i didnt even notice the difference in braking power, nor in the brake feel. Looks is the only thing that improved with rears from my butt dyno

 

[Davie P]

I found the info on the 6 piston S550 Brembo calipers, 6 x 36mm pistons, area is 4.73 square inches. With S550 6 piston fronts and S197 rear calipers (2.23 sqin), the ratio is 2.12:1 a little front biased compared to 2.04:1, but not out of the box and doubtful it would be noticeable by my "butt dyno".

The 6 piston info I found here - https://media.ford.com/content/dam/fordmedia/North America/US/2015_Specs/2015_Mustang_Specs.pdf

 

[Laga]

I searched YouTube to see what others have done for rear brakes and found a video showing a similar front swap (different color calipers) and the rear upgrade solution you suggest.

The rear upgrade uses your suggestion, the original S197 caliper and the larger 2013-14 GT500 rear brake disc. This puts 2013-14 GT500 discs all the way around the car.

Video Link -

One topic the video goes into at the beginning is brake balance. This is critical in keeping the car drivable and safe.

When you repurpose rotors front and rear from the same vehicle, it helps in maintaining brake balance if you can replicate the same brake piston area ratio, front to rear. This isn’t a sure fire method of getting the correct brake balance, but it will get you to a good starting point.

The 2013-14 GT500 calipers have 4 – 43.9mm pistons up front and a single 43mm piston in the rear. This makes the front piston area 4.69 square inches and the rear 2.25. Ratio – 2.04:1 front to rear. FYI 1.9-2.1:1 is the typical range for the vehicles I have checked over time.

The rear calipers on the S197 have a single 42.77mm piston with an area of 2.23 square inches. To maintain the original GT500 ratio of 2.04, the front brake piston area should be at 4.54 square inches.

I couldn’t find any data on the piston sizes for the 6 piston S550 calipers to verify the ratio. If anyone knows the piston diameters, please share. And if the data I am using is flawed, please correct me on that as well.

I have Wilwood 6 piston up front and 4 piston rear. I have had no problems with brake bias. Even with multiple track days. The car stops great and I can go in way deeper into a corner than with stock.

 

[Davie P]

I keep forgetting these cars have ABS, which will override minor imbalances in brake proportioning.

The crap cans I usually work on are non-ABS systems and much more effected by incorrect brake balance.

 

[tabstang]

which s550 models came with 6 pistone brembos?

 

[Davie P]

which s550 models came with 6 pistone brembos?

2015 - Performance Package: 380 (15.0 in.) x 34 mm vented discs, Brembo six-piston 36 mm fixed aluminum calipers (from the link I posted above)

The RockAuto link in the OP says 2015-21.

 

[WJBertrand]

Regarding question #3, wondering what the clutch line has to do with this upgrade?


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[Laga]

Regarding question #3, wondering what the clutch line has to do with this upgrade?


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The manual transmission uses a hydraulic throw out bearing. It shares the same master cylinder reservoir and fluid as the brakes.

 

[WJBertrand]

The manual transmission uses a hydraulic throw out bearing. It shares the same master cylinder and fluid as the brakes.

Understood, why would you change it when upgrading the brakes though? It’s not like it’s pressurized when braking.


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[Jack F]

It shares the same master cylinder and fluid as the brakes.

Fluid, yes. Master, no. There is a separate clutch master cylinder.

 

[Laga]

Fluid, yes. Master, no. There is a separate clutch master cylinder.

Fixed

 

[Andrey Sidorov]

which s550 models came with 6 pistone brembos?

15- till this day performance pack s550s come with 6 piston brembos, regular trim s550s come with 4piston shoes

 

[Andrey Sidorov]

Understood, why would you change it when upgrading the brakes though? It’s not like it’s pressurized when braking.


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They share the same master reservoir with brake fluid in it, some people thought that due to the bigger brakes you should upgrade to the bigger master brake cylinder (dont mess it up with clutch master cyl, they are different, just use same reservoir) and bigger fluid reservoir, i have both stock and it works like a charm. Due to 3650 trans requiring dot 3 fluid - thats what i have to put there

 

[Andrey Sidorov]

Understood, why would you change it when upgrading the brakes though? It’s not like it’s pressurized when braking.


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Also forgive me - im an idiot, i meant brake lines and wrote clutch lines

 

[WJBertrand]

Also forgive me - im an idiot, i meant brake lines and wrote clutch lines

Ok, that makes sense. Thanks for the clarification.


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[Cfastford]

Thanks, great info on brake upgrade. I wanted to put my front calipers on my rear since I was able to find some used Saleen front calipers and rotors to put on the front. My Saleen S281 was a low option and came with the stock GT fronts and rears. Been thinking about what to do with the rears to fill the 20 inch wheels.

 

[OX1]

Ford did use a larger master with the 6 piston brakes on S550's. I did on a thread on it a while back here.
https://trackmustangsonline.com/threads/s550-pp-master-on-s197.14230/

 

[xeninworx]

Thanks, great info on brake upgrade. I wanted to put my front calipers on my rear since I was able to find some used Saleen front calipers and rotors to put on the front. My Saleen S281 was a low option and came with the stock GT fronts and rears. Been thinking about what to do with the rears to fill the 20 inch wheels.

That won’t work. Front and rear calipers aren’t interchangeable that way. You’d also have no parking brake. You can however get rear brackets for the rear calipers from LMR to extend the calipers out and use larger rotors. That would fill in the gap in your wheel barrel. I was thinking about doing this myself however I already had new rear rotors to go on and the price for larger rear rotors was too much $$$ for my blood. Also I don’t track the car so the extra heat dissipation wasn’t worth it for a street car.