Brakes Wheels 1st Gen Tires Most liked posts in thread: Brake Duct Kit

Ok, I am finally moving forward with my brake ducts as I am sick and damn tired of being plagued by heat issues. Hopefully this will be enough and I will not have to move up to a bigger brake kit. I am still running the 1st gen JCW brakes.

My version of brake duct is essentially the Sneed kit. Utilizing a flex hose from the fog lamp location, and exiting right on the rotor. I am making a few changes from the actual kit Sneed sells though:
1. I am not using a bracket at the bumper, I will just let the spring pressure of the hose keep it flush to the backside of the bumper cover.
2. I will not be using the Sneed brackets at the rotor, instead I wanted to keep the rotor backing plate, or protection plate as MINI calls it and so I incorporated a short tube to hold the hose right into the OEM plate.
Here are a few pics to show the approach and progress.


They cleaned up and painted nicely, and are finally installed. I did have to do some adjusting on them after I had them secured to provide proper clearance of the rotor, but that was expected.


In this last pic you can see the hose holder/bracket on the backing plate peeking out just outside the diameter of the disc in the upper left quadrant.

So far it has been a fun project. The best welding equipment I had available at the time was Acetylene so I welded that was and it worked out fine. Quite fun for my first torch welding experience. It aint the prettiest, but it sure is strong, and after the black paint it looks plenty good enough. Obviously MIG welding would have delivered a more textbook weld appearance.

I will post some pics of the hose routing, when I decide to tackle that part of the project, which will be soon. Also, I may eventually go with a larger fog light opening as pictured earlier in this thread, but I will start with the fog light holes.

 

OThanks but actually that is not an optimal design. The problem here is that we are directing cool air to the inside surface of a vented rotor. It is much more optimal to direct the cool air to the hub are such that the air can flow properly from the hub area to the perimeter of the rotor, meaning through the vents.







I used a 3" hose, but 2.5" would likely work find as well. The inlet is the fog light holes in the bumper cover.

I believe these ducts are optimal and have proved to make a difference. I used to smear XP-10 pads all over the front rotor surfaces due to heat, now I much harder and I never have any brake fade, etc.

Simply stated...... They work!

Edit: Disappointingly, those pics did not upload via Tapatalk at the size selected. Sorry the new pics are small.
Ok, re-inserted a pic from Forum Runner.