1st Gen JCW Most liked posts in thread: Refreshing Rufus - 2005 MCS JCW

If I were concerned purely about cost, I'd just put some better pads on my current brake setup, flush the fluid and call it good. I find the stock pads to be dusty as hell and lacking in some cold grip, but aftermarket pads will fix that right up. I'd like the best performance, of course, but the stock options are butt-ugly. I find the JCW calipers to be only slightly less ugly than the stock R56 calipers, which are slightly more ugly than the stock R53 calipers. When it comes to mods, it's a balancing act and you gotta find what works for you. I got these thin spoke wheels with the intention of going big with the BBK and putting some bling in there. It's not going to be a regular track car, so I even went with drilled rotors this time. If I really get back into tracking the car, I can always order some solid / slotted rotors.

I can't speak to R56 brake performance, but I have had the 4-pot Wilwoods on my first R53 and found them to be rock solid... even the units I had which had been beaten silly on a track car, rebuilt by me, painted with BBQ Grill paint and then remounted. I can't wait to see what a new set of 6-pot units can do. They were seriously confidence inspiring on the street and the track. I've also had stellar customer service from Todd Cook for Wilwood (he helped me assemble a rebuild kit). I only ever out-drove the Wilwood 4-pot setup once, and I think that was more due to the fluid I had used not being up to the track, the 105 degree Texas summer heat, stickier tires than I had ever run before and my attempt to push the limits of my driving and brake deeper into corners that session.

Really... the new 6-pot calipers are dead sexy!

 

I was going to do the 4 pot calipers again, but I got talking to Todd. The 6-pot requires larger wheels, but is more forgiving in terms of spoke clearance (the 6-pot caliper is thinner than the 4-pot) and the OZ wheels I chose are a bit odd inside. A weight comparison would be interesting... I might have to drag the scale out during the install.

 

I got a couple more boxes the other day. There is 1 more box coming from Todd at TCE... a couple of his special bits for the parking brake connection and a set of lines for the rear wheels.





I quickly assembled a hat and rotor at lunch, put pads on one of the front calipers and fit it inside one of the wheels. There was a TON of clearance. It's not a 100% test, but there was so much room that I'm not worried at all about things bolting up correctly. I did a quick fit as it's going to be a few weeks before I'm ready to mount the brakes and I didn't want to be calling Todd a month after he shipped saying "It doesn't fit!"

The rotors are the black powder-coated ones (I assume whatever coating is on there will wear off almost immediately upon pad to rotor contact). It's kinda scary for me as my first set of Wilwoods were track abused and the hats had gone purple from heat... these are PURDY, not pre-abused for my convenience. I also went with drilled and slotted rotors. If I decide to go hard-core track use with the car (not in my immediate plans), I may get some plain or slotted-only rotors, but I decided for a bit of bling this time.

I can't wait to see these peeking out from under the wheels, but I've got a bunch of engine work to do before I get to brakes and suspension... oh well.

 

Also... Myles pointed out that it might not be necessary to touch the fuel rail to do the timing chain guide job that I wrote-up, above. In the course of my valve cover bolt replacement, I was able to prove that he was indeed correct (and might have saved me my fuel leak problems... sigh). I've amended the instructions in the thread above and will copy/paste into the article system soon.

https://www.motoringalliance.com/threads/refreshing-rufus-2005-mcs-jcw.29878/page-13#post-400327

 

Mmmmmm... tracker says that my new fuel injector o-rings and clips will be here today! Something tells me I'm going to rip the envelope open like a kid on Christmas morning, run to do the install and then pray the car starts quickly before turning the key!

I've got Monday off work. If all goes well with the fuel injectors, I've got a transmission oil change and a supercharger oil change (along w/ gaskets, oil pan gasket and oil/filter change) left to do, then on to suspension and brakes! I can feel an end in sight! It won't all happen on Monday, of course, but I'll have all of March and April to do suspension/brakes/alignment... it's possible!

 

It's a duplicate post, but for the sake of completeness on this thread, I'm gonna do it...

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Success! Well... 1/2 success!

I was able to drill through one of the carriers... it's tough work for an old man who makes his living sitting on his fat ass in an office all day. I got out there this evening and it took me 20 minutes of drilling spread out over an hour or so to cut a hole clean through. A few whacks w/ a 6-pound hammer and the carrier was free!

Now I just need to drill out the other side... I was, however, able to fit one of the coil overs, just to raise my spirits a bit! (the new bolt to tighten the carrier to the strut body is on the way... should be here w/ my new control arms by Friday, so maybe I'll get the front end assembled this weekend.

 

Excellent photos! Thank you very much! Now I can drill down from the top and get a grommet in place to prevent wear on the cable.

These new little babies just arrived. After all of the pounding and mess I went through last weekend trying to get the inner ball joints out of the original arms... grrrrr!



Had I known that you could get a pair of these for $100 on Amazon (and what a PITA it was going to be), I would have ordered the parts a long while back and not even messed with trying to remove the old ball joints. Oh well... live and learn.

 

A good day in the garage! I was able to get the other wheel carrier drilled out, so I can start reassembly! I got the ball joints mounted, the front coil overs installed, the sub-frame raised and the control arms on. I discovered that I mucked up the threads on the tie rod ends (they were frozen as well... came loose in the end, but I must have bent the stud or mangled the threads to the point that I couldn't get it back on properly. Luckily a load all Auto Zone had a pair to fit, so I'm back in business tomorrow AM.

 

Ugh... this project always feels like 2 steps forward and 1 step back. I found outer tie rod ends last night, but I couldn't get the damn things separated from the inner tie rods! Torch... oil... hammers... nothing. I got the lock nut backed off but no further. I've got an inner tie rod wrench on the way and 2 inner tie rods.

On a happier note, I got one of the front brakes mounted. It looks hella cool and bolted right up. The other side should go on fairly quickly, now I have it figured out. I thought that the brake line was too short, but I realized that the coil overs have never been compressed, so they are probably hella long.

 

A quick sneek-peek. If I can get the tie rod issue solved, I might actually get photos of 'em w/ the wheels on.

 

I went out again last night and looked at those brake lines. Absolutely not enough slack to handle a hard turn... probably massive rubbing issues as well. I don't know why they look so short in my instance (my line is the perfect 20" that is specified by Willwood), but I don't like it one bit.

I pulled one of 'em and sent it to a shop in Atlanta that will make me a new set of SS flex lines w/ the exact same fittings but 5" more between 'em.

Anyone have a brake line stretcher I can borrow?

 

The new front brake lines should be shipped today, so hopefully the fronts will be wrapped up early next week.

I'm gearing up for another garage day this weekend. Too bad... I finally got all of the grease out from under my fingernails and my hands are finally starting to feel normal again.

I'm moving on to the rear suspension. Here's my punch list for this weekend:
- Rear swaybar
- Coil overs
- adjustable lower control arms
- adjustable drop links

It's looking like I can wrap up the suspension and brake work in the next 10 days or so, leaving me 3 full weeks to get the final bits wrapped up and the corner balance / alignment done before MOTD.

Yikes. It feels a bit close! I'm praying that this weekend's work goes smoothly and I don't have any more seized bolt fiascoes.

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I just skimmed back through all 18 pages of this post. Damn, it's been a lot of work!

 

Getting very close! I've only got 1 of the 4 brake lines connected (the fronts are in the mail and I've got some wonky threads on one of the rears... waiting for a die to arrive to clean 'em up).

Here's the rears:



The Willood rear calipers need a bit of modification to work. You have to drill out the mounting hole, deburr and paint it.



You add a spacer and use a circlip (which I just noticed isn't pushed all the way in) to secure things.

 

I'd much rather have the pollen as well!

The PDR guy just left. He spent about an hour massaging out the 4 door dings on the passenger door (one of the few panels that wasn't repainted) and a couple on the bonnet (tiny) and one on the driver's door that really only showed up w/ his special light, but why not get it fixed? I'm amazed that Rufus is down to this level of detail now. Honestly, I hadn't noticed the dings on the passenger door when I got him last year... it's just that the paintwork is now in such better shape that the small things are more noticeable now. He isn't show car quality, but he's a 5-footer, which is pretty damn good for a 13 year old car with 83k miles that is actually driven and not trailered around.

I've got to polish out the door again (I had a couple of places where I did touch-up paint work), but it looks so much better already!



I kept staring at the ride height while I was out there with the PDR guy. I think I'm going out this evening and bringing the front down 1/2 inch or so.

Corner balance and alignment tomorrow. Inspection the day after that. Then I'm done!