brake upgrade with 95 Lincoln Continental, etc.

[Dave Ladely]

I understand from Mark that the 95 Lincoln Continental will work well as a brake upgrade for Gen II and maybe Gen I SHOs. And that NAPA has loaded calipers, including premium pads, a remanufactured caliper, and the bracket for only $55.00 a side. I assume that is fronts. I am not sure about the rears and would like to know if the Continentals are the way to go there also.

Seems like a good way to go; parts are readily available as they are dealer items, the brakes should be a stong upgrade, and the price is certainly reasonable. The aftermarket upgrades are kinda expensive for dubious improvement of some over the Continental, and any replacement would likely be available only from the aftermarket supplier at a high price. Also, I have some reservations about the real improvements gained from drilling holes, cutting groves, etc. in disks, which may prove only to have cosmetic allure.

 

[cyanmauve]

This may or may not help you, but here's my opinion. I did the 96 upgrade using the spindles off of a 95 ABS Taurus. I then obtained a pair of PBR dual piston calipers and stainless steel brake lines. I used stock 96 SHO discs with a three year warranty I got from Autozone. I looked into slotted and drilled discs, and I have surmised that either of these treatments isn't worth the money. Recently, I've seen nothing but bad press about drilled. The holes supposedly provide nice points for the rotor to form cracks from, while offering little in the way of perfomance gains. Modern brake pads don't build up the volume of gas that the old ones (one of the causes of brake fade) did and don't need to expell as much gas to retain stopping power. As for the increased cooling aspect, if you buy a decent set of pads with a wide operating temperature range, you should have no problem on the street or on the track (a short stint on track, anyway). Slotting makes slightly more sense, but I'm not convinced that it's a wise decision either, especially for the street. Slotting does remove gas build up, but I've already tried to cover that one. It also wears your pads by continually cutting away the surface of the pad and exposing new material. Ture, this does provides better stopping distances, but at an increased cost of pad life. On the street, I have found my set up to be more than adequate. I've also used this set up on the track and was very happy with the results. This is my suggestion: buy decent pads and make cooling ducts directed at your rotors. I use Performance Friction Carbon Metallic-Z pads (about $80) and have been pretty pleased. Hawk and Carbotech also make good pads. These are a bit pricey, but are made to last. Save money on the rotors and put it into a decent set of pads and fifteen dollars wort of zip ties and expandable aluminum cooling ducting. The staainless steel brake lines are a nice addition too, but juist provide better pedal modulation.

 

[Dave Ladely]

I should have mentioned that I have a 93 SHO MTX, ABS brakes.
I understand that the spindles on the 1995 Taurus ABS are superior to those of the 93 or are necessary to fit the 96 disks.

 

[Deaks2]

Only 94-95 SHO's can do the 96+ upgrade as a bolt-on. 89-93's needs new spindles and perhaps other hardware.