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240 Volvo 240 Brake Upgrade with Falcon XR6 Caliper Brackets
Matt75 @Matt75
Melbourne
in General
Hi guys, as per my build thread I have made up some steel mounting brackets to fit Falcon XR6 calipers to the 240 Strut using s60 rotors.
Fitment is perfect and I think is a pretty cost effective and worthwhile upgrade.
Here's a few pics of the brackets and how they mount. They will fit under most 16" rims but may depend on wheel design.
I'll be selling the brackets on here a bit cheaper at $275 plus $15 postage AustWide if anyone is interested.
I also think you may be able to fit the larger XR6 turbo calipers and use the s60r rotors given the mounting holes are the same.
I'd be keen for any feedback
Cheers
Matt
Comments
Here are the brackets that have been CNC machined. They turned out better than expected and use the standard bolts for the Volvo and Falcon.
I've cleaned up the calipers and the struts so once I get the new rotors I'll post and few pics of it all nice and shiny
Let me know on your thoughts and if anyone else has done this conversion
Looks great. I done need to upgrade my brakes as they are fine for the power Im running. They look lovely and a job well done. My question would be
What size pistons are the new calipers and do you think it would be beneficial to fit matching rears to keep the braking force similar?
Going to larger front callipers will require a longer pedal travel input for the MC size and will therefore ask more of the rear brakes before the fronts are doing the work? Unless Im missing something, wont you need to run the matching rear calipers?
Only reason I ask is that in the French car world we often use the larger calipers from a 306 and put them onto and old 205. If you run the 205 sized mc the pedal travel is longer. Fit the larger mc from the 306 and it all works. Rear calipers are the same across both cars.
Just a thought. Not very familiar with Volvo brakes mind you!
The falcon calipers are twin pots with 2 x 41.9 mm pistons whereas the Volvo have 4 x 38 mm pistons so to my mind I don't expect the pedal travel to change too much but time will tell I guess...
Cheers,
Matt
Yea thats not too bad! Ours had a much higher percentage gap in piston size.
Looks good none the less.
Looking forward to more progress on the LS swap.
In terms of sizing and pedal travel:
Calipers with opposed pistons behave as though they only have the pistons on one side. This is because each piston has to travel half as far.
Yeah so 41.9mm two piston sliding caliper has the same fluid volume requirement of a 41.9mm four piston fixed caliper.
Hence volvo to falcon conversion results in an approx 21.5% increase in surface area. Hence same increase in fluid volume requirement for the front calipers.
However total fluid volume required as a % is impacted by the rear calipers. Staying with stock rear volvo calipers which have 38mm pistons means that the total increase in fluid volume reduces down to 10.8%
Id have to think some more about how that impacts pedal effort and travel with the stepped style of a volvo master cylinder.
My plan at this stage is to use a falcon booster and master cylinder, along with a falcon rear diff. Hence complete braking system is used and hence hopefully avoiding the complexity and cost of getting it engineered in nsw.
I have mocked up the booster and master. May still rethink this approach and if i stick with it, the exact execution. It is far from bolt on.
Nice mate, I'm keen to see how you get on. Keep me posted.
Cheers
Matt
Tested out brackes from @Matt75 today. All fitted up ok with no issues preventing them being used as is. That said, I made a couple observations.
In my setup, the caliper bracket isnt 100% centred to the rotor, through still adequate clearance. Not sure if that is a difference with my setup or perhaps a design choice? Perhaps to be consistent with how the bracket and rotor related to each other on a falcon? In my setup shifting the caliper bracket it 0.8 mm closer to the strut centres it up.
There is a reasonable distance between the edge of the pad and the outer edge of the face of the rotor, approx 3mm. A bit more than you typically see on an OEM setup. That said, a good portion of the rotor closer to the hub is already not swept by the pad so may have been a coice to balance out the appearance? As it is helps add a little more clearance when looking to run 16" rims.
Confirm that at least some, but i suspect pretty much all, 16" rims work.
As an aside, for those considering it in NSW, to get this engineered it would require going through the complete brake testing regime. It fits into that category because in a 240 it means going from a triangular split braking system to a diagonal or front/rear split system. Same applies for the rx7 caliper upgrade.
If you go the route I am of using the complete braking setup from another car, in theory it reduces the level of testing required to get it engineeered.
Hey @VolvoHordz, Many thanks for the feedback on the brackets. I'll hopefully be fitting mine up this weekend in the car. As I have sold a number of these now and this is version 1.0 I can def add the revisions you pointed out.
You are right, the plan was always to get them as close to the strut as possible to allow fitment of 16" wheels and as the rotor still gets the full pad swept area we didn't see too much issue but maybe if you have access to a lathe you could turn the rotors down a few mm if there are any concerns but I don't plan to do this as it should be fine as is.
Hope it all goes well from here on in.
Here's a few pics of set up on the struts awaiting install. (I lost the top caliper bolt!)
Cheers,
Matt
Be interesting to see what the other people you have sold them to find in terms of how centered the rotor is to the caliper bracket. I only have one strut handy to test with so not really enough data to go off yet to revise the design.
My comment about distance to edge of rotor is partly about braking force. With a 305mm rotor, sitting the pad 3mm closer to the strut than it needs to be leaves you missing out on approx 2% additional braking power. I may be oversimplifying the calculation but I get that from 3mm/(305mm/2), being the reduction in leverage.
Shifting the caliper 3mm further out wouldn't be a clearance issue for the 16" wheel I have but perhaps others will find differently?
My engineer brain got the better of me and I have done some research and calculations comparing brake setups. The 'approx. net result' is a massive over simplification. I have simply added % increases in caliper piston diameter and % increase in rotor diameter together and taken off 100% to make it look sensible i.e. not real maths. Things like the radius to the inner and outer edges of the brake pad, aforementioned caliper positioning, need to make other brake setup changes, etc. all come into it.
With that disclaimer done, I have made the following observations:
Wow, That's a lot of information! You have certainly done some homework on this.
I have found from experience that on paper may not be that great but in real life they work great.
My car is now on plates so I'm looking forward to throwing on the whole new suspension and then the brakes.
Will report back once done
Cheers
Matt
I've finished my brake upgrade and have a had a few questions on how I did it. I used V70XC 305mm rotors (DBA2384) with BA Falcon (2002 - 2005) calipers and new pads. I had some brackets CNC machined out of high quality steel that utilize the standard mounting bolts from the volvo and falcon. Then all that was needed was a HEL brake line (50cm) with an M10x1mm female fitting on one end (with the standard line clip springs cut down a bit to stop them rattling around) and a 90deg banjo fitting on the other with a banjo bolt and copper washers to match. The brake line bracket on the strut needed a slot cut into it so I could press in the grommet. Two lines out of the brake distribution block needed removing and M10 x 1mm plugs installed in their place. The brakes bled up no probs and the pedal feel is similar to standard as is travel with a noticeable increase in stopping power and distance. As far as brake upgrades go this was very simple and all bolt on with no machining required. I have a couple of set ups ready to go including the mount brackets and newly rebuilt and calipers for $550 plus post if anyone is interested. Any questions please let me know. Cheers
Love the look... nice and factory looking.. maybe I’ll go same way instead of falcon rotors ....
No sweat. Just let me know. Matt
Hi Matt75,
looks good. Just to confirm...Using the original hub, your caliper adapter bracket, S60/V70XC rotors, Falcon calipers, new brake hoses. Then Standard RWD Volvo wheels 16", may fit? And without wheel spacers? Isee that in your fitment pics, there is a wheel spacers/ adapters fitted, I'm guessing for aftermarket rims?
I'm in the process of looking for bigger brakes, as part of an engine swap on a family 1980 244.
Doy you still sell the caliper brackets by themselves? And would you post them to NZ? Getting a whole kit shipped to NZ, is likely to make it too expensive, once shipping and NZ GST was added.
Hopefully you see this.
Cheers
Hey mate, yes I was running fwd wheels so I needed spacers. 16" should be fine. I'm in the process of maybe doing another run of the brackets do pm me and I'll get back to you. Cheers Matt
This is a great setup mate, I've actually got a BA that is going to donate it's running gear to mine, maybe the brakes might have to come along too. I will keep this in mind.
Boss is giving me his near new XR6 Turbo calipers as he upgraded to Ceika and 330mm when he added 90kw to the tune. ( pulls like a train.....)