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Follow up on my review of the Chase bays kit, Full Detail Automotive reached out to me on that thread and mentioned they have a kit that offers better routing for an ABS delete.
A tl;dr of the Chase Bays kit, it's all braided lines and while they're fine (no leaks in my case), the routing required that I either put the prop valve in a very awkward position (next to MC under the intake elbow, and in front of the oil dipstick) or swap the front and rear brake ports of the MC.
As for why I am deleting the ABS, it's perhaps not the best decision but I could never get ABS to come on for me during my previous track days and locked up very badly at Thill West which put the idea in my head just to take the whole thing out. Also kind of dumb, but I never fully seated my main harness grommet post putting my engine in because it was just impossible to reach around it and pop it into place.
I paid for a kit from Full Detail (this is NOT a sponsored segment) and installed it prior to a 3 day track weekend at Buttonwillow, Streets of Willows and Thunderhill East.
Install impressions:
-Fairly straight forward. They include some rubber coated p-clips and all the hardware needed to tuck the lines where they need to be, the Chase Bays kit did not include any hardware.
-The crux of this kit are two pre-bent hardlines that route from the d-side MC port to the prop valve which sits on a bracket on top of the brake booster, and then from the valve down to the OEM rear brake line fitting. In my case, I needed to fanangle the rear side hardline a bit to get it to fit, but given that the bracket position is a bit different for everyone I think, the kit fits very well.
-The actual instructions route the brake line under the "lip" on the firewall, so you can definitely fully tuck everything. I chose to route mine above (where the stock lines went) so I can see it and make sure it doesn't rub and spring a leak somewhere.
-Minor gripe, but some of the fittings were imperial sized, I've got almost no tools in imperial except for a few box wrenches but that's all I needed to install everything.
Customer service:
-Really great customer service so far, they've been open about the design of the kit as well as checking in periodically
-Shipping was just a few days from Florida to NorCal and they were prompt with tracking and communications throughout the process
Performance and longevity:
-Longevity will need to be seen but I put the kit through an immediate ringer through 3 consecutive days of HPDE. The brakes still feel great and I have no leaks from any of the fittings. The banjos have also not worked themselves loose, so far so good.
-As for performance... they work? This isn't a mod that results in "gains" persay. My ABS is definitely deleted and I can adjust the brake bias with the provided Wilwood prop valve.
-For the prop valve, I have it almost fully in to give maximum brake force to the rear in an attempt to find balance with my setup (Endless ME20 up front, Carbotech XP8 in the rear). It's actually a great litmus test for what kind of braking your pad compounds are applying, and from the apparent imbalance, I can tell I need to get something with a bit more bite in the rear to match the ME20s.
-Impact on driving is interesting. It has made me exponentially better at braking by necessity. Because I risk locking up, I am much more aware of what my foot is doing on the pedal and it has also forced me to be more precise with heel toe downshifts. I don't really recommend it as a mod for ***** and giggles, but for me personally, I'm glad I made the change.
XP8 is definitely too weak for the rear of an FD. Heck, I run the 10s on the rear of my Miata. I run 12s up front and would run that rear except I trail brake a lot and the slightly softer rear pad makes trail brake easier and more consistent to pull off.
YMMV
BTW, the trick for installing the firewall grommet - lube it up with WD-40, get it in place, and use a long pry bar to pop the bottom of the grommet in. When done right it takes like 5 seconds.
I am in absolute disbelief that I managed to NOT see this thread. Goodness
As mentioned before, the feedback is greatly appreciated. The fittings for the hardlines are apparently hard to get. The supplier of the place that makes those lines for us doesn't really deal in metric fittings and the few that they carry..... well.... aren't a metric size on the flats lol. They offered for us to bring them the fittings we wanted to use but chose not to explore this option because they have a long relationship with their supplier. There's no question about reliability or quality with the fittings that come from them.
We will mention the discontinuity in the fitting size in the instructions moving forward. A situation like not having an oddly sized wrench on hand is extremely annoying especially mid install.
What's most impressive is that you installed the kit and immediately went full send lol
12-14-22, 01:39 PM
