I agree with VoodooBoss that the backing plate from Kohr or Multimatic will cost dearly. Even the 3D printed piece from Capaldi Racing will cost a lot to tool up and fabricate from carbon fiber.
I’m an engineer even though not a mechanical engineer and challenges like this won’t let me rest until I find a solution. Woke up this morning with an idea which I believe is cheap and easy to fabricate and effective. Would love to hear what you guys think. I think its so simple that even I could make this
Thanks to spartan, 8250RPM, bpracer, and Black Boss for ideas, theory, pictures! This input gets the gears turning.
Brake cooling is a problem on the GT350. I overheated the stock pads first time out which caused deposits on the rotors. No fade or fluid problems. Rims were so hot I burned my fingers getting the stock metal tire valves off to let air out between sessions. Brake cooling is a must and will help keep the hub bearing from eventually failing.
I apologize for the crude drawing but I don’t have any software for something like this and I don’t have the car next to me for actual dimensions but I think it conveys the idea.
View attachment 4317
Basically it’s a backing plate of aluminum (green piece) that needs to be fairly stiff so it won’t flex when the hose tugs on it. Open for ideas of how thick it needs to be. Its mounted at the 3 mounting points for the factory backing plate. 3rd hole (upper hole) needs to be drilled and taped but its there.
Now the plate needs to be mounted closer to the rotor as the normal backing plate mounting lugs provide. I think that an aluminum stand off dowel (1” dia) with a hole through the center would work. Could even drill and tap the factory holes for a slightly larger bolt. Need to bring the plate out to the same plane as the white 3D printed piece does. Basically just forward of where the hub mounts to the carrier. This will allow the plate to seal around the hub. A tight fit here will keep the air at the hub. Should also cool the bearing in the hub better. Tighter the seal here the less air can escape.
The plate needs to be on the same plane as seen here.
View attachment 4318
You also see how much further back the mounting bolts are thus the aluminum spacers to bring the plate forward to the same plane.
Obviously, you will need to remove the hub to get this in place.
The OD of the backing plate is slightly larger (5mm?) then the ID of the center of the rotor. No need to cover the inside friction surface of the rotor.
The red piece in the drawing, I’ll call it a fence, is nothing more then a thin L shaped piece of aluminum. It needs relief cuts on the mounting surface so that it can be bent into a circle. Only need pop rivets to attach it to the plate. The diameter needs to be 1-2mm? less then the ID of the rotor opening. The height of the "fence" needs to be such that it doesn't block the rotor vein openings.
To get this precise, you could mount the backing plate on a piece of plywood with a screw at the center (before you cut out the hub opening) and screw a block of wood at the desired diameter of the fence to the plywood and turn and mount the fence piece by piece to keep the gap to the rotor precise and perfectly round.
I believe that this should seal off the back of the rotor fairly well.
This should be easy to do for whatever rotor diameter you are using, Brembo or AP Racing.
Only issue is getting the hose to the backing plate. Impressive what 8250RPM did with forming the aluminum pipe from 4” down to an oval.
I am just wondering if you could make something out of wood or Styrofoam and then use body filler (like when they make speaker boxes) to make a mold and then wrap the mold with either carbon fiber or fiberglass.
Since the plate is so simple this might be easy to do the whole thing in carbon fiber???
I think this is what makes America (and American's) Great. Its our ingenuity and drive to find solutions!
Thoughts? Other ideas? Improvements? Effectiveness? Easy to fabricate?