Has anyone tried the Mitsubishi accesory brake cooling ducts for the Evo8 for brake-intensive track use? The Mitsubishi website has no photos or useful information about this part. Do they actually work? And are they just deflectors, or do they have hoses that take air from the bumper area to the rotor? Or is there a better place to get brake ducts?

-Thanks!

 

The pieces are just deflectors that guide air to the rotors. If you look under the front of your evo, you'll see two channels from the front that get deeper going to the wheelhousing area. These are for cooling the brakes also. These combined with the air guides are a decent setup, but no they aren't true brake ducts.
Someone posted awhile ago that they installed the guides but didn't remove the shields from the rear of the rotors ,
don't know if that did any good at all.

 

That was me..... and the way they are angled there is no reason to remove th backing plates......the installation instructions mentioned nothing about this either...I don't think you grasp the principle of how they work......

 

limey--did the Mitsubishi air guides seem to add any cooling, or did you not to an A/B comparison? Maybe I'll just install them and see...

I was looking under there this afternoon, trying to figure out how one would route air to the brakes, and there's definitely a lot of weird stuff down there, and it's not totally clear to me how the air is flowing under there--there're the channels you mentioned (since they start out flush to the undertray, I wonder how much air actually travels along them), but there're also louvered vents on the inside front of the fenders, but I can't tell if that's for outgoing air from the engine bay or what. There didn't seem to be any obvious place to put real ducts, since the whole front end is stuffed full of intercooler, CV joints, intercooler spray reservoir, etc. I also couldn't tell the intention of the side-most front grill openings.

I guess I'll just try the guides and work from there...

 

Go for it they are only $130.00 from

 

The principle of how brake cooling works is to get as much cooler air as humanly possible onto the inside center of the rotors so the cooler air can be passed through the vents in the rotor itself. The shields on the backs of the rotors wont allow enough cool air to get to the rotor. Check on any racing car, be it F1, NASCAR, World Challenge, or even dirt track, and the brake ducts don't go onto a shield, they go directly to the rotor.

If the air guides don't require the removal of the backing plates, then I don't "grasp" the principle, maybe the principle is just for show, not for go...

 

The one to the left (when looking at front of car) provides air to the oil cooler (you can see it in there if you look closely). the one on the right... not sure if it actually does anything?

 

I think the shield around the rotors protect the rotors from getting any roadside debris. Removing them will cool your rotors faster but you risk messing them up if a piece of rock gets in there and jams things.

 

The brake shields are not for rocks, although I'm sure they do offer some protection. Their main purpose is to stop water from splashing onto the brakes and cooling them too quickly. I had race prepared brakes on my RX7 and they were a disaster on the street. I had no brake shields with 2.5" ducting from the front of the car unto the brakes. They worked great on a track day but in rain on the street they were scary. Especially on long highway trips were is was cold and rainy. The ducts directed all manner of water unto the rotors and the stopping distances were huge. 2x-3x more then when hot, with 0 initial bite for 50-150yds. This was exacerbated by the very high temp compound pads. You need to decide if you want a street setup or a race setup. If you are keeping it on the street I would keep the shields. Ducting air is good but you need to make sure they don't become water scoops in the rain. There are definite opportunities for someone to engineer a proper street/track setup that would add cooling and maintain cold/wet performance on the street.

 

They have ...the opportunity has been taken by ...good point about full race and street brakes.....if the car is to be used on the street there will be a degree of compromise with full race...and you will find you have the same sort of problems as EVO Rosso had on his RX 7.....The guides that produce provides a sensible answer to the compromise question....oh...and I did not use the word principle once

 

My EVO came with them on there.

I have never driven a car which I haven't been able to warp the rotors on. I even tried 2 different sets of performance rotors and pads on my old eclipse and still warped them rather easily. Along with every set of brakes on all of my previous 6 cars.

On the other hand...I have never owned a car with these type of caliber brakes like in the EVO.

I'm hoping the air guides actually help to prevent fade and warpage.

I havent noticed much of any issue with stopping distances while the brakes have been cold. Even in heavy rain they have seemed fine so far. However...the first 200 miles I must admit....were rather SCARY!! They definitely needed to be broken in.

 

Evo rotors will warp easily....it has been a well nown problem in europe for years

 

you don't have to decide between 2 set-ups, just change to a higher temp pad when you hit the track its a pain in the *** but it makes the car more manageable on the street when you get those lower temp pads in for the ride home