rear brakes bigger than front?

[stanglou]

I recently picked up an 8.8 rear out of a 2003 f-150. I was thinking of having is shortened and using it on the stang, but there is a delema. the rear discs on the thing are about 14 inches, which is bigger than my front wilwoods. will this look stupid? will it be functional? i got such a good deal on the thing that i couldn't pass it up.

[andrewb70]

You may have too much braking in the rear. This may cause the rear brakes to lock before the fronts which can be dangerous.

Andrew

[fuzzyonion]

The diameter of the disc is not quite as much of a factor as the diameter of the pistons. There are many cars which come stock with larger rotors in the rear, but the caliper pistons are still much smaller.

[SatisTraction]

its nothing that a wilwood porportioning valve cant take care of.

[zbugger]

its nothing that a wilwood porportioning valve cant take care of.
Not entirely true. Remember the spin session that blue 69 Camaro had in the 0-100-0 contest? They had the prop valve all the way down and it still spun the car. It's all a balancing act. It's still surface area that is stopping the car. More area in the rear means more stopping power.

[fuzzyonion]

I see the rear piston for a 2003 F150 listed as single piston 2" diameter.
If your Wilwoods are dual or 4 pistons of less than 2", I wouldn't use them together.

P>S>
If they are a 6 piston fronts, I would need to know the piston diameters to do the math, but I have a feeling most of the Wilwoods are going to be too small to use with such a combination of large rear calipers and discs. You usually want about 1 1/2-2 times as much front braking as rear.

[JLM]

You should be able to swap a set of SVT Cobra rear 11" vented discs and calipers onto that 8.8 you got without much difficulty. This would probably be the route i would take.

Try Gene Evans Ford for said parts. www.gefracing.com

[stanglou]

the rear brakes have a single two inch piston. the wilwoods are four piston units. the rear brakes seem to be about 14 inch discs unvented, while the fronts are about 12in vented. it seems to me that i should be ok with a prop valve, but i guess only testing will tell.

[MoeBawlz]

i know a lot of drag racing guys who do that... but thats just to keep weight off the nose and still have decent brakes... especially when you run skinnies on the front you need all the braking you can from the rear.

[race-rodz-inc]

late model f-150 is a diff bolt pattern anyway. if your gonna have it narrowed... you will be buying axles anyway, with the right bolt patern....and the giant rotors wont fit the axles.

best bet would be narrow it, buy axles, use a factory 8.8 rear disk set-up in the right size rotor diameter. or buy a matching wilwood set up for the rear.