I read a post about this every 6 months or so, but has anyone actually done it and can say that it made a difference on their car? Does it help fade?
The only time you would notice it would be compe***ion type braking as in road racing or short track oval racing my dad used to do. My dad did it for cooling and hot rods on the street do it for the comp appearance........which is ok too!!
yeah drilled drums...bad idea. think of it like this. if it worked and was better then conventional drumhow come engineers didnt do that in the first place?and still dont do it. mostly because you get water fade. and then you can turn the drums after you drill them. you reduce the surface of the braking area. and you destroy the integrity of the drum its self. the pros are that you wouldnt get gas fade as easily or mechanical fade because they would not heat up as fast. but the cons out weigh the pros. the make drilled baking plates and skeleton plates but you still have really bad water fade. best thing to do get finned buick aluminium drums. skootch at Skratch's garage
Yeah back in the day at the daytona 500 when it was still on the beach. they stilled had drum brakes and when they got on the beach they would drive half the car into the ocean to cool the brakes. skootch at Skratch's garage
So you'd get water fade because the holes would make it easier for the water to get in the drum I ***ume? See this post is kinda doing what the others did. (thanks for the replys) Everyone talking about maybe yes, maybe no. But I guess no one has actually tried it for them selves?
I bought a car with drilled drums and drove it for awhile a long time ago. They were drilled to loose unsprung weight not for cooling. I replaced them as quick as I had a chance and didn't notice any difference in brake fade at all, at least nothing you feel in the seat of your pants. I didn't have them on long enough to drive them in the rain. Biggest difference I ever found in brakes was when I scooped a set of drums. And when it comes to cool factor the scoops are the real deal.
I run drilled drums on the back of my Chevelle road racer. I don't have fade issues, and I did this as part of the upgrade to larger drums (from 9x1 to 11.5x1.5), so I have a marked gain in performance over what I replaced. I did it to improve cooling and eliminate outg***ing. No problems ever, and the car stops very well. I will be further upgrading to big-*** discs on all four corners, which was also part of the plan from the start. I got my drums drilled by Performance Online (www.performanceonline.com) and Jimmy (the owner) does them quite often- he knows where to drill them and how to correctly size the holes. I've had no negative effects. Scotch~!
(bad idea. think of it like this. if it worked and was better then conventional drumhow come engineers didnt do that in the first place?) why didnt model As come without fenders and with v8s in the first place then.
Your statements are incorrect. The holes do vent the gas buildup that causes fade, but they also will expell water through the holes as well. Simple centrifugal force will do the job quite nicely, and whatever is left will be forced out by the shoes when the brake pedal is pressed. Drilled drums CAN be turned, if done properly. Take it to AutoZone or Napa with their worn out lathe and overzealous parts monkeys and it will get ruined. If done properly the holes do NOT ruin the integrity of the drum. Granted if you make the drum look like swiss cheese don't expect it to hold up at all. The amount of surface area removed by the holes is outweighed by the improved braking force the holes provide through venting of the gases that ac***ulate between shoe and drum. Rod n Custom had an article out in Oct 2001 I believe that showed drilled drums. If discs hadn't come out it's more than likely brake technology would have gone this way. "Conventional engineers" haven't done it yet because it's not cost effective. Why fit a vehicle with $3 drilled drums when you can spend $1 finned ones will do nearly as well AND save $2 PER CAR? It's all about the profit margins. They've been drilling discs for how long? Your statements were more than likely heard when they started doing that as well.
If they did then real hotrods would have fenders and V-12s. I don't doubt that there are a lot of reasons that drums didn't come drilled from the factory. But with Detriot the decideing factor is money. It costs to man hours to drill 'em, you could cast 'em with holes but it would still take more hours to finish 'em. Done right the holes will be champhered. Why don't all new cars come with drilled rotors and 4 piston discs? The truth is that drilled drums are like polished rods, there is some advantage but nothing you will be able to tell from the drivers seat. At least not in normal everyday driveing. Should you do it? I've been known to polish a lower end, but I have no way to prove that it made any difference. Fraz looks like you type faster than me.
After putting a 440 in my 55 plymouth and driving it a round a bit, i realized that fade had become a new issue with all that new weight up front. The drums had alot more energy (heat) to expel with the big block than they did with the flathead six. So i heard about drilling drums and decided to try it. I made a jig and took some measurements and drilled two rows of holes in the front drums. It made quite a difference in the fade. Stopping power was still far from satisfactory (Ive since gone to huge front discs) but it was no longer downright dangerous. For example, stopping from 75-80 on a freeway offramp was a cross your fingers kind of effort before i drilled the drums. After the drill job fade almost totally dissapeared. The only time you will notice a difference though is on long stops from high speed when you are pushing the drums ability to expel heat. Ho hum around town driving will see little to no change. As for water issues, there are none, it made no difference to me whatsoever. As I see it i gives the water a better outlet than the thin space between drum and backing plate. Just make sure you plan out your drilling well before you do it. And dont get to overzealous with it, small holes (3/16" to 1\4")evenly spaced 1.5" to 2" should do it. Dont expect disc brake performance though.
i dont know about actually drilling the drums but backing plates have been covered... you can actually get away with drilling quite a bit from the backing plate and C9 once suggested using a special brake pad along with drilling (lost the PM awhile back), he had used these pads and said he didnt have a problem with brake fade (in an early 50s fullsized ford). does anyone know what brake pad im talking about? C9? http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=53819
they work, but i don't think it is something most people are capable of doing right especially when there are 2/4 to do. so the negatives are usually made for people that are just to lazy to do it. zibo also, imagine a guy having to drill out 30 - 40 holes in each drum for each production car made with front drum brakes, just to stop a few accidents and deaths. it just doesn't add up for business
Many new sports cars do, look at any Porsche for the last 5 years. The 4 pistons are actually in the caliper not the disc.
I had CH Topping (Check out this article): http://www.chtopping.com/CustomRod4/ Drill my drums last winter. This is on my 50 Plymouth with wimpy 10" dual cylinder fronts, and I've gotta say it is a noticible improvement in the fade department. Long grades that were once white knuckle experiences, are now no problem. Maybe not as powerful as good discs, but a huge improvement over stock in my case. I'm glad I did it.
I vented the front Drums on my '65 F-100 a couple years ago. I drilled three 3/16" holes on a slight angle across the width of the braking surface, and spaced each set of three holes about 2" apart around the cir***ference of the drums. It made a noticeable difference, but not enough. The next thing I did was vent the Backing Plates and that also made a noticeable difference. Venting both the Drums and the Backing plates made enough difference to be worth the effort, but it did not completely eliminate the brake-fade. IMO, if you are wanting to keep drum brakes for appearance, it would be worth doing. Otherwise I think Disc's would be much better... And I have had these brakes wet several times, both before, and after drilling them. The "Wet Brake" syndrome goes away a lot faster with the drums drilled...
DOH I ment caliper my brain doesn't always connect with my extremities. Highend cars often come with good brakes. '68 B/B Dart GT also had 4 piston brakes, as did some mustangs from that same period (Bendix Calipers). But we are talking cars in general and the engineers that have to deal with the bean counters. Right? Drill 'em if you want to if you don't screw it up it won't hurt a thing. As for water, centrifical force should sling most of it out. When I lived in the rain forest the second time when it was raining or I just drove out of a river I always tapped the brakes once in awhile to keep 'em dry. Its called self preservation.
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