Figured I'd do a little writeup on how to install the FRPP "Bullit" or "Cobra" brake upgrade.

Preface
The FRPP brake upgrade kit is one of the best things you can do for your performance. Too many times, people are obsessed with making thier car go as fast as possible, but don't pay any attention to the fact that you need to be able to stop all that speed at the end of the track, or when those pesky moose run out in front of the car on a lonely back road. This how to covers only the installation of the front brakes, but I'm sure someone has done the full upgrade. I did not do the rears, as the disc sizes are the same, but the calipers are different. I full upgrade is best for maximum performance, the the fronts still make most of the difference

Things you need to know
-The Cobra and Bullit brake upgrades are identical mechanically, with the difference being that the Cobra calipers are black powdercoat with the word "COBRA" on them. The Bullit version is Red powdercoat, with a polished Mustang logo on it...these pics are the Bullit style.




-I also installed stainless steel braided lines with mine. The stock rubber hoses had seen better days with 105,000 miles on them. Braided hoses will give your brake pedal a MUCH firmer feel than the stockers. They look good to boot, but you won't really see them unless your wheels are off.

-The banjo bolts/ crush washers are different on the Upgraded calipers than the GT stockers. Make sure that you have the correct bolts. Ford lists the part number as W709298-S901. When you order the kit, it should come with them, but there have been problems with some places not shipping them. I wouldn't get them until you know if you have them with the kit. You will also need new crush washers. Same situation...it should come with the kit.

-Working on brakes is something that you can absolutely take NO shortcuts on. It could mean your life if your brakes fail at an inoppurtune time. I highly suggest having a knowledgeable friend help you if you are at all apprehensive about doing this.

-The fronts are 13" rotors, and as such, you need at least 17" rims to clear them. Sorry V6 guys with stock rims, or GTs with 16" or less. The rears don't have this requirement, so those of you that run 15" rims for slicks or DR's need not worry. Just don't expect to run skinnies up front. The Weld Prostar XP's are reported to be able to clear the brakes with the addition of a spacer, but don't quote that

-In related news, don't expect to run the stock spare tire either. You need either a cobra spare, which is pretty pricey @ around $100, even used, or you will need an extra 17" rim. You should NOT, under any circumstances, put any baby spare on the rear axle just to put a full size rim on the front. It will ruin the trac-loc diff. I bought two extra rims that match the 17's that I already had for $50 a piece used. I run my DRs on them, but in a pinch, I could use one as a spare to get home. What sucks is that they wont fit in the stock spare tire well. I am working on fabbing up a hold down for a full size rim/tire on the top of the board that covers the stock spare, as I replaced mine with plywood a few years ago.

-If you have ABS, which I don't, be sure not to get any air into the ABS system itself...if you do, the whole system will need to be bled by the dealer if I remember correctly. Anyone with ABS that has done this, please chime in.

-I got cross drilled and slotted rotors, mainly for looks and thier cooling properties on the street. If you plan on road racing or AutoX racing, i would advise you not to get cross drilled rotors...the heat generated is too much in that type of environment, and can cause cracking at the drills. Slotted or standard would be the best bet for those situations. Also note that you will get more brake dust from slotted/ cross drilled rotors.

-Rotors are side specific, and most should be labeled R or L. This is as your sitting in the driver's seat. IE, R is passenger, and L is driver's side.

-Be advised that the plating on most rotors will wear off within a few minutes of driving. And there is a break-in period for new brakes. Dont finish the instal and jump in the car to take a road trip across the country...break them in properly...I will detail this later.

-Above all, have fun, and take your time to do this right. For just front brakes, expect to take 1-3 hours, depending on the speed of your work, age/condition of the car, and wether or not you have a helper.

Tools & Equipment
Required
-Floor jack
-Jack stands/ wheel chocks
-Lug wrench
-Brake Cleaner spray
-Metric wrenches/ sockets
-"Torx" (star style) bits (not sure on size, I THINK it was a 30 on mine)
-Ft Lb torque wrench
-Dot 3 brake fluid, at least a pint for the fronts
-Some kind of rubber plug to plug the brake lines off when you remove the calipers
-Brake bleeder kit - "One man" style if you're going it alone
-Large "C" clamp, 6" should work
-17" wheels/ spare
-Rotors, Calipers, banjo bolts, and crush washers
Recommended
-Breaker bar
-PB Blaster or WD-40
-Anti Seize Compound
-Anti Brake squeal compound
-Beer
-A helper
-Nitrile Rubber gloves...brake fluid can be pretty caustic to some people's skin
-Shop Light
-I HIGHLY reccomend a shop or hayne's manual
-More brake fluid than you think you'll need
-Time

Now, for the process

Removing the old brakes

1. Put the Ebrake on, and chock the rear wheels
2. Loosen the wheel lug nuts
3. Jack up the car, and insert jackstands on appropriate jacking points
4. Remove the wheels, and set them to the side out of the way...keep 2 lug nuts nearby
5. Pop the hood and remove the resoivor cap
6. It may help to turn the sterring wheel to one side and lock it into postion...insert the key to "run", but dont start the car. Turn the wheel to the right if you are working on the driver's side, vice versa for the passenger side. Remove the key and wiggle the steering wheel until it locks
7. Soak down the caliper and rotor with brake cleaner spray....DO NOT USED COMPRESSED AIR unless you like cancer!!!
8. You may want to spray the caliper bracket bolts down with PB blastr at this point to let them soak
9. Using the large C-clamp, compress the caliper piston by placeing the "foot" of the jack on the back of the outside pad, and the stationary end of the clamp on the back of the caliper. Tighten the clamp until you see the pad begin to separate from the caliper. Doing this step will make the next MUCH easier
10. Loosen and remove the torx bolt that holds the caliper to the bracket...its the lower bolt if you cant see it. It has a round head.
11. Once the torx bolt is removed, you can pivot the caliper up and off of the rotor. The top pivot point is only a pin, and the caliper will slide off
12. Note: If you are replacing the brake hoses, remove the hose from the stainless steel line at this point and plug the end of the line to keep all of your fluid from leaking out. There are two clips that keep the hard line and hose in place in the bracket...these can be removed with needle nose pliers. If you are keeping the stock hoses, remove them from the caliper and plug them there.
13. periodically check the fluid level in the master cylinder, you don't want it to empty, or it will introduce air into the whole system, creating a lot more work for you later
14. Remove the two bolts holding the caliper bracket to the spindle plate. This is where the breaker bar may come in handy...mine were in there pretty tight.
15. Once the bracket is off, you should be able to slide the rotor right off the hub. There may be a small spring clamp holding the rotor on from the factory, you can remove this and discard it.
16. Thats it, the old front brakes are off...be sure to check the fluid level again and add fluid if needed

 

Installing the new brakes

1. This is pretty much the reverse of the removal, with a few modified steps. Slide the new rotor onto the hub. This is where those two lug nuts you kept come in handy...finger snug them down to hold the disc in place while you work.
2. Bolt down the new brake caliper bracket to the proper torque specs, refer to your hayne or shop manual for them.
3. The next 4 steps apply to new hoses only
4. Finger tighten the brake hose to the back of the caliper...it should be arranged like this: Caliper, crush washer, hose end, crush washer, banjo bolt. The stock lines will fit with the new brakes, the banjo bolt is what's different
5. If you are replacing the lines, most aftermarket hoses will not have the slot in them to fit the coupler bracket between the hard line and hose. I used a die grinder to take the tab off of the bracket.
6. Slide the hose into the bracket and insert one of the two clips the keep it in place.
7. QUICKLY remove the plug and insert the hard line into the hose and snug it down. Check your fluid level to make sure you aren't emptying the cylinder. this step is one where a helper REALLY comes in handy, as they can hold the caliper while you use two hands to hook up the line. If not, you can use a piece of wire to hang it out of the way before removing your plug.
8. Slide the caliper into the grooves on the "front" of the bracket. The caliper has two tabs on the front that fit these grooves perfectly. Pivot the caliper down until it is seated. It may help to compress the piston with your clamp first to "loosen" the pads.
9. Slide the caliper pin through the "hole" created by the tabs on the rear of the caliper and the mounting bracket. It should slide through easily, but you may need to tap it lightly with a hammer. The head of the pin should be facing out.
10. Insert a washer on the end of the pin, and push on a new "E" clip. On a side note, whenever you remove this e-clip, replace it with a new one
11. Everything should now be dry-fit onto the car. Go over all fasteners with a fine tooth comb, and tighten them down. Check for leaks after tightening everything...you will probably have to wipe some excess brake fluid off to make sure.
12. Follow the same process for both sides of the car.

Bleeding the brakes

1. After everything is tightend down and installed your are ready to begin the process of bleeding the brakes of air.
2. On the top of each caliper, there is a little rubber dust cap...underneath the cap is the "bleeder screw". It is basically a valve to open and close the brake system. Remove the dust cap, and put your brake bleeder tube on the screw. Some bleeder systems have a magnetic mount for the bottle. Stick the bottle higher than the bleeder screw if this is applicable.
3. Top off the master cylinder with fresh brake fluid
4. With the bleeder screws still closed, pump the brake pedal a few times...you should feel it get SLIGHTLY firmer.
5. Open the bleeder screw by turning it counter-clockwise. You don't need to turn it far...only about a 1/4 turn is needed to open it.
6. Have your helper push the brake pedal to the floor, close the bleeder screw, and have him let off the pedal.
7. Check the fluid level, and top off if necessary
8. Reapet the process of opening the screw, pushing the pedal, closing the screw, and letting off of the pedal until you see no more air bubbles coming out of the brake system. Make sure you don't have leaks anywhere as well. Once you feel the air is bled out of one brake, continue onto the others and repeat the process. As long as you didn't let air reach the bottom of the master cylinder, you should only have to bleed those brakes that you replaced. If air entered the cylinder, it is the same process for bleeding, but you will have to do the entire system, and basically bleed everything from the cylinder out, rather than just the ends of the lines and the hoses. (I think I explained that good )
9. Once everything has been bled, check all your bleeder screws and re-cover them with the dust caps. Have your friend check for leaks and make sure you are the one that tests the pedal now...because you know how firm it should feel. Pump it a few times and make sure it isn't mushy. With the stainless steel lines, I got about an inch less travel on my pedal afterwards, as the whole system was firmed up.
10. Your brake system is now bled. Double check everything again, put the cap back on the Master Cylinder, and spin the brake rotor. You may notice the dust shield behind the brake is rubbing. If so, just use your hand and bend it back a little. It's pretty flimsy.
11. Reinstall the wheels, and put the car back on the ground. Can't get the wheels on? Take off those two lug nuts you had holding the rotor, silly

Finishing up, and breaking the brakes in
-Now that you are done with all that, you should be ready to start driving (not if you followed my "beer" reccomendation, lol). Make sure there are no tools or junk around or under the car. Open your garage door, if applicable. Start the car, and pump the pedal a few times. It will feel a little different, as the hydroboost system is now assisting you with the pedal. Put the car in whichever gear will take you out of the garage (reverse or forward). With your foot on the brake...the car should not move (besides its regular "shift" when you put it in gear. Manual guys, you'll have to slighlty feather the clutch with your foot on the brake...you shouldn't stall out if you do it right. You just want to put a load on the new brake system. If everything checks out OK, go ahead and back out of the garage. Put the car in reverse and idle back for about 10 feet or so and stop. Now put it in drive and do the same. Everything check out? Ok...keep moving on. Get the car up to around 15MPH, and stop quickly. Don't lock up the tires, but press the pedal pretty hard. Next step is to go up to about 25MPH and do the same. Take the car for a short drive around a couple blocks, varying the pressure you press on the brake pedal. That should be all you need to do for the "testing" phase. If, for some reason something doesn't seem right. Go back to the garage and check your work. Make sure everything is tightend down and there are no leaks. If everything is working so far...you are ready to break them in.

The best place to do this is in an unpopulated area, but not everyone has that nearby, so use common sense when doing this.

Take the car up to about 45-50 MPH. Jam on the pedal, stopping just short of locking the wheels up. Do it again, but this time with less pressure. What you are doing is heating the brakes up, causing them to expand, thus creating more friction to break in the pads, but you are preventing them from glazing over by using less pressure than the time before. Drive the car to about 65, and come to a complete stop as you normally would...everything should check out, and the plating on the disc should be worn off.

Congrats! You're done!

Conclusion
I know there are different methods for breaking the brakes in, and that people may have found easier ways to do this install. This is just the method I used, and I works for me. I only did the fronts on mine, so someone needs to chime in with the process of doing the rear brakes. If I did not explain something clearly, post it in this thread, as someone else may have the same question. I don't have many pics of the install, really just a before and after, but I can try to garner some if need be, or maybe describe something a little better.

Hope I helped, guys

 

great write up! Who do you suggest ordering the 13" brake kit from? Also ive seen red cobras available instead of black.

 

I believe the Red Cobras are the 10th anniversary editions, so yes, you are right.

I ordered mine from speedconcepts.com , but their customer service was horrible. There are plenty of places that provide these for sale. I would suggest any place that you trust for thier service, as I didn't see much variation in price among sites.

 

Thanks for the write up and heads up against speedconcepts man. That is who I was looking at, but now wont.

 

Here's my thread regarding speedconcepts:

http://forums.modulardepot.com/showt...threadid=53103

You'd have to ask the guys here, but they have this:
http://www.mustangtuning.com/cobrabrakes.html

I don't know if they offer the 10th anniversary or Bullit calipers (the red ones). www.stangsuspension.com does though. I will definitley vouch for thier customer service, its where I got my MM C/C plates.