It's an amazing fact, but in spite of there being a huge disc brake aftermarket, more than 80 percent of muscle cars and hot rods by our reckoning still have their original brake systems. With the exception of a few rare cars that belong in museums, there's no good justification for putting yourself and others at risk with hardware that's a half-century old. It seems everybody reaches for the catalog to put a new exhaust or carburetor on, but if the brakes aren't outright broken, 4 out of 5 times they get ignored.
We realize that not everybody has shamelessly jumped on the Pro Touring bandwagon with huge wheels, wide rubber band tires, and pizza-platter brakes, if for no other reason than it's just plain expensive. Moreover, not everybody wants brain fluid leaking out their ear during the highway on-ramp merge; some hot rods and the gearheads who own them just aren't built for that. We hear you, and that's why we're building Project Valiant, a low-key granny mobile with patina paint, a flat hood, and 15-inch steelies. When completed, our 1968 Plymouth Valiant 100 will look nearly stock, yet have over 650 hp on tap from an all-aluminum low-deck Wedge built by Indy Cylinder Head.
With that kind of power on tap, we need to be able to safely slow and turn this thing without cashing in the life insurance policy. With the handling duties fully covered by a Reilly Motorsports' (RMS) AlterKtion front coilover suspension and Street-Lynx rear four-link suspension, we now turn our attention to the brakes. Fortunately, there are some very affordable options for us that fit inside our chosen 15-inch Coker steel wheels and redline tires—both of them from Wilwood. These consist of Wilwood's forged four-piston Dynalite calipers mated to a pair of .81-inch vented 11-inch discs up front, and forged four-piston DynaPro calipers with 11-inch hats (with integral parking brake drums) in the rear. Both systems are way, way under a grand a piece, and with a little bit of online searching, you can find both 11-inch systems for even less through mail order. (Strange, RMS, and Summit Racing are good starting points.) The best thing about these systems from Wilwood is that they easily fit inside a 15-inch rim, and in some cases, even 14-inch rims. We're showing you details of our Valiant install here, but know that Wilwood makes application-specific kits for most 1960s and 1970s muscle cars from GM, Ford, and Chrysler. Chances are, they have a Dynalite front kit for your car, whatever the brand or budget. (GM guys have it even easier as Wilwood also offers scandalously affordable and attractive dual-piston caliper upgrades in D52 and D154 pad designs that maintain the stock discs.)
We're not going to attack any high-speed road courses with our Dynalite kit up front, but we wouldn't have a problem hitting the Goodguys autocross with them, or hauling the Valiant down from 130-plus mph in the shutdown area of the dragstrip. Mostly, we want to heave those old stock drum brakes as far as possible—they are flat-out dangerous when mated to any V-8 mill, let alone our 500ci Indy wedge. Being scared behind the wheel can sometimes be fun, but it's never fun when your car swerves uncontrollably from unequal braking force, or worse, slams into the back of another car. A Wilwood Dynalite front brake kit can make an immediate and dramatic difference without forcing you to buy new wheels and tires, or changing your car's calculated appearance. Relating to Mopars specifically, more kudos go to RMS. They make a master cylinder kit for $299 that allows you to install any two-bolt GM-style master cylinder onto a Chrysler. RMS offers this in kit form, and it includes a ⅞-inch bore Wilwood master cylinder (for manual brakes), and an adjustable pushrod end to retain your stock pedal and pivot bolt.
Helping us to put all this great hardware into play on Project Valiant is Outlaw Motorsports of Riverside, California. They have been building serious muscle cars, hot rods, race cars, trucks, and other serious play toys for decades. They've got a serious arsenal of skills that range from chassis work, fabrication, engine building, and body and paint, to chassis dyno tuning, nitrous sales, and wheel/tire packages. Proprietor Ron Aschtgen got our Wilwood install done in short order while we recorded everything on video and still pictures. Here's how it unfolded.
More Video Online!
Wanna see how the installation on our Wilwood Dynalite brake kit went down? Dying to see the progress on Project Valiant? Head over to the video page, or YouTube.com/PopularHotRodding and watch the video "Wilwood Dynalite Disc Brake Installation."
1. Our Wilwood Dynalite 11-inch kit is available through Reilly Motorsports ($695), and teams with the Mustang II spindle AlterKtion coilover front suspension. (Red powdercoat is $100 extra). Wilwood also offers Forged Dynalite Pro kits for Mopars with factory 9- and 10-inch drum spindles (PN 140-11022, $783.99, 9-inch drum spindle; PN 140-11023, $783.99, 10-inch drum spindle) These come with an 11-inch rotor and four-piston Dynalite caliper like our kit, but fit all ’65-72 Mopar A-Bodies with drum spindles. Other than a slightly different caliper bracket and hub, these kits are essentially the same as for the Mustang II spindle shown here.
2. Our Strange S60 rearend was delivered with optional Wilwood DynaPro 11-inch discs to match our front Dynalite discs (Strange kit PN B2709WC, $599). These are not in the Strange catalog yet, so tell them PHR sent you. Performance on these four-piston calipers and 11-inch rotors is nearly identical, and well matched to our needs. Note the integral parking brake drum in the rotor hat.
3. We’re in no rush to turn Project Valiant into a Pro Touring billet machine with big wheels and tires—we want a toned-down appearance with classic appeal, and that means 15-inch steel wheels, dog dish hubcaps, and redline tires from Coker. The Wilwood Dynalite calipers and 11-inch rotors fit inside our rolling stock with room to spare while giving us the modern braking power and safety we need.
4. Wilwood’s instructions are some of the best we’ve seen, so we’re not going to give you a blow-by-blow description here. We’ll summarize the rotor hub assembly by saying that there are three key parts: The billet aluminum hub, the spacer/adapter, and cast-iron vented 11-inch rotor—all shown here. The use of a thread-locking compound is highly recommended.
5. Outlaw Motorsports packed our wheel bearings (included in the Wilwood kit) with a high-quality synthetic wheel bearing grease for long life and low maintenance.
6. Our Reilly Motorsports AlterKtion suspension uses Mustang II spindles, and the caliper brackets in the Wilwood kit are specific to the left and right side. (The captured threaded bushings on the bracket should present the shoulder to the outside). There are several kinds of Mustang II spindles with different mounting holes—the Wilwood bracket has seven holes, of which any three need to line up using the included Allen-head fasteners.
7. The rotor assembly and packed wheel bearings get installed next, along with a castellated nut and cotter pin. Wilwood’s billet hub assembly also gets a nice screw-in forged cap to cover the bearings—it’s too bad all this beauty will be covered up, but you’ll know it’s there!
8. The Dynalite forged caliper is a four-piston design with a 4.80-in² piston area—this particular model can take a 0.81-inch rotor width. Although our calipers are paired with 11-inch rotors, the Dynalite can go with rotors as large as 13.06 inches. Pad type on the Dynalite is the 7112 backing plate shape, which mount conveniently from the rear of the caliper without necessitating caliper removal. Note the dual bleeds for flexible mounting.
9. The lug-mounted Dynalite mounts solidly to the caliper bracket, and must be centered on the rotor with shims that are supplied in the kit. Failure to center the caliper on the rotor centerline can result in non-optimal braking performance, poor pad and rotor wear, and possible injury. Note the easy pad access.
10. The 18-inch braided stainless steel flex lines used on our Valiant are not part of the kit, but can be ordered separately from Wilwood as PN 220-8307 ($66.61, pair). They replace the stock rubber lines, and include a -3AN fitting adapter that attaches to the end of your factory hard lines. Note that the Wilwood system does not use a banjo fitting and copper crush washer, which can result in a dangerous loss of fluid and pressure if not designed or installed correctly. The Wilwood lines screw directly into the caliper, eliminating any possibility of sudden pressure loss.
11. Mopar owners who want to upgrade to a quality Wilwood master cylinder (or any other two-bolt GM-style master) will appreciate the billet master cylinder adapter from Reilly Motorsports, which is included in their Wilwood master cylinder upgrade kit (PN RMS9439PKH, $299). The kit includes the adapter, Wilwood ⅞-inch bore master cylinder, and adjustable pushrod.
12. The adjustable pushrod from RMS (included in the RMS master cylinder kit) allows Mopar owners to use the stock brake pedal and pushrod bolt, while providing additional length adjustment for optimal pedal stroke and a comfortable seating position.
13. With the RMS adapter plate installed on the firewall and the adjustable pushrod end threaded on the master cylinder pushrod, the Wilwood master cylinder is easily bolted to the firewall with two provided nuts. Note how the Wilwood master cylinder conveniently has fluid ports on both sides of the bore—the ones you don’t use should be blocked with the included plugs.
14. Making custom brake lines is beyond the scope of this story, but we touch on this in more detail in our online video of the Wilwood installation. Making custom brake hard lines is not difficult with the right tools, which can be obtained from Eastwood, Summit, or any Harbor Freight tool depot. We used 3/16-inch steel brake line, a tubing bender, tubing cutter, and flair dies to make 45-degree double-flare junctions.
15. Aschtgen at Outlaw Motorsports is a seasoned veteran with many race car buildups in his rearview mirror. Plumbing brake systems is just one of his specialties, and here he attaches a custom line from the rear of the Wilwood master cylinder to the Wilwood adjustable proportioning valve.
16. Wilwood’s adjustable proportioning valve (PN 260-8419, $45.30) will allow us to optimize our braking performance by adjusting the amount of pressure to the rear brake circuit in proportion to the front brake circuit. Too much rear brake can cause the rears to lock up before the fronts, creating a dangerous situation. Too little rear brake reduces overall braking effectiveness and accelerates front pad/rotor wear.
