Volvo Brakes Upgrade using Fiat 500 Abarth Vented Rotors

[brook308]

Hi, it's been done before but I thought I'd document my upgrade from standard ATE front brakes to Volvo Girling 240 4 pot calipers with Fiat 500 Abarth vented rotors.

Thanks to tomhenneka from the alfabb for finding that the Fiat 500 Arbarth vented front rotors are PCD 4 x 98, you just have to get a machinist to open up the rotor hub opening from 59mm to 72mm to fit the alfetta hub. You also need to put a spacer between the hub and the rotor to centre the disk to the caliper.

The car is track only so these mods would not be street legal.

The calipers were given to me and have the following markings.

Inside Half of Caliper - 320026 62 3
Outside Half of Caliper - 320029 62 8

The Volvo Girling 240 caliper has two hydraulic inlets, some later model Volvo 240 calipers only have one inlet but I was told by a Volvo wrecker that these "one inlet" calipers were only available on US cars.
To convert from twin inlet, to one, to suit the alfetta you can buy a manifold from Breck Meyer <breck1969@yahoo.com> using your paypal account.
Breck is US based and can supply the manifolds with banjos and crush washers for $110US shipped to Australia. This is for a set of two (axel set).

I've attached a pic of Breck's manifold.

Today I ordered the following from Brookers Brake and Clutch Maroochydore;

1 x Fiat 500 Abarth 284mm Vented Rotors @ $180 a pair
1 x Set of EBC Race Pads to suit the Girling Calipers @ $245
1 x Volvo Girling caliper rebuild kit, didn't get a price on this yet.


Here's some pics of the progress so far. I needed to bolt the Girlings on to make sure my new wheels still fit. Both my 15 x 8" and 15" x 7" performance wheels fit well.
I'll try some standard 14" alfa wheels to see if they fit and post the results.

[jazig.k]

Awesome. I knew the Volvo callipers fit but nice bundle of info to get it all together in one spot.

One question/request. Could you weigh the old callipers and rotors and weigh the new callipers and rotors for a comparison [edit: including the spacer and manifold]?
I hear that these Volvo callipers weigh a lot.

[brook308]

Awesome. I knew the Volvo callipers fit but nice bundle of info to get it all together in one spot.

One question/request. Could you weigh the old callipers and rotors and weigh the new callipers and rotors for a comparison [edit: including the spacer and manifold]?
I hear that these Volvo callipers weigh a lot.

Yes they weigh more, see pics, 890 grams more for just the caliper.
Then add the bigger rotors and spacers. You can counter this by getting your wheel weight down.
I'm happy to sacrifice some unsprung weight, at over twice the HP of a standard alfetta I really need to be able to stop a little better than the ATE's can provide.

[jazig.k]

Cool, thanks, just figured since you have it apart ATM [presumed you did] that putting up the total weight increase would be of interest to others.

Edit:
If I'm correct in my catalogue cross referencing, DBA say the standard disc is 6.5kg and EBC Fiat 500 disc is 8.6kg.
Puts the total weight increase around the 3kg mark, per side.

[brook308]

Got the parts today, the Fiat 500 Abarth rotors have gone straight to the machinist to be bored out to 72mm to fit the hub. The machinist is also making up 6mm spacers.

The pricing for the Girling Volvo 240 Caliper Rebuild kit was $45 per side $90 total.
The pads are EBD Blue Stuff not Greenstuff and were $235 a set.

[Duk]

Yep, the Ovlov calipers are heavy suckers.
I know it doesn't help you now (it doesn't help me either, after spending the best part of $1000 doing my set up), but here is a nice little adapter available for the Volvo 240 crowd that lets them use aluminium Mazda RX7 4 piston calipers on 286mm rotors.
depending on finances, I'll look at that set up later on, to replace my own Volvo caliper/164 rotor combination on my 75.

[brook308]

Yep, the Ovlov calipers are heavy suckers.
I know it doesn't help you now (it doesn't help me either, after spending the best part of $1000 doing my set up), but here is a nice little adapter available for the Volvo 240 crowd that lets them use aluminium Mazda RX7 4 piston calipers on 286mm rotors.
depending on finances, I'll look at that set up later on, to replace my own Volvo caliper/164 rotor combination on my 75.

I liked the volvo caliper because it mounts directly to the alfa without an adaptor, oh and they were free.
I bought a set of 15x8 Performance Gtr wheels that are 2kg per corner lighter than my old wheels, so this offsets the caliper and rotor weight gains.
I liked the fiat rotor as it came with a pcd of 4x98, I was a bit worried about re-drilling rotors.

[hammer]

My Giulietta uses a system that Jim Nielsen set up for it, using the Mazda RX7 caliper over a DBA brand Mitsubishi Magna rotor (and the twin master, no booster set up). I've had the calipers rebuilt, bought several different pads for them and have purchased new rotors during my ownership. All parts easy to source and reasonably priced and the brakes are magic. The rotors come blank so you can have them drilled to any pcd you need.

Cheers,

Brent

[brook308]

My Giulietta uses a system that Jim Nielsen set up for it, using the Mazda RX7 caliper over a DBA brand Mitsubishi Magna rotor (and the twin master, no booster set up). I've had the calipers rebuilt, bought several different pads for them and have purchased new rotors during my ownership. All parts easy to source and reasonably priced and the brakes are magic. The rotors come blank so you can have them drilled to any pcd you need.

Cheers,

Brent

Hi Brent, I did contact DBA via email in search for blank 164 rotors and was advised they don't provide blank rotors, hence I took up the fiat 500 abarth option.
Do you have a part # for the blank rotors for future reference?

[brook308]

Fiat rotors back from the machinist, plus two 6mm spacers, total cost $120.
A trial fit looks ok, although the volvo pads don't use up all the rotor surface area, see pics.

[brook308]

Pics of hub/spacer/rotor fit.
I will have to work out a way of securing the wheel studs, I have seen them welded in place with a couple of spots but wonder about welding the rotor.

The spacer is 6mm with a 4mm taper on the face that mates to the hub, this is so it will fit well on the hub. This leaves about 3-4mm for the rotor to centre itself on the hub.

The original alfa disks also have a taper to allow for this.

When I get a chance I'll post a diagram of the spacer.

[Duk]

Pics of hub/spacer/rotor fit.
I will have to work out a way of securing the wheel studs, I have seen them welded in place with a couple of spots but wonder about welding the rotor.

The spacer is 6mm with a 4mm taper on the face that mates to the hub, this is so it will fit well on the hub. This leaves about 3-4mm for the rotor to centre itself on the hub.

First of all, DON'T weld to the rotor! Brake rotors are, in 99.999% of examples, made from some form of cast iron. And while cast irons can be welded, it is a prick to weld (tho I've never personally welded it. Yet...........)!
When I did my 164 Rotor/Volvo caliper installation on my 75, I used the usual splined studs that can be bought from most car parts sellers. But also made a ring from 6mm round bar, that fitted inside the hat of the rotor. Each wheel stud head then had to be ground a bit, to give clearance to the round bar ring. With everything held in tight, a small tack weld was applied between each wheel stud and the round bar ring.
sorry for no photos of my set up, but please, don't try and weld to the cast iron rotor hat! It probably won't result in some sort of catastrophic failure, but if/when you break a (wheel stud) tack, getting the wheel off will be the proverbial nightmare!!! 

[brook308]

OK found a wheel stud solution.

The new disks have a stud hole diameter of 13.3mm, the alfa studs are around 12mm so I couldn't use them.

Found some replacement studs at www.niceproducts.com.au, part number NS3400.

The studs are the same thread (12x1.50mm) as the alfa stud, they are long at 73mm but they need to be long to make it through the spacer and hub. They are a press fit into the rotor via a knurl.
I needed to drill out the existing stud holes to 14.34mm using a 9/16th drill bit.
The new studs installed easily with a press.
You may need to cut the wheel studs down as they are fairly long, I shortened my by 15mm.

[Duk]

Nice solution. Much better than the 1 I used and more realistic for any one else who would go this path.