My Wilwood 4 pot front and 2 pot rear FHI caliper install

[HotlavaFRSGT86]

My impressions just after a 40 mile round trip curvy drive after the install, wow what a difference, Steering is just about effortless and handling which was great to begin with on the 86 platform has been transformed into incredible!! Heres the stats from my refrigerant scale... 2.18 lbs savings total on rear FHI 2 Pot aluminum Caliper upgrade and 27.6 lbs on the front. Even with the KNS adapter brackets its still lighter than the stock single piston caliper and bracket.
Front stock 2 pots have 2-40.4 mm pistons. Stock rear caliper has 1-40.4 mm piston, FHI rear 2 pots have 2-38mm pistons. Wilwood 4 pot front calipers have 4- 41.15 mm pistons.
Heres a better breakdown....

Total weight reduction 29.78 lbs, lets just call it 30. With Wilwood rotor/hats saving 6.6 lbs unsprung weight per corner=13.2 lbs total(You can certainly feel the weight savings) Wherever you may have heard that the Wilwoods alone are a 32 lbs total weight savings(16lbs per corner) is wrong, unless Wilwood changed the recipe over the years since the kit was first released, it is actually 27.6 lbs total, with 13.2 lbs of that being unsprung weight, maybe they were weighing it just with caliper and rotor only, and not including the hardware and pads, i weighed everything taken off and everything being put back on with the Wilwood kit. Here are some pics of my install if anyone is thinking about this install i say go ahead and do it, i was suppose to do this last year and finally got around this past week to do it. The whole car feels better in every dynamic and acceleration is improved, how much? Its hard to say because the whole unsprung weight to acceleration debate has been beaten to death for 25 yrs or more on online forums, all i can say is it probably is a 1/10th second at best, but the real score here is handling and braking of course. Well if any of you have any more questions please pm me or reply to my post. I want to give a shoutout to Ken from KNS Brakes and a shoutout to Wilwood brakes for this kit, it had a couple of difficulties that i don't prefer, but it is what it is, and so far no issues or strange noises, it works very very well. Thanks!!!

[Ohio Enthusiast]

These use the stock rotors front and rear? Which specific part numbers for the calipers? KNS Brakes don't have these on their site (only AP brakes).
I hope the zipties holding the brake lines are temporary?

To your claim about a substantial change in feel, I don't know if you're exaggerating, suffering from placebo/bias or I'm just that insensitive, but when I replaced my wheels with Enkei RPF1s with slightly lighter tires (dropping ~6 lbs per corner) I felt no change in handling (wheels and tires should have an even more pronounced impact due to rotating mass further away from the center of rotation). I won't argue with the theory behind this nor with people claiming to feel the difference, just sharing my experience.

[HotlavaFRSGT86]

Originally Posted by Ohio Enthusiast

These use the stock rotors front and rear? Which specific part numbers for the calipers? KNS Brakes don't have these on their site (only AP brakes).
I hope the zipties holding the brake lines are temporary?

To your claim about a substantial change in feel, I don't know if you're exaggerating, suffering from placebo/bias or I'm just that insensitive, but when I replaced my wheels with Enkei RPF1s with slightly lighter tires (dropping ~6 lbs per corner) I felt no change in handling (wheels and tires should have an even more pronounced impact due to rotating mass further away from the center of rotation). I won't argue with the theory behind this nor with people claiming to feel the difference, just sharing my experience.

Hey buddy if you shaved 24 lbs unsprung off of your car you DEFINITELY should have felt something in the way of better handling and some improved acceleration. I guess i've always been a very tuned in driver with cars & trucks. As for the rear FHI 2pot calipers yes i was able to keep the rotors and just bought the adapter brackets from KNS, they were $80 shipped and include all necessary hardware, the only thing that kinda sucked was you have to shave all of the casting flash off of the knuckle ears so the bracket fits flush. Just a large metal file was all i needed and a few minutes on each.

[SuperTom]

Did both these mods many years ago only difference in the rear I used a single vane rotor to save some weight. I got 30lbs total off the front. This is an amazing mod to get slightly better than stock braking and save all that weight up front.

Front
https://www.ft86club.com/forums/show...1&postcount=57
Rear
https://www.ft86club.com/forums/show...&postcount=219

Coincidentally 2 days ago as of this writing I fucked up my brakes and alot of the aluminum stripped. While trying to bleed my rear the bleed screws when fully torqued back wouldnt stop leaking ended up stripping the bolt holes. Took one of the calipers off and during reinstall the mounting bolt started to strip.

Upfront on the Wilwoods unscrewed the big bolt vs the tiny one to bleed and ended up snapping off inside. Also inspection most of the pistons the rubber gaskets were all torn up.

Frustrated and covered in brake fluid I just decided it was time to go big and ordered reman PP Brembos front and rear and stainless lines. That can all be done for about a $1000. With the money saved buying Gyrodisc 2pc rotors front and rear to save weight again. Total kit front and rear will still be about $3k

So sadly saying goodbye to this lightweight kit but will hopefully still be slightly lighter than stock with massive braking improvement as the mercy of lightweight responsive suspension and reciprocating mass.

[HotlavaFRSGT86]

Originally Posted by SuperTom

Did both these mods many years ago only difference in the rear I used a single vane rotor to save some weight. I got 30lbs total off the front. This is an amazing mod to get slightly better than stock braking and save all that weight up front.

Front
https://www.ft86club.com/forums/show...1&postcount=57
Rear
https://www.ft86club.com/forums/show...&postcount=219

Coincidentally 2 days ago as of this writing I fucked up my brakes and alot of the aluminum stripped. While trying to bleed my rear the bleed screws when fully torqued back wouldnt stop leaking ended up stripping the bolt holes. Took one of the calipers off and during reinstall the mounting bolt started to strip.

Upfront on the Wilwoods unscrewed the big bolt vs the tiny one to bleed and ended up snapping off inside. Also inspection most of the pistons the rubber gaskets were all torn up.

Frustrated and covered in brake fluid I just decided it was time to go big and ordered reman PP Brembos front and rear and stainless lines. That can all be done for about a $1000. With the money saved buying Gyrodisc 2pc rotors front and rear to save weight again. Total kit front and rear will still be about $3k

So sadly saying goodbye to this lightweight kit but will hopefully still be slightly lighter than stock with massive braking improvement as the mercy of lightweight responsive suspension and reciprocating mass.

Heyyyy! SuperTom nice of you to respond to my post and setup. I've seen you on here over the years, your a FT86 club star. Haha, anyway yes i am greatly enjoying this setup so far, unsprung weight loss is a must with a non turbo 4 cyl car. Well without looking through hundreds of posts(i've looked through a couple dozen though) what are your best reccomendations for best bang for the buck? I'm down to around 2,600 lbs with spare tire removal so far, but don't want to spend lets say $500+ on a part to only save 1-2 lbs. So far over the years i've done, Jdl header(-9 lbs), spare tire/tools -31lbs, aftermarket wheel/tires -6lbs, Wilwood Bbk and Fhi rear 2 pots -30 lbs,Braille Lw batt -14 lbs and a few other non essential items total about another -10 lbs give or take. I may be forgetting a few lbs here or there as well. I can only find that lighter overseas 86 rear rotor in the smaller 11.24 inch variety and that won't work, so i will likely just purchase the Stoptech slotted rears and they will match the Wilwood fronts perfectly( both have 6 slots oriented the same, and weigh 1/4 Lb less each acording to info from Stoptech). Any input from you is much appreciated man.

[SuperTom]

Originally Posted by HotlavaFRSGT86

Heyyyy! SuperTom nice of you to respond to my post and setup. I've seen you on here over the years, your a FT86 club star. Haha, anyway yes i am greatly enjoying this setup so far, unsprung weight loss is a must with a non turbo 4 cyl car. Well without looking through hundreds of posts(i've looked through a couple dozen though) what are your best reccomendations for best bang for the buck? I'm down to around 2,600 lbs with spare tire removal so far, but don't want to spend lets say $500+ on a part to only save 1-2 lbs. So far over the years i've done, Jdl header(-9 lbs), spare tire/tools -31lbs, aftermarket wheel/tires -6lbs, Wilwood Bbk and Fhi rear 2 pots -30 lbs,Braille Lw batt -14 lbs and a few other non essential items total about another -10 lbs give or take. I may be forgetting a few lbs here or there as well. I can only find that lighter overseas 86 rear rotor in the smaller 11.24 inch variety and that won't work, so i will likely just purchase the Stoptech slotted rears and they will match the Wilwood fronts perfectly( both have 6 slots oriented the same, and weigh 1/4 Lb less each acording to info from Stoptech). Any input from you is much appreciated man.

Those are all good mods, weight per $ this brake kit was one of the best.

There are many free things to remove but you may sacrifice some level of safety or comfort.
Remove front/rear bumper beams, AC Delete, remove injector metal cover, rear seat delete, ect most are listed throughout my build thread.

Dry carbon doors, NRG carbon seats were some of my pricier ones but combined removed about 100lbs from the center of the vehicle.

If I added back in my AC setup for comfort Id still be around 2425lbs

[HotlavaFRSGT86]

Originally Posted by SuperTom

Those are all good mods, weight per $ this brake kit was one of the best.

There are many free things to remove but you may sacrifice some level of safety or comfort.
Remove front/rear bumper beams, AC Delete, remove injector metal cover, rear seat delete, ect most are listed throughout my build thread.

Dry carbon doors, NRG carbon seats were some of my pricier ones but combined removed about 100lbs from the center of the vehicle.

If I added back in my AC setup for comfort Id still be around 2425lbs

Yes i have felt a very positive result from the Wilwoods and as to you accidentally stripping the bleeder screws at first, i had my vacuum bleeder hose on the top smaller screw, but was at 1st opening up the larger one and didn't get any fluid coming out and i was like "wtf?! And then i realized that u only have to loosen the smaller one, i didn't notice at first because the hose covered up the hex head. Wilwood shipped me no literature in the kit about that. I also went back and looked through more of your posts, and i must say i'd do a few more things to reduce maybe another 30-40 lbs, but i would never go to the extent that you have done. Lol, its great to all of us that you and your car have been the guinea pig of weight reduction on these platforms.

[SuperTom]

Originally Posted by HotlavaFRSGT86

Yes i have felt a very positive result from the Wilwoods and as to you accidentally stripping the bleeder screws at first, i had my vacuum bleeder hose on the top smaller screw, but was at 1st opening up the larger one and didn't get any fluid coming out and i was like "wtf?! And then i realized that u only have to loosen the smaller one, i didn't notice at first because the hose covered up the hex head. Wilwood shipped me no literature in the kit about that. I also went back and looked through more of your posts, and i must say i'd do a few more things to reduce maybe another 30-40 lbs, but i would never go to the extent that you have done. Lol, its great to all of us that you and your car have been the guinea pig of weight reduction on these platforms.

Yep I snapped the larger part inside. Keep in mind I live in NE and my kit is now 7 years old. The surface rust made it look like one screw, forgot they were 2 separate pieces. Most likely the small one would have snapped as well