Mark Shows Us How To Fit a Hi Spec Monster 4 Big Brake Conversion To a Third Generation Honda Prelude - Tuner UK

It is a well known fact that Preludes are not the best endowed in the braking department. Initially I tried the usual route of better discs and pads. I opted for Grooved and spotted EBC discs with Green stuff pads. This helped, but still the pedal was spongy, and on track they faded really quickly. So back to the drawing board. I then tried Red stuff pads and Goodridge steel braided brake lines with D.O.T. 5.1 fluid, and I also removed the rear guard. This helped the pedal and the track use, but still after a couple of laps the brakes faded. Another down side to the Red stuff pads was that when they where cold e.g. cold winter mornings they were reluctant to work at all, causing one or two interesting moments.

So I decided to look for an upgrade that would work more reliably. I looked online and found several manufactures that offered 4 pot alloy calipers, but know one except Winner Pro offered a kit to fit. So I went to the Autosport International show in order to find a supplier who could help. After several phones calls and looking at several examples, I opted for a bespoke design from a company called Hi-Spec engineering Their calipers are made in house and come in a range of sizes. I opted for a Billet 4 alloy caliper with gold anodising and custom made mounting brackets. The reason for this is two-fold.
1) being 4 pot means they have 2 pistons per side of the disc to ensure that the pads are forced against the disc with more equal constant pressure.
2) Being made of alloy and having a larger surface area they would cool better than the stock iron calipers so helping to prevent fluid boil and brake fade.
These would be used in conjunction with 285x24mm grooved discs and Mintex 1144 pads and my existing steel braided brake lines. The Kit is shown here on the right.
Clicking on an image will expand it

Next remove old caliper by removing the 2 x 17mm bolts that secure it to the hub. I left the brake line on so as not to loose any unnecessary brake fluid. You can see in the picture I used a spare axle stand to rest the caliper on.

Then remove the two securing screws that locate the disc. These can be tight so an impact driver may be required. This leaves the bare hub which I would recommend to be cleaned using a wire brush to ensure the new disc fits square.

Then came the only alteration required. Due to the size of my discs the caliper fit was very tight and so some material needed to be removed from the hub. This was an easy job done with a junior hacksaw. If larger discs had been used this would not have been required. A tip here is to use plenty of WD40 or similar on the hacksaw blade to lubricate it. As can be seen it would be possible to re-fit the original caliper if required as the mounting hole is not damaged.