diy cross drilled rotors?

[cuate01221]

Anybody ever do diy cross drilled rotors? I have always wondered why people buy $300 rotors when you can simply cross drill them yourself with a drill press. I did some research on it and read this

Originally Posted by BSQ5 on Jan/13/03
Quote: Weston on Jan/12/03Has anyone here drilled rotors themself?
Weston,

I have actually cross-drilled my own rotors on 2 seperate cars. The first car that I cross-drilled the rotors on was my '86 Honda CRX Si. I had a problem with the CRX Si warping the front rotors (yes...I used a torque wrench to tighten the lug nuts). I initially had the rotors turned, but they eventually warped again. So, then I decided to purchase a new set of front rotors and cross-drilling them to see if it would prevent warping. After I cross-drilled the rotors I never had a problem with warping. Those particular rotors were cross-drilled for approx. 6 years.

When I purchased my '94 GS-R I had concerns that the rotors might eventually warp (similiar to the CRX Si). So after owning the car for almost 1 year, I decided to cross-drill the front and rear rotors. Since that time, I have done 7 HPDE (hi-performance driver education) classes (~21 hours of track time) and they rotors have performed flawlessly. My brother-in-law used to own a GS-R with identical suspension, brake pads and street tires, but the only difference was my brake rotors were cross-drilled and we ran similiar lap time (within .5 second of each other). After each lapping session we measured our rotor temperatures with a laser pyrometer and my brake rotors were usually 100-150 degrees less. So, I'm a firm believer in cross-drilled rotors. BTW, I have had my Integra rotors cross-drilled for 8 years now and I haven't had a single problem.

For my CRX Si cross-drilled brake rotors I used a "swept" pattern (see picture below). With this pattern there is a left and right side pattern.



For my GS-R, I used a more univeral swept pattern (see picture below). This allowed the same pattern to be used on either rotor. The pattern that I used was not a tightly spaces (ie. the holes were spaced out more).



I layed out the pattern on a large thick piece of paper, using a compose. After the pattern was made, I transfered it onto the rotor. I drilled the holes using a drill press and a 1/4" titanium drill bit. I also chamfered the holes using a countersinking bit.



Well, there is my $.02 on the matter. HTH.

It seems like this will give a great look to a car and have a function at the same time. Next time I do rotors, I will be trying this out to see how it works for me.

[deevergote]

I bought the Brembos on my car right now from a company that took Brembo blanks and drilled/slotted them themselves. I assume this is no different than doing it yourself, as long as you have the proper tools.

I don't know that I'd follow advice from someone that uses a "compose".

Honestly though, it's unproven that drilled rotors really help, and they CAN crack. When I replace the rotors on my car, I'm just putting regular Brembo blanks on it.

[Tippey764]

In reality all of those little holes are a loss of surface area.

You are not driving an accord hard enough most of the time to get the rotors hot enough to really need additional cooling.

[Theos92VR4]

Go with slotted rotors if you are going to do anything. I run those on my accord, vette, and my vr4 and no problems. I had drilled and slotted rotors on my stealth r/t and had a ton of stress cracks around the drilled areas. I saw that, swapped them for another set of drilled rotors, and the same thing happend again a few months later. Been using slotted rotors on my cars and never any problems.

[Jonas]

both slotted and drilled rotors will shave pad material off faster. that means you will burn through pads faster than with regular rotors. good for performance. bad for a car that you dont want to have to service more often than necessary. especially since cb7 rotors should be machined when pads are installed, and we all know what a bitch they are to get off.

[HardInThePaint]

It also has a lot to do with convenience, most people are not trying to go thru all that when they can just buy it. Plus nobody really has access to a drill press or is trying to get access to a drill press. It might be easy to do and easy access for u but for the majority its just a hassle.