BMW Z4 M Brake Cooling Kit

[F360C]

Originally Posted by Westersund

We've been down for over a year and a half because of building a house, but we're now back in business! New products will be coming soon as well. Both a race version up front and cooling for the rear as well.

Welcome back!

Really want the rear cooling! Any preview of what the race version is going to consist of?

[Westersund]

Originally Posted by F360C

Welcome back!

Really want the rear cooling! Any preview of what the race version is going to consist of?

Thank you!

I've heard from many they miss rear brake cooling so that's why I'm doing it, need it for my E46 M3 race car as well so it fits perfect.

The race version is done. 1 mm thickness instead of 1,5 mm, scaled down (size), stronger (folded edges), lighter and revised ducts with better air flow. The holes will be dimple died.

[mikeklien]

You will need hose clamps, hose, some bolts/nuts/shims and a few screws.

Just some regular stuff.

The 2 metal pieces on the floor is for mounting the front bumper ducts to the OEM mounting points.

The bracking plate covers the steering knuckles, that's why they look the way they do.

But at the same time I have cut away as much material as I can to keep them light.

I haven't mounted this kit on my own car, but on my Z3 coupe I needed a little over 2 meters. I would buy 3 meter to be safe.

The CFRP is 20% stiffer according to the manufacturer, so it can be made lighter and be just as strong as the other plastic I use.

But no, CFRP is not needed.

Temperature vise it's not much of a difference.

Minor modifications is for the brackets that come with the kit.

I'm almost 100% sure you won't need to modify them.

But see it as a disclaimer to avoid unsatisfied customers.

[Westersund]

Originally Posted by mikeklien

You will need hose clamps, hose, some bolts/nuts/shims and a few screws.

Just some regular stuff.

The 2 metal pieces on the floor is for mounting the front bumper ducts to the OEM mounting points.

The bracking plate covers the steering knuckles, that's why they look the way they do.

But at the same time I have cut away as much material as I can to keep them light.

I haven't mounted this kit on my own car, but on my Z3 coupe I needed a little over 2 meters. I would buy 3 meter to be safe.

The CFRP is 20% stiffer according to the manufacturer, so it can be made lighter and be just as strong as the other plastic I use.

But no, CFRP is not needed.

Temperature vise it's not much of a difference.

Minor modifications is for the brackets that come with the kit.

I'm almost 100% sure you won't need to modify them.

But see it as a disclaimer to avoid unsatisfied customers.

Wanted to ask a question about the kit?

[Westersund]

So here's the new race version of the front backing plates, I'll be doing the rear cooling kit next.




A bit of inspiration of how it looks like painted (Although these backing plates are for E46/E46 M3/Z4 and F8X M2/M3/M4):

[eggman51]

Those are very nice looking improvement. Are you selling them yet?

[Westersund]

Originally Posted by eggman51

Those are very nice looking improvement. Are you selling them yet?

Thanks! Yes they are available right now. Haven't kept up to the exchange rates and haven't checked what shipping cost in a while so I'll haev to update that. But as a ballpark these backing plates cost 30-35$ more than the standard backing plates.

[Westersund]

Just to keep you updated on the whole rear brake cooling thing, here's the prototype that is adjustable and is mounted in the RTAB holder. (Going to bed now but I'll update more detailed tomorrow)

[Westersund]

So I ordered 1x of each piece to test fit them. The RTAB holder is shared among all E36/E46/Z4 platforms and is mounted to the car with 3 bolts. My bracket uses 2 of them and, due to the design being adjustable to accomodate the different bodies it's a split design, you only have to remove 1 bolt from the RTAB holder at a time so no new wheel alignment is needed.

Totally forgot, here's the "backing plate" with funnel. Just to illustrate how the design is the parts are inverted in the picture but they will ofcourse be mirrored and on the other side of the OE backing plate. I realised that cutting away a piece of the OE backing plate is the best option due to the complexity and cost of developing a new one from scratch. Also if it's being installed on a street car and you want to keep most of the OE backing plate due to brake dust/dirt etc you can do that, but if it's a pure race car you can cut away everything around it as well.

[eggman51]

Originally Posted by Westersund

Thanks! Yes they are available right now. Haven't kept up to the exchange rates and haven't checked what shipping cost in a while so I'll haev to update that. But as a ballpark these backing plates cost 30-35$ more than the standard backing plates.

I have the original one for the Z4M, I've not installed it yet. I like the look of these plates. What bits would I need to use these plates with the original kit?

[Westersund]

Originally Posted by eggman51

I have the original one for the Z4M, I've not installed it yet. I like the look of these plates. What bits would I need to use these plates with the original kit?

Both I'm afraid, I made the funnel exit bigger to spread the air flow more. So the design of the new backing plate is adapted to that. The race backing plate and funnel weigh sub 180 grams per side.

[eggman51]

Originally Posted by Westersund

Both I'm afraid, I made the funnel exit bigger to spread the air flow more. So the design of the new backing plate is adapted to that. The race backing plate and funnel weigh sub 180 grams per side.

But I could keep my intake ducts from the original kit, and use the new backing plates and funnels correct?

If so, how much for a set of the new backing plates and funnels? And shipping to V5K-2T9 Canada?

Cheers,
Eamonn aka eggman

[Westersund]

Originally Posted by eggman51

But I could keep my intake ducts from the original kit, and use the new backing plates and funnels correct?

If so, how much for a set of the new backing plates and funnels? And shipping to V5K-2T9 Canada?

Cheers,
Eamonn aka eggman

You can keep the original front dumper ducts. New race backing plates/funnels and shipping to Canada is 1452 SEK or 160$ (including PayPal exchange fee of 3% but excluding Buyers Protection).

[Westersund]

The original Z4 M bumper ducts were the second kit I designed and a guy in Sweden asked if I could smooth out the transition and he would buy a kit, gave it a try since I've learned some things along the way. Here's the outcome and the new front bumper ducts.










Picture of the new ducts with the mouting bracket, the supporting bottom "brace" to sandwich the duct is no longer needed.




A full kit with the new ducts and the race version of the backing plates. I have excluded the block off plates for the wheel wells since it's cheap to buy the ones from the regular Z4.

[wdb]

Do you take trade-ins?

[Westersund]

Originally Posted by wdb

Do you take trade-ins?

Do you mean trading in the old ones?

[tbhova]

I'm really interested in one of these kits!

I read through all the install threads, but I'm still a little concerned. My car is missing a few front trim pieces (salvage title repaired car). The OEM brake ducts are missing, fender liners are cracked but functional-ish, and the plastic piece between the fender liner and splash guard is also missing (51718046083/51718046084).

I saw Sliktop got aftermarket fender liners in https://www.zpost.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1712992 - but I'm not sure if this just because theirs were really bad.

It looks like I just need the OEM brackets 51717837531/51717837532 for mounting. Is this correct? Are any other plastic trim pieces required/recommended?

[Westersund]

Originally Posted by tbhova

I'm really interested in one of these kits!

I read through all the install threads, but I'm still a little concerned. My car is missing a few front trim pieces (salvage title repaired car). The OEM brake ducts are missing, fender liners are cracked but functional-ish, and the plastic piece between the fender liner and splash guard is also missing (51718046083/51718046084).

I saw Sliktop got aftermarket fender liners in https://www.zpost.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1712992 - but I'm not sure if this just because theirs were really bad.

It looks like I just need the OEM brackets 51717837531/51717837532 for mounting. Is this correct? Are any other plastic trim pieces required/recommended?

You're correct! No plastic trim pieces are needed to fit the kit per say, only the OE brackets you mentioned and the supplied brackets. But you want to cover up the holes in the fender liner with the covers from the regular Z4 and the parts numbers are:

51717056403
51717056404

[Westersund]

Gave the mesh inserts a refresh as well.








Also made hose holders for the shocks, both a horizontal and vertical version.

[Westersund]

It's been a while, but now the rear brake cooling is done! Had to switch supplier for the metal parts and that took a while. Rear brake cooling installed on my E46 M3 race car, should fit nicely on the E8X Z4 M platform as well as E36 M3.

Cut away as much as possible from the OE backing plates but kept a small part for structural rigidity.




Painted the backing plates in place as good as possible to avoid the edges from rusting.




My backing plates (adapters/heat shielding in reality) with the 3D-printed funnel. Don't mind the rough surface on the inside of the funnel, it's due to no supporting material and the shallow angle of the surface (will never be perfect with 3D-printing). All funnels will be printed with support but it won't be perfect on the inside anyway, but a lot better.








Parts for the rear intakes (forgot the support brace though). Painted all the metal parts to protect from rusting.




Fitment and don't forget to use loctite on all bolts/nuts!








Designed the kit in such a way you only have to remove 1 bolt at a time so you won't risk missaligning the toe angle.






Here you can see the support brace installed.




Finished result! Very pleased with it and I'm anxious to see how well it will perform on track. Rear brakes aren't as impactfull as the fronts when it comes to braking performance (at least with stock-ish brake setup/balance), but at least it will help a lot with pad and disc wear. On my race car it will help more because I've moved the brake balance more towards the rear.

[Westersund]

The rear brake cooling kit is now done! A complete kit will be priced at 2500 SEK which is about 265$, if you've bought a complete front brake cooling kit from me before or buy both a complete for the front and rear I will give you a discount of 500 SEK which is about 53$. As always no hose or hardware is included and the metal parts are not painted.

I can sell rear intakes (with brackets) and rear backingplates/funnels separately if someone wants that, the price is 1500 SEK (About 159$) for the intakes and 1000 SEK (About 106$) for the backing plates/funnels.

Since I had to change supplier for the metal parts I went from laser cutting to water cutting thus the metal parts will have minor surface rust/stains on them. A small issue since all metal parts have to be sanded before paint anyway.

Complete kit for the rear brakes:











Only intakes/brackets for the rear:







Only backing plates/funnels:







Some pictures from the install of a complete kit on my BMW E46 M3 (Repost):

I started off with cutting away everything off the OE backing plate I didn't need, just saved a bit due to structural reasons.




Painted the freshly cut edges of the backing plates to prevent them from rusting.




The backing plates and funnels. My funnels were the first ones to be printed and no support was used thus the rough finish on the inside. All funnels printed to customers will be printed using support and look a lot better on the inside.








Parts for the intakles, bent edges and dimple died holes. Just painted with a standard single stage metal paint to prevent them from rusting. The backing plates should be painted with heat resistant paint though.










The kit is designed in such a way that you only have to remove 1 bolt at a time for the RTAB holder to prevent toe changes.






Support brace.




Finished result!

[DelaDogg]

Hi, I'm after complete set up for the front, but i cannot find how to private message you. whats the process to getting a kit ordered?