Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Brakes Brake swap

Alright, i've been searching in the past post and found a few things. I wanna know what is better in terms of performance and cost between swapping my 4 wheel disc brakes from my SE 99 for either FSVT or SVT Tour. I'm gonna have the SVT tour 16'' rims. I can have all the parts from the dealer Ford where i work, propably for a good price. I wanna know if do one or the other swapping if i'll hve to change brake lines and fluid.

Thanks for commments.

Nic.

What a loaded question. There are a ton of ways to look at this.

I'd say take the larger diameter rotor of the bunch. But only if it has the thickest cheeks if it's only slightly larger.

Take the caliper with the smallest piston diameter for improved feel, but only if it offers the better choice of pads.

Take the pads which offer the widest selection of compounds, but avoid them if they are too thin or smaller in surface area and don't last as long.

Without saying; keeping the balance of front to rear changees in check to not toss the bias to the wind, all the while clearing the wheel you plan to use without undo fabrication requirements.

Lastly;

Take the ones costinng the least of course. That way if it dosen't pan out to be as effective as you think it will (which for track use it won't) you'll be a prime customer for some real parts!

Wasn't that easy?

The Contour SVT conversion works very well and is much less expensive since you can keep your old calipers and buy caliper brackets and rotors.

You will get better brakes with the Focus SVT conversion, but it will cost a lot more since you must buy rotors and calipers. Brackets arn't needed since they are part of the caliper, but you will need to pay attention to properly spacing the caliper out a little.

You can save even more money with the Contour SVT system if you hit the wrecking yards for the brackets. Look for a 99 and newer Cougar, but make sure it is one with the larger brakes (almost all of them have the larger brakes). Get the spare tire and wheel from the Cougar as well since your stock spare will not fit over the bigger brakes.

You will also have a much wider pad selection with the Contour SVT system.

Just to double check what you guys told me. If i wanna go for a SVT Tour i'll need to replace caliper brackets and rotor/pads, but i could use the same calipers?!

And if i wanna go for the FSVT setup i'll need to replace rotor/pads and calipers (which they came with the brackets ???), plus i'll need to buy spacers which i read earlier that i can buy from home depot for a reasonnable price.

And what about rear brakes? Same thing?

I check specifications from Ford for a 99 tour. Disc diameter 278mm, piston diameter 60mm, but it didn't said if it was for standard brake or SVT whicj i think is standard. I'm gonna check tomorrow at work to see if i can found something.

Will it be a good think to replace calipers if i swap for a svt tour setup? i can have those from a smash svt

I know that's a lot guys.

Thanks you in advance.

Nic.

pretty sure all rear disk brakes are the same to any car

Rear disc brakes are the same, SVT or non SVT. There are some that have converted their rear drums over to disc and there is a how to for that. Not many have attempted to install larger rear discs.

Contour SVT front discs are 278 mm. Non SVT is 260 mm. The late SVT uses the same caliper as the non SVT. The early SVT uses a completely different caliper that also has a different caliper bracket. It might be slightly better, but if it is, it is only slightly better and not worth the difference in cost. There is no advantage in replacing your existing front calipers with late SVT calipers since they are exactly the same.