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brake cooling ducts |
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Some experienced Lightning road racers are of the opinion that the brakes do not need ducts, especially my Brembos, but I want to be able to abuse the brakes without worrying. I just don't think you can be too careful with the braking capabilities of a 4,700 lb, 145 MPH vehicle. Plus, street-compound pads can fade when overheated on the track. If you don't want to run racing pads on your street car, ducts help you get by with street pads on the track.
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Unfortunately, when I started my project, no one made a ducting kit specifically for the Lightning. Here is how I did it: spindle ducts:
These photos are hopefully self-explanatory. |
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The Allstar spindle ducts would not fit with my 14" Brembo rotors, so a little cutting was in order. Step one was to cut off the portion of the stock dust shield that sticks out to catch the wind. I used a Dremel cut-off wheel (about a thousand of them to be precise) and took my time. I hindsight, clamping them to a table and using a jigsaw (air-powered would be best) would have been easier. Take a ball peen hammer and pound flat the little bump left in the middle of the line that you just cut. |
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But, since the stock dust shield is not flat, more has to be cut away to allow the spindle ducts to lay flat against the dust shields. So, the next step is to lay the cut Allstar duct onto the cut dust shield and determine what needs to be cut from the duct to all it to lay flat against the shield. I just used a Sharpie and drew the cut lines freehand. Any of the pressed-in ridges on the dust plate in contact with the duct should be pounded flat. |
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After the spindle ducts are cut, the air hole can them be scribed into the dust shields and that last cut made. I assembled the two pieces with rivets. The finished product:
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With the Brembo rotors, the inner edge of the rotor corresponds with the pressed-in radius marks on the dust shields (note that the spindle duct radius does not follow the rotor radius; you can just barely make out the pressed-in marks above the left bolt). While it is better to aim all of the air at the hub only, this was about as close as I could get using the Allstar ducts. |
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fog light openings: |
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For the foglight openings, some sort of adapter is needed to neck the 5" foglight holes down to the 3" hose. Fortunately, after much searching, I found the perfect adapters at, where else, Home Depot. They are Fernco PlumbQwik 4" to 3" rubber sewer pipe couplings (part # P1056-43). They are a pressure fit into the openings and have a nearly perfect ID on the other end for the 3" brake hose (see note below). |
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ducting: |
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The brake duct tubing just slips inside the couplings. The black neoprene hose (OD about 3.25") fits perfectly, but the orange hi-temp hose, which has a slightly smaller OD, is a sloppy fit. Now to figure out how to get back to the spindle ducts. It appears that the the major obstacle is getting the hose past the inside edge of the tires. It's a really tight squeeze getting past the tires when the steering is at full lock.
More measurement and thinking required. |
The
only Lightning-specific kit available is from
Many racers
simply tie-wrap an open hose end to the lower a-arm, generally
pointing to the rotors. I
was concerned about this arrangement on a daily driver, so I ordered the spindle ducts shown to the left
-- 
For
the Allstar ducts, you have to remove about 50% of the material.
The outer lip and the two flaps pointing
inward are removed, leaving just the flat backing plate. You
do not need to cut all the way through the material -- just cut
about halfway and use pliers to move the cut portion back and forth
until it snaps off.
In
this shot, you can see that only a small amount of the air is
hitting the rotor ring itself; most is going right where it's needed --
to the hub and center of the rotor, where the vanes can pick it up
and pump it through [the bolts shown were just for the mock-up].
The
bumper cover has to come off to get access to the fog light recesses.
Here is a shot of the bumper off. This is not required; the
bumper cover can be taken off by itself. I did it this way so
that I could get access to the area behind the bumper so that I could
install a remote transmission filter there. In this shot, you
can see the eight bolts which hold the bumper on. The
heat exchanger needs to be removed to get at the bolts.
Also visible are the four bolts which hold the bumper brackets on (the
bolts are embedded in the plastic dogbones between the two groups of
four bumper bolts). These are the bolts one loosens to adjust
the bumper up and down.
The bumper cover attaches with
four plastic tabs across the top edge -- two are visible and there are
two more hiding behind the rubber flap.
In
this shot, the middle tabs are shown. The rubber flap hanging
down is the flap under the transmission and power steering coolers
(same flap shown above). Just cut the heads off the pins that
hold this flap on and buy some new ones -- they are almost impossible
to remove without destroying them. There are plastic plugs which
go in these holes. Just pry out the center pins and the buttons
can be pulled right out. But you still need to pull the
intercooler to get at these. The only other attachments are
three tiny bolts on the back edge of the sides (the front edge of the
front wheel well).
I
also installed a Grillcraft lower grill while I had the bumper cover
off. In this shot, the attaching screws are being painted so
they don't show from the front.
This
shot shows the sewer couplings in place. I used a Dremel and a
cut-off wheel to remove the backs of the fog light holes. I went
in from the front, holding the end of the shaft against the flat part
to provide a guide. You want to cut off as little of the fog
light tubes as possible. I used a Dremel sanding drum to smooth
things out. I then shot a few coats of gloss black on the back
of the bumper cover -- this area is visible from outside the truck and
should have been painted from the factory.
The
couplings were then attached with a couple of self-tapping machine
screws. I used the band clamp to help center the couplings --
one band clamp width makes for a perfect fit in the front. The
couplings are a nice, tight fit -- the screws are just an
added measure of security. I am going to fabricate some grills
for the openings, so I will eventually have a long machine screw which
goes completely through both sides of the Fernco couplings so that I can secure the grills
with a piece of stainless safety wire.
Butler Built comes to the rescue -- they make
an