Topic: Q: Dust Shields for my front disc brakes. Do I need them?
Hi:
I'm prepping my 95 Thunderbird LX 3.8L for the 24 hours of Lemons and after getting the SS lines and PBR calipers installed on the car and working without any issues, one of my next projects is to install front brake ducts.
My front bumper has two gaps that are in the right position for the brake intake ducts so now I'm just thinking about how to direct the air towards the brakes themselves.
I've seen two DIYs on such a project and both suggest
a) using high temp silicone flex ducting (a little more pricey)
b) attaching said ducting to the dust shields to force air into the side of the rotors.
On the tbird, the dust shields ARE removable but attached to the car w/ 3 rivets so reattaching them to the car if I pull them off isn't going to be super easy. The Ford service manual says rather ominously "do not bend or adjust the dust shields" for some reason.
A friend of mine suggested just removing the dust shields altogether and running cheaper plastic drainage or aluminum dryer vent ducting and just ziptieing it so that the air is directed at the discs but perhaps far enough away to not be affected by the excess heat the rotors may be dissipating under track conditions.
Q: Is this a bad idea?
Do I need the dust shields for anything besides dust protection (which I don't care about anyway)?
I did search and the only two threads that mentioned dust shields had the following comments
- one dude with an e30 just pulled them off the front and "bent them open" on the rears. Open where?
- in a second thread another guy was asking about brake backing plates on drum brakes and someone replied that the dust shields (for disc brakes) have an added bonus of protecting from rocks on offroad excursions. Considering we are an all rookie team, this is a possibility...
Thanks in advance for your advice.
-g
2017 Sears Pointless Organizer’s Choice
Frito Making Tbird from 2018 Sears Pointless Engine Heat BBQ - http://goo.gl/csaet4