Part 1 of our How To Upgrade 240SX Brakes will be looking at the front brake upgrades that are most common to the Nissan 240SX. In stock form your 240SX has undersized brakes that make braking an area that you must upgrade when adding power.
Whether or not you are swapping a LS1, 2JZGTE or RB25DET into your 240SX, upgrading your brakes is never a bad idea.
To kick off our How To Upgrade 240SX brakes writeup, we’ll start with the standard 300ZX brake upgrade. The first of the 240SX “big brake upgrades” using stock components. The Nissan 300ZX turbo (Z32) comes with a variety of brake pads, depending on year and trim.
Let’s take a look at the differences between S13, S14 and the 300ZX turbo.
The 300ZX brake calipers up front are an easy and straightforward way to improve your braking power, without the need to break the bank. Your stock 240SX rotors check in at a 9.8″ vented rotor and single piston calipers. With the 300ZX caliper upgrade, you will be stepping up to an 11″ rotor with four total pistons.
If you have already purchased your 300ZX brake calipers, you can simply move onto the next step of our how to upgrade 240SX brakes article. If you are still on the market for said calipers, there’s a few versions of it that you should know.
- The smallest of the Z32 calipers is the 1990 non-turbo version. This is a 26mm piston with Aluminum calipers allowing for a lightweight alternative. These calipers use a 280mm x 26mm rotor.
- The next step up is the 1990 TT and 1991-1992 300ZX non turbo and turbo caliper. This is also an aluminum unit and measures 30mm. This rotor is a tad bigger with a 280mm x 30mm measurement.
- Next is the first of our iron calipers, which is found on 1992-1996 Z32s, regardless of turbo or non turbo designation. This 30mm piston features a 280mm x 30mm rotor to bring things to a halt.
Last on our 300ZX section of the How to upgrade 240SX brakes is the installation portion of our how to. As with all of our writeups and guides, if you are not comfortable working on your own vehicle. stop now and take your car to an experienced ASE certified mechanic.
Jack up your vehicle and secure it safely, and remove the wheel you want to start with in question.
- Next on our how to upgrade 240SX brakes guide, we’ll be sliding on the new rotors and mounting the calipers. Mount your calipers and put back the 19mm bolts that hold it onto your hub assembly.
- Make sure the rotor is flush against the hub before you mount your caliper. You may need a caliper separation tool to get it over the rotor, but without hydraulic pressure this should be very easy to do.
- Double check that you have the brake calipers orientated the correct way, with the nipple facing upwards.
- Depending on your calipers, you may or may not have the plate that many Z32 brake hardlines run to. This plate makes sure the brake line does not spin or rotate out of the grooves or brake caliper tabs.
If you do not have this plate, not to fret as you can convert to a stainless brake line to resolve your problems.
The brake caliper is a 12mmx1.25 fitting and you can convert the brake line on your 240SX using a brake adapter fitting. This fitting comes in many different varieties and through many different manufacturers, we like the Russell 65702, which is a 10mm female -3 AN to banjo straight.
You can then incorporate a Russell 68272 or Aeroquip FCM2945 – -3 male to 10mm x 1.0 inverted flare to go to the front brake.
Then all you will need is a 12mmx1.25 to female stainless AN, or have a custom made line cut that will terminate in a female -3 AN and the 12mmx1.25 male 90 degree.
- 300zx Master Cylinder
- Centric Carbon Brake Rotors for EVO
- Evolution X Brake Calipers
- Skullworks Evo VIII caliper brackets
- x2 Russell part number 65702 – banjo straight to 10mm female -3
- x2 Aeroquip FCM2945 – -3 male to 10mm x 1.0 inverted flare
- DOT 3 or DOT 4 brake fuild
- 17mm, 19mm, 14mm socket and open ended wrenches.
- 10 mm flare wrench
Now that your Evolution 8 rotor is flush mounted onto your 240sx, you can now slide on the caliper and bolt on the caliper bracket. If you own an older bracket style, modify your calipers before this step.
Make sure your caliper is fitted with the bleed screw pointing upwards, you will need to connect the brake lines to the caliper using our fitting chart. You can also carefully bend the stock brake line to connect to your Evolution 8 calipers. Make sure you take your time bending and double check for any kinks or leaks.
If you haven’t guessed already, your stock 240SX rims will not fit over these monsters. You will need at least a 17 inch rim with plenty of clearance, or simply opt for a 18×8.5 +25 offset upfront like these ADR rims.
This rim is a good budget cast unit from ADR, called MClassics and should run you only 125 dollars or so per rim. This =25 offset gives you just enough clearance, although we recommend running a 10mm spacer up front for just a bit more room.
Reconnect the banjo fitting into your Evo 8 caliper and connect the -3 AN termination to the inverted flare fitting on your vehicle. Make sure to slide the stock C clip back into the brake line to secure it safely.
- 46010-30P01 Manufacture date 2/89 – 7/90 (17/16″ NA Tokico)
- 46010-30P02 Manufacture date 7/89 – 7/90 (17/16″ TT Tokico)
- 46010-30P02 Manufacture date 7/90 – 2/91 (17/16″ NA & TT Tokico)
- 46010-30P10 Manufacture date 2/89 – 7/90 (15/16″ NA Nabco non-ABS)
- 46010-30P21 Manufacture date 2/89 – 7/90 (17/16″ NA Nabco)
- 46010-30P22 Manufacture date 7/89 – 7/90 (17/16″ TT Nabco)
- 46010-30P22 Manufacture date 7/90 – 2/91 (17/16″ NA & TT Nabco)
- 46010-45P00 Manufacture date 9/91 – 9/93 (1″ NA TT Tokico)
- 46010-45P00 Manufacture date 2/91 – 9/91 (1″ NA & TT Tokico)
- 46010-45P20 Manufacture date 9/91 – 9/93 (1″ NA & TT Nabco)
- 46010-45P20 Manufacture date 9/93 – Up (1″ NA & TT Nabco)
All world braking power now available to you at a fraction of the cost, this concludes our How To Upgrade 240SX Brakes article. Please leave us any comments or questions below. Make sure to check in for Part 2 where we tackle the master cylinder and everything related to it.
Happy drifting!
Awesome information on this page thanks. took me 2 hours to complete this job not counting the bleeding. quick tip tho, I tried connecting the stock s14 line to the back of the caliper and it seemed to work fine.
Thanks for reading Haley, yes the stock S14 lines can go to the back of the caliper so long as you have the mount plates. if you are going straight into the back of the caliper, it can become undone due to the banjo bolt.
Thanks for reading and commenting!
using a skullworks version 1 type adapter for my evo setup, do I need to grind away some material to get it to fit? i have evo x fronts
Hi Brandon, if you are using EVO X front calipers you will need to grind away significantly in the middle of the bracket to mount the X calipers.
Thanks for reading and commenting!
How do you mount the rears on I got Evo x rears
Hi Chris, there’s a couple of ways to go about this.. You can use an adapter if you are keeping the S14 rear spindle, or switch to a 300ZX rear upright and simply shave the rear caliper to fit in a few areas. The Subaru STI rear caliper is a bolt on solution if you are using the Z32 rears.
Thanks for commenting and let us know how it turns out!