How-To Install Stainless Steel Brake Corporation's Force 10 V8 - 8 Piston Aluminum Brake Caliper
Ford has built the ultimate pick up truck of the millennium, and has chosen an iconic name that depicts it perfectly - the Super Duty. The Ford F-250 and F-350 caters to all the needs of full-size truck owners. You have those that use it as a work horse, towing a fifth wheel or goose neck trailer with a gross combined vehicle weight (GCWR) of 31,100 pounds; guys lifting it sky high with Bigfoot sized rolling stock; and those with dropped on airbags, laying frame with 26" wheels. Despite these trucks being all across the spectrum, they have one thing in common: they have to STOP!
When it's time get serious about stopping, Stainless Steel Brake Corporation's (SSBC) Force 10 V8 front Quick Change aluminum caliper upgrade kit is definitely the way to go. The kit comes with the front brakes with custom machined 8-piston calipers, brake pads, and all the necessary hardware. The calipers come pre-loaded, and with the brake pads already installed. So all you have to do bolt them on to your Super Duty, bleed them, and away you go!
SSBC did their homework when they designed the Force 10 V8 calipers. They are designed to bring a lot of truck to a halt without any distress. There is four times the number of pistons per corner, bringing the total to eight pistons per caliper. The fixed caliper design gets rid of the problematic sliding pins (more on that later). Having the calipers machined in aluminum means that they weigh about half as much as the stock calipers, reducing unsprung weight. And the best part is that they fit inside the stock sized 16" wheels - so for you dually guys out there, you don't have to up-size your wheels to benefit from the improved braking system.
For the factory brakes, Ford selected a floating caliper design. This is where the caliper has two pistons located on the inboard side of the caliper. Since force must be applied equally to both sides of the rotor, the floating caliper must able to actuate a brake pad on both the inner and outer rotor surface. The caliper is bolted to the mount with special pins, and the caliper slides back and forth on sleeves or bushings. These pins must be properly maintained with high temperature grease, otherwise they rust and seize, reducing the effectiveness of the brakes. All of full size truck manufacturers use this type of braking system for two reasons: 1.) it has fewer moving parts, and 2.) it is more "cost effective" (read: cheaper) to manufacture.
Now, to get into the technical details, the factory caliper uses two 54 mm pistons in the floating caliper setup. This results in a total of 4,578 mm2 of piston area. The Force 10 V8 calipers employ eight pistons, each measuring 40 mm - giving us a total of 10,048 mm2. Maintaining the identical brake fluid pressures, that results in more than twice the clamping force on the rotors!!! (If we dig back to our trusty physics books, we know that pressure (P - psi) equals force (F - pounds) divided by area (A - square inches), or P=F/A. If we rewrite the equation, F=PA. And since the "P" in our case is brake fluid pressure, which remains the same as stock, and with more than double the brake piston area, that means we've got more than twice the braking force in the front!) And with an array of 4 pistons on each side, the braking force is better distributed over the area of the rotor, instead of localizing it on one part of the rotor. This keeps the brakes cooler, and prevents the rotors from warping. Imagine trying to stop a spinning bicycle tire with a single finger as opposed to using your palm - you reduce the likelihood of nearly burning the tip of your finger, it stops faster. The photos of the installed calipers show that they consume nearly one-third of the swept area of the rotor!
Now in this application, we are trying to slow down a lifted Super Duty with 40 inch tires. Additionally, the tires are mounted on 20 inch wheels. The challenges faced in stopping this vehicle is twofold - decreased mechanical advantage by putting the tread further away from the hub and the addition of tons of mass to the outside area rolling stock. The analogy I would use in this case is trying to stop a tiny merry-go-round (stock wheel/tire combo) compared to another one twice the size with linebackers hanging off the side (20" wheel and 40" tire combo). That's a lot to do for the stock braking system, wouldn't you agree? Well, SSBC has the solution! A quick trip to their website revealed the Force 10 V8 calipers, and you have an option of a few different powdercoat colors to boot! Not only can you select a color to match the vehicle, but powder-coating the calipers makes cleaning the rotors a cinch! Those of you with wire brushes for your calipers know how difficult it is to remove cooked-on dust and dirt from a rough, cast surface.
The following installation walks you through installation of SSBC's aftermarket calipers. Since the rotors showed signs of wear (there was a nice groove machined into the middle of the swept surface) this was the perfect opportunity to kill two birds with one stone - so the stock rotors were ditched in favor for a set of slotted rotors from Powerslot. Now remember, after installing and bleeding the calipers, you have to bed-in the brakes as well. The ** bed-in procedure establishes that compatibility between the pad and rotor.
What's the conclusion? The calipers ROCK. Braking distance has decreased dramatically. Pedal feel and modulation has increased. Now you can actually feel when the brakes are about to lock up. Wait, did I mention locking up the brakes? Yep, that was nearly impossible to do with the stock calipers. You really didn't need ABS, as the stock calipers could not lock up the brakes when used in conjunction with the 40 inch tires! Now, the truck is within it's capabilities to stop, and once again, you can feel the ABS system work flawlessly with SSBC's Force 10 V8 calipers. All said and done, it took longer for me to remove and install the tires than actually changing out the calipers! This setup is definitely recommended for those who need super stopping power for their Super Duty!
Special thanks to Mark Christensen at SSBC.
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