Best Drum Brake Upgrade?

[E21noob]

A question for the brake-guru's on here.

Over here you cannot legally rebuild your car in any way without going through a rather tiresome process with the authorities. This includes things like converting rear brakes from drum to disc. Not impossible, just annoying.

So given that I stay with the original 4 cyl drum setup, I'm sure there is a huge difference between the cheapest noname items, quality OEM items, and other manufacturers.

I've seen pics of cross-drilled drums. any point?

What is the best rear drum and shoes setup there is to be had?

Thoughts, links, ideas?

[Jeroen]

I wouldn't go through extremes. Get proper drums, Até or Brembo are abt 40 Euros each here, and combine that with good brake shoes like Ferodo Premier tgatcare also abt 40-50 a set. Fresh hoses and fluid, a leak check on the cylinders and it won't get much better with rear drums I expect.

[E21noob]

Solid and good parts suggestions and advice, but still pretty normal.

I'm just curious, if you were going to go in the direction of extremes, or - what could one find?

[Jeroen]

Hardly any improvements if any at all

[E21noob]

From your tone, it seems you are not very interested in this topic. I can respect that. But there is no need to shoot me down.

Just want to explore the topic and maybe gain some knowledge about what's out there.

So far, I have found that crossdrilling seems to be a semi-popular hotrod thing.

http://www.chtopping.com/CustomRod4/

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/thr ... ms.165001/

Also other ways of venting are common. Like adding a scoop to get air in. . Seem to be popular motorbike thing.

[Jeroen]

Has nothing to do with being interested or not, has to do with classic racing experiece. Hardly any increase in stopping power, the main gains are better heat dissipation which would only be an issue in competition use. And when used in competition, better do some laser temperature readings first to be sure you really have an issue as this is more an issue with front drums like on cars older than ours, as they do most of the work. Downside is that it is not advisable to use drilled drums in the wet. Feel free to completely ignore my comments though

[Jeroen]

By the way,did you check your F/R brake balance? You already confirmed you have issues there?

[ZenderE21]

invest in a set of good front brakes, they do all the work. Im finding hard to find volvo stuff here (in australia) that doesnt need full rebuilding so most likely will buy a set of front Willwoods and wait until a 323i rear end pops up.

You could look for an e28 rear end, e9 front 5 studs and go all out. Will give you discs both ends and also give you 5 stud hubs so opens up your choice of wheels and brakes a bit. Spend the money on engineering, drums are old tech and whilst do the job they are what they are and street use are fine. Dont modify the drums with drilling, they get wet or contaminated you may end up in a place you dont want to be.

[Jeroen]

Engineering starts with confirming the need for more stopping power at the back. Played with brake balance a lot and over 25% things can really become tricky haha

Btw believe there are several websites offering recon Volvo calipers? Haven't checked recently but there used to be enough of them around.

[Wilmo]

He's in Norge, so there should be plenty Volvo stuff around. And otherwise there is at the neighbours.