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This is a very easy, and cost effective upgrade for your non-turbo FC3S with standard brakes. Parts You'll Need
Getting Started Anytime you need to raise your car to work on it, do yourself a favor and by at least a pair of jackstands. They are made for holding up at least a couple of tons which, cinder blocks and rotten logs are not. If you don't have access to a pair or refuse to buy them for some strange reason, stop reading this. Be safe when you work on your car. Once your car is in the air, remove the wheels so you can inspect the existing calipers. Now is a good time to check out the existing brakes to look for leaks, grease easing out of suspension joints, etc. Normally, the underside of a fender is going to be the nastiest part of a car, but if one corner looks worse than the others, it's time to investigate why. Make sure and look at your shocks while you're under there. If they're wet with oil, this would be a good time to replace them. There are
two countersunk phillips head screws on each rotor holding it to the
spindle. Sometimes these come off with a sharp blow to the back of a
large phillips screwdriver, but if they don't budge after the second
hit - STOP. If you screw the head of these screws up, you'll have to
drill them out. Go call your mechanic buddies and see if they have an
"impact screwdriver." These make removing those screws very
easy. Sometimes it helps if you have someone in the car lightly applying
the brakes while you pop those screws loose. normally the rotors won't
turn much, but with the brakes applied, the screws will absorb a lot
more of the hit than if the rotors were allowed to spin. Once the screws are removed, go ahead and remove the brake lines from the calipers and let them drain. I chose to swap all calipers at the same time, you may choose to do one corner at a time. After they have drained, remove the two bolts holding each caliper on (17MM), and remove the calipers. Now that the calipers are off, you can remove the rotors. These usually come right off, but if they are stuck, strike them with a rubber mallet or place a piece of wood against the rotor and hit the wood to pop it off. The rear calipers have the emergency brake cable attatched, so losen the locknut holding them on and work the cable out of the bracket. On the front, you will need to use the TurboII style brake hoses. The calipers have different locations for the hose to attatch and will need to be swapped as well.
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The installation is basically the opposite of the removal. Everything bolts right up. Now is a good time to use some anti-sieze on the rotors (especially if yours were sticking), and make sure to use brake grease on your new pads so you won't have to avoid stares while squealing to a stop. I chose to paint my calipers to match my car before I put them on. This is very easy to do and really cheap. I used a couple of cans of Gumout Brake Cleaner and a wire brush to clean the calipers. Only use brake cleaner and not carburator cleaner on the calipers. Some people will tell you they are the same...they are not! Carburator cleaner leaves behind an oily residue that's good for carburators, but not brakes. Besides, it's quite difficult getting paint to stick to oil. Once the calipers are free of dirt and corrosion if they were used, tape off the pistons and all rubber parts carefully, and spray away! I used Tester's model paint for mine. It's actually a Boyd's color of Pearl Metallic Blue, which is a real close match to the Montego Blue that's on my car. You can also use the brush-on paint from Testers if you have the patience. The paint that I used was an enamel, so the more the calipers heat up, the harder the paint gets. Once they are dry, you can use some sandpaper or a dremel with a sanding drum to go over the "MAZDA" logo on the caliper for a nice touch. I went with a set of Bonez Race pads when I did my conversion, and I'm impressed with the stopping ability of the car. It previously had Bonez pads on the stock brakes, and with the new calipers/rotors it has definately reduced stopping distances. The pedal feel is a little funny. For the first few days, the pedal was real spongy and the day I was going to re-bleed it, the pedal felt rock-solid about mid-day so I checked the fluid level and haven't bothered bleeding them again. The pedal moves a touch more than it did before, but then again I am having to move more volume to make the calipers move the same distance. Make sure you bleed the brakes thoroughly and use D.O.T. approved fluids.
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