Wondering if I can install the ceramic brake discs and pads in the stock red calipers(steels)? I've read that you can convert the PCCBs to steels and wondering if the reverse is also true...


TIA

 

Steels are 350mm diameters and PCCBs are 380...

 

Porsche sells the spacer required for the front calipers.

 

Yes you can.calipers are the same except for colour.So paint them yellow to have a match...

 

Perfect, thanks for the reassurance! I actually prefer red calipers...

 

Let me know how it goes Johnny DB... Im actually looking to do the same once I find the perfect Turbo to buy...

 

It might be a while since I'm still looking for mine...

 

The Turbo steel brake rotors are 35cm in diameter & the PCCB rotors are 38cm in diameter. The Porsche adapter bracket you're referring to, actually will not work. This bracket was designed (by Porsche) to retrofit the Turbo with a PCCB kit. It's not that the red calipers will not work, actually they will but not with the use of this bracket. The distance between mounting bolts for PCCB calipers is different than that of the red calipers which were designed for the 35cm steel rotor. i.e. the red callipers will not fit onto the bracket, & PCCB calipers will.
What you require is a spacer between the wheel upright where you mount the caliper to accommodate the larger 38cm rotors, also required are longer mounting bolts available from Porsche. There's actually has a technical bulletin on this & I would be happy to share it if anyone wants more info.

 

I'd love to see the TB on this!

 

Here is the technical document.
The caliper mounting bolt spacing is different between the red & the PCCB.
Have a look at the adapter. It not only provides a 3cm space function to accommodate the larger rotors it also has wider bolt spacing.

 

If you go by the retrofit guide from porsche ok...However if your car has steel brakes and you just buy pccb disks and pads (380front) you can easily install them with the same calipers...All you need are 4 X 18mm spacers plus longer bolts by 18mm and you will be fine at front...Rears are simply bolt on...just replace disks and pads.A brake shop will do easily the job for you in order to save you from buying and swapping calipers...By having a look at pccb Vs steel pads you can see they have the exact same sizes...so they fit perfect in both calipers...diameter of pistons are the same in both calipers so the applied force is by definition the same...I really cant find another reason for difference...
P.S. Porsche sells two types of 6 piston calipers...the first one bolts directly to 996TT-997TT while the other needs adapters to fit to 996TT-997TT but bolts perfect on Cayenne...Maybe porsche thought to slowly end up production of early design yellow calipers and wants to have only one type available...

 

Guys! The idea propagated above that you can take the Porsche 6 piston calipers (Gen1 with 146mm bolt spacing) and just space them out to accommodate 380mm rotors (either PCCB or steel) is unequivocally 100% FALSE!!!

I run the 997.2 PCCB brakes with 380/350 steels on my car and have been through the whole conversion saga myself. The reason I know you can't just space out the 146mm calipers is the fact that I tried to do this exact thing by using spacers on the 146mm calipers to accept a 380mm rotors. To my amazement I found out that it WILL NOT WORK! The problem with the 146mm bolt space calipers is the fact that they will not space out radially (but rather at an angle) due to the location of their mounting lugs. The mounting lugs are not symmetrically located relative to the center line of the caliper while on the 225mm calipers they are. As a result, as you try to space out the 146mm calipers, they will impact the brake rotor at lower portion of the caliper. This caliper can only be used with a 350mm rotor but you could possibly go with up to 5mm spacers before running into interference issues. This would allow the use of 360mm rotors if anyone made them. It's hard to explain this unless you try to do this, but take a look at both the 146 and 225 caliper and look at the mounting lugs. The light bulb might come on.

THE ONLY WAY TO CONVERT A CAR TO GO FROM 350mm ROTORS TO 380mm ROTORS IS TO USE THE 997.2 PCCB CALIPERS THAT HAVE THE 225mm BOLT SPACING. To put these on a 997TT you MUST use the OEM Porsche Brembo adapter bracket (997.351.505.02) that is used on the 997TT PCCB cars. The bracket allows a 225mm caliper to be bolted to the 146mm 997TT upright. This is the bracket pictured below.

As far as calipers go, with the 380mm rotors, you can either use the 997.2 yellow PCCB 997TT calipers (225mm spaced) or the 997.2 yellow (or red) GT3 (225mm spaced) calipers. The only difference is the fact that the piston area is less on the GT3 versions thus shifting the brake bias further towards the rear and also giving you a harder brake pedal as a byproduct. GT3 pistons sizes are 28/30/32 while the 997TT pistons are 28/32/36. The 997TT 146mm spaced caliper piston sizes are even slightly larger at 28/32/38.

Hope this settles a lot of armchair quarterbacking and saves people some time and aggravation...

 

Well...i dont have any reason to write false information...but since you are the expert and i am the liar please have a look at some photos...i believe you can identify 380mm pccb disk and 997,1TT steel caliper painted yellow...Once again i will tell you i ve done it...you just need to add spacers to move out the caliper in order to fit 380mm disk...on my next opportynity to lift the car i will take photos from the inside of the calipers to see spacers...the key is not to add spacers of 15mm (30mm/2) but 18mm...maybe you tried 15mm and hadnt enough clearance at low end of caliper...

 

photos...
P.S. you wrote " The problem with the 146mm bolt space calipers is the fact that they will not space out radially "
did you think that 996TT can use both 4 and six piston calipers?both are 146mm...but red are for 330mm and yellow for 350mm steel or pccb...how do they space out radially at that difference?

 

Please post a picture of your caliper/380 combo without the wheel, front and back. I'm dying to see this. Thank you.