Brake Servo and Master Cylinder

Russell

Club Member
As many will know, I am currently converting my 260z to 1jz and this involves a huge amount of custom work. I am also trying to do it on a reasonably tight budget.
Whilst stripping the car we realised that the brake master cylinder and the servo had pretty much had it so we might as well change it for a bigger, more modern one.
The Brakes themselves are not being upgraded at the same time but will be within a year or so of it being back on the road.

I have seen the BM44 Master Cylinder and Servo from a Skyline fitted which just needs the mounting holes and clevis modifying. The issue with this is that because they have the word "Skyline" in the title, they are expensive.

Then there is the Hilux one. Mighty Car mods are using one from a Hilux but I have no information as to which model/year etc.

Which leads me to my question that I hope someone can help with before I have a bit of an experiment -

What are my options for a cheap and effective master cylinder and servo? I want it to be able to support upgraded brakes in the future.
- Location of brake line connections isn't too important as i'm running new lines.
- Mounting holes not too important as long as they don't foul on anything in the car I can drill new holes.
- Modification of "things" to connect to the brake pedal isn't the end of the world (throttle pedal being cut up anyway)

Any and every suggestion welcome
 

IbanezDan51

Well-Known Forum User
Upgrade to a later brake servo and stick a tilton mastercylinder on. Worked fine with my 4 pot brembo fronts and twin pot rears.

Dan
 

Russell

Club Member

I have seen that but it still uses a Servo from a 30 year old car, likely to be pretty expensive and hard to source.

My thoughts were more along the lines of getting something out of a scrapped Nissan Primera or something for £30 and make it fit.
Surely even the most basic modern one would do a better job than a 280zx one? Cars are heavier, generally have disks on the rear etc. now

I don't know what the "gotchas" are though. ABS/Non-ABS? Master Cylinder size and outputs? Pedal Travel?
 

AliK

Vehicle Dating Officer
Staff member
Club Member
So, I would say given how light the car is, you don't need anything designed for a much heavier car unless you add ABS - which would be a great feature given the power you are aiming for.

I did the Toyota Hilux conversion with the S12W callipers and Pug 505 vented front discs - the car was transformed and I would say it brakes 90% as well as both my Audis (losing 10% for lack of ABS). Despite having 2x 280zx M/Cs I kept the 15/16 master cyl, which produces more braking force and more pedal travel. I actually quite like the extra travel as it makes heel to toeing even easier. I've read the more modern Wilwood 1" isn't as good as the 280zx M/C as it's not got as nice a balance.

This would cost you £80 delivered for a new reman item ...
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/232683066396

Being the master tinkerer, are you considering a potential ABS solution?
 

Jimbo

1978 260z in yellow
Club Member
why not have a look at bmw, vw or audi master cylinder pretty much any can be made to fit you just need to match up the master cylinder diameter to suit, the bigger the diameter the more fluid it will push.
 

AliK

Vehicle Dating Officer
Staff member
Club Member
[QUOTE="Jimbo, post: 273252, member: the bigger the diameter the more fluid it will push.[/QUOTE]

But surely also less pressure; as you are increasing the surface area. I.e.

Pressure = Force / area

So if you go more than 1" your pedal will need to be pressed a lot harder to achieve the same brake fluid pressure.
 

240Z Man

Well-Known Forum User
I have seen people using the Toyota Hilux servo but the one I would go for is a 300 ZX turbo master cylinder and servo
 

Jimbo

1978 260z in yellow
Club Member
[QUOTE="Jimbo, post: 273252, member: the bigger the diameter the more fluid it will push.

But surely also less pressure; as you are increasing the surface area. I.e.

Pressure = Force / area

So if you go more than 1" your pedal will need to be pressed a lot harder to achieve the same brake fluid pressure.[/QUOTE]
you are correct if you only change the master cylinder
you will end up with less pressure if you use the origenal datsun servo so you will need to use the corrosponding servo to go with the bigger cylinder to give you the same if not more pressure.
this is why you only have to breathe on modern brakes to be shot through the windscreen thanks to oversize servos.
i have a mk4 master cylinder and servo in my vw scirocco which took the master cylinder from 19mm to 22mm diameter a common conversion, the servo is 1 inch bigger diameter and gives better braking with a firmer pedal so less pedal travel due to more fluid pushed.
 

Russell

Club Member
Looks like I am going for a Hilux Surf one. For the sole reason that a friend of mine is breaking one.

Will see if I can get the Brake Calipers at the same time.
 

LiamR

Club Member
Did you manage to get it to fit? I too saw the episode of MCM and spoke to turbo Yoda who told me that it was from a Hilux but from like a 92/93 I believe. If you pause the MCM video and do an Ebay search for Hilux MasterCyl and Servo you can see which one looks the same.

Dont think they were TOO expensive tbh.
 

Russell

Club Member
Did you manage to get it to fit? I too saw the episode of MCM and spoke to turbo Yoda who told me that it was from a Hilux but from like a 92/93 I believe. If you pause the MCM video and do an Ebay search for Hilux MasterCyl and Servo you can see which one looks the same.

Dont think they were TOO expensive tbh.

Hi Liam,

Honestly not even had the chance to go and get the Hilux one. I saw the MCM episode as well which gave me confidence.

I will put more thought into it but ultimately under the bonnet is ending up so modified that I can find space for anything to fit so will keep my eye out. There is probably some mathematical formula out there somewhere to work out the best servo/master cylinder size based on callipers and weight of the car.
 

Russell

Club Member
Will update once I have checked it over and bolted it on but I went and bought a non ABS R33 Skyline master cylinder and Servo.

I took so long getting round to sorting out the Hilux one, the car it was in was scrapped.

Will work out the callipers at a later date.
 

Russell

Club Member
Finally got round to looking at this again.

I have a servo and master cylinder from an R33 Skyline.

The main challenge being that the PCD of the studs are totally different.

I found someone online had fitted one to a 240z and was able to utilise the bottom two original holes, however it appears that the 260z is different to we can’t use any of the holes.

Firstly made a template for the car and one for the servo
91841e9d268226362aa546992d9cb74b.jpg


Jumped on my laptop and drew them out
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Pressed print to make sure they were correct
936f8c0017b88899bcf99433d1e5d6cc.jpg

fa6e9ae00cd3a3a1ebb3206e3a2ec17f.jpg


Back to laptop, merge them together and press print again
d1dae8d0e1b9d3bb664c45e5d2cd157d.jpg


Hoping to drag the car out of the garage today to drill the holes which should be perfect based on my over complicated template. I can bolt it on with the original top two holes to make sure the pedal box assembly is lined up as well.

One of the holes will foul on the pedal box so just need to work that out as well.


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