I plan to track my ST a few times a year and after reading on the forum about the brakes being a trouble spot, I decided to figure out a cooling system.
Let me start by saying this was more about a fun project to creatively solve end experiment, and not a cost effective way of going at it.
I wanted to keep the Fog lights, and I couldn't find a good place in the black grill area that would work for ducting.
The area behind the fog light bezel is hollow and would work well to run ducting to the front wheels. I bought the Ford Racing brake cooling kit for a '07-'09 SVT Mustang ( part# M-2004-A) to use for parts. I know there are cheaper ways to get parts, this kit was on Ebay for $115, I'm good with that.
I decided to cut holes in the Fog light cover area. This meant that I would cut holes between the ridges on the bezels, and then one large hole in the bumper.
After removing the bumper cover, I separated the foglight bezels from the cover.
The bezels are held in by 3 clips around the light and 5 clips behind the ridge part. I used a flat head screw driver to separate the clips and push them out of the bumper.
After marking the back of the bumper I cut out the oval, I decided that I would sacrifice one of the 5 clip fasteners in order to create a larger opening.
Cutting the bezel was fairly easy. I marked the back of the bezel and drilled a few holes as guides. To actually cut the panels out I used a 18v Speed Saw and brought the bit up through the guide holes while holding the bezel.
I reattached the bezels to the bumper cover, they snapped in and the missing clip didn't seem to make a difference.
Now here's the part you're all going to laugh at…. I attached oval funnels to the back of the bumper cover with zip-ties!
The idea here is that because the ducting is only 2.5" diameter, and the bezels are interrupting the air flow, I thought a larger scoop up front would grab more air. The large "scoop" of air had to channeled down to the ducts, so there you go… Pep Boys funnel.
Ok, stop giggling. :-)
The funnel opening was cut to the diameter of the ducting, attached with zip-ties, then run back to the brakes.
A couple stumbling blocks. When I reattached the front, I noticed the horn assembly was in the way. I took that apart and moved it further back on the Passenger side near the washer fluid tank. I had to bend the bracket to get both horns on. Rerouting the power cable was simple.
The ducting runs just fine on the driver side, but on the passenger side where it runs through the engine bay, the ducting is very close to the engine pulleys and belts. I decided to zip-tie the ducting to the plastic shield. This seems to secure the ducting and provide a minimum clearance from the flywheel. *This is something I'm going to check for rubbing after 100 miles.
After removing the wheels and brakes I pulled of the brake shield. The only place that the ducts can connect is just behind the drive shaft.
I removed the shields and took them to a local metal shop. They were able to cut the and weld the duct attachments from the Mustang kit to the ST's shields. In this location the hole puts most of the air into the center of the rotor. It's probably 70/30 air into center / side of rotor.
There was a small piece of metal that I had to grind off in order for the new shields to fit.
Now I just had to bolt everything back together and secure the ducting with zip-ties. I also was concered about rubbing around the wheels and suspension components. After putting the wheels back on, I did my best to check clearances. As the wheels turn the ducting seemed to bunch up a little too much, I used 5 zip-ties in the wheel well area to keep the ducting in place. Another thing to check after a few miles.
I tracked the car at Willow Springs raceway in souther CA. I covered up the air inlets upfront with tape and ran the track for 20 minutes. My stock brake rotors got up to 570 degs and were smoking when I got back to the pits. The next session I pulled the tape and let the ducting do some cooling work. Once back in the pits, the rotors read 480 degrees. So thee was some cooling, although I was hoping for more that 100 degs.
Above pics shows IMO, how the cuts in the fog bezels are not that obvious.
I will report back once I get a chance to test out this setup. I may also switch the ducting to 2" diameter where it runs through the engine bay.
That's the setup so far, I'll update this post as I make more tweaks.