Wilwood Brake upgrade 6 piston fixed review

[TomDirt]

i keep saying it but i found it very odd they said to add red on something youd remove as part of maintenance with a torch.
someone mentioned lawyer speak but even then its just crazy

Fixed it.

 

[Old-Raptor-guy]

The instructions are pretty straight forward. If you have done brakes before, it is a snap. If you are handy, then you will be able to do the work. You remove the calipers, pull the dusk shield off and add all the new rotors and calipers. The only thing I worried about was the wheel weight placement but the weights were not in an area which would cause contact. I would recommend you get the wheels balance before you do the work but you can simple see if you have an wheel weights in line with the stock calipers. I even added SS brake lines and did a fluid flush at the same time. Oh and I would not use the Red locktite they mention to use, I used 1 drop of blue.

i keep saying it but i found it very odd they said to add red on something youd remove as part of maintenance
someone mentioned lawyer speak but even then its just crazy

There are two different red loctite formulas. One is high strength, the other is high HEAT.
Use the loctite it came with. As someone who does about a dozen or more brake jobs a week caliper mounting bolt work loose a lot. We find missing caliper bolts a couple times a month. And a caliper missing both bolts being held on by just the wheel (rubbing on the inside of the barrel) 2 - 3 times a year.

Also, even if it is the high strength formlua a good impact will remove the bolt without heat. The holding power of the loctite is determined somewhat by the diameter of the bolt. With smaller bolts needing heat purely because the holding power of the loctite can be greater the shear force required to snap the bolt off. The caliper bolts are rather large and OEM torque spec on the bolts that hold the caliper bracket on is 184 lbft, with loctite.

 

[Donovan]

This is excellent to hear.

I may purchase some later this year after I refresh the tranny, rebuild the suspension and cry.

 

[Badgertits]

Interesting, curious what was the cost? I’m gonna be 10000% honest here & just say that the review you gave of that will wood setup could be entirely transposed into my own experience “upgrading” the OEM brakes w/ power stop Z36 truck/tow kit- definitely not fancy 6 piston calipers, but I’m saying almost verbatim to my own experience towing a 2500 lbs dual PWC trailer & every other type of driving over the course of nearly 70k on my 2020

Not trying to take away from the willwood hardware at all I’m sure it’s good, BUT at the end of the day these are overpowered heavy ass soft sprung Baja trucks w/ gigantic heavy wheels/tires, there’s a lot working against you having good braking performance regardless of the caliper/rotor/pad setup.

All that being said…I DO have personal experience w/ willwood brakes having their aero6 calipers on the front of my heavily modded 3200 lb C5Z vette….that lightweight sports car w/ wide-ass sticky tires & the original OEM equipment being relatively puny….yeah, you can for SURE feel/experience a very tangible improvement over the stock setup. I can actually get the ABS to kick on once in a while even! Lol

Lastly…from what I can tell this willwood kit is a direct bolt-on factory replacement so if I was gonna splurge would definitely be for those vs the “doesn’t not require any modification but actually does require pretty extensive modification” alcons

 

[Nesc204]

@Badgertits How much is the Power stop kit? The Wil wood from what I've seen on there website is around 1,700 bucks

 

[MRV99]

Interesting, curious what was the cost? I’m gonna be 10000% honest here & just say that the review you gave of that will wood setup could be entirely transposed into my own experience “upgrading” the OEM brakes w/ power stop Z36 truck/tow kit- definitely not fancy 6 piston calipers, but I’m saying almost verbatim to my own experience towing a 2500 lbs dual PWC trailer & every other type of driving over the course of nearly 70k on my 2020

Not trying to take away from the willwood hardware at all I’m sure it’s good, BUT at the end of the day these are overpowered heavy ass soft sprung Baja trucks w/ gigantic heavy wheels/tires, there’s a lot working against you having good braking performance regardless of the caliper/rotor/pad setup.

All that being said…I DO have personal experience w/ willwood brakes having their aero6 calipers on the front of my heavily modded 3200 lb C5Z vette….that lightweight sports car w/ wide-ass sticky tires & the original OEM equipment being relatively puny….yeah, you can for SURE feel/experience a very tangible improvement over the stock setup. I can actually get the ABS to kick on once in a while even! Lol

Lastly…from what I can tell this willwood kit is a direct bolt-on factory replacement so if I was gonna splurge would definitely be for those vs the “doesn’t not require any modification but actually does require pretty extensive modification” alcons

I had powerstop on my 2015 lariat and they were pure garbage. The pads and rotors were shit. The lasted maybe 20k miles. I will never recommend or purchase those ever again. They were better than OEM compounds but still lacked. Like I said, I love to go fast but I also like to stop. Ever since I started tracking cars I found just as much speed in braking than in performance parts. The confidence and my experienced performance the Wilwood’s have over stock is well worth the 1700. People spend 450 on a Cold Air Money waster for sound…..

 

[Badgertits]

I had powerstop on my 2015 lariat and they were pure garbage. The pads and rotors were shit. The lasted maybe 20k miles. I will never recommend or purchase those ever again. They were better than OEM compounds but still lacked. Like I said, I love to go fast but I also like to stop. Ever since I started tracking cars I found just as much speed in braking than in performance parts. The confidence and my experienced performance the Wilwood’s have over stock is well worth the 1700. People spend 450 on a Cold Air Money waster for sound…..

Yeah & for that $$$ vs the $4k that Alcons cost (+ the fact you do need to do some modifications to make the alcons fit) I think the will wood kit you did is a better option if you wanted to go the route of a true BBK

 

[Badgertits]

@Badgertits How much is the Power stop kit? The Wil wood from what I've seen on there website is around 1,700 bucks

I think w/ their front calipers it’s around $1k

 

[MRV99]

Yeah & for that $$$ vs the $4k that Alcons cost (+ the fact you do need to do some modifications to make the alcons fit) I think the will wood kit you did is a better option if you wanted to go the route of a true BBK

I prefer the stock wheel size so i did not have a choice. I have had multiple F150’s with larger wheels and that looked great but to me the Raptor is on 17’s. If I had 18-20’s there would have been a big break kit for sure

 

[kalel]

Excellent review. I've had mine on for several months now and love them. Moved from VA to FL and had quite the load and lots of miles and they of course performed great. +1 on everything you said. As far as install, its pretty straight forward, brake line threads can be tricky. Here is my quick post on them:

When the group buy popped up on the forum for the 6 piston Wilwood which FIT the stock 17' wheels, it was take my money and send them. But now that I have 8 months on this setup: Do I have buyers remorse? Was this just another overpriced upgrade? Would I do it again? These last 2 months put the Wilwood's to the test and can give you an update on my feelings. Not that I am a brake expert but I have many many years and 1000+ laps on the racetracks with multiple cars. I have experience with Brembo, AP Radical, Audi SQ5(fixed 6 piston's), BMW ///M brakes, Standard BMW and Ford F150's so I feel i have experience different types.

Daily Driving: Yes they stop better. Some will say you can only stop as fast as the tires and antilock will allow. Yes/No but I can tell you there is a feel of confidence which exceeds the stock F150 brakes. This is my 1st raptor(2019) but i had 2 F150's (gen 12 and gen 13 lariat ) prior and did the same truck stuff as the raptor. Past F150's had 305/20's so i was used to the larger/heavier tire on stock F150 binders... Wilwood just feel better. Confidence is there no matter what so day to day it was a win in my book. Plus they look great

Towing: Now I have a Raptor and we all know that these are not tow monsters. I have a Small Jayco SLX 184BS (3350 dry with 3814 on the scale) and a 12' enclose trailer. Did some race watching at Road America and it was the first time I did long distance towing with the TT. I now have 1000's of miles on the Wilwood's and basically forget the upgrade was done. I was doing 65 on the highway through Milwaukee in medium traffic. Come around a slight bend and there it was, stupid people doing stupid things required panic braking.... those 6 piston's just dug in and there was no pucker. I have had to do some aggressive braking in the past with the TT and you had that oh shit feeling but this time, it just stopped..... When it was all over and we were on our way, the wife said "I completely understand why you spend stupid money on brakes for our cars". HAHAHAH granted we all have Big Brakes on every car we own but if we don't, I have the Green light 100% of the time


Mountain Driving: The oldest is off to college and picked Colorado to begin his collegiate journey. We are from Illinois so road trip! His hand me down SQ5 was packed up and the Raptor followed with the bigger stuff. Moved the kid in, fed him one last time and then was told "Get out of here so you don't embarrass me".... So off we went. We then spend a few days, driving the mountains and exploring different towns. We did highway mountain driving and slower speed scenic passes. I have been driving in the mountains for 30 years and have driven many types of cars from your go fast and fun your basic car. This was the first time with the Raptor and let me start off by saying, these Brakes were AWESOME in this environment. No matter what speed, no matter how long you had to be on the brakes, there was NO fade and they had what felt like unlimited stopping power. From the panic brake grab due to the Deer approaching the road to your typical 6% downgrade speed control. They performed awesome! Once again, i got the acknowledgement from the wife that she like the brakes!!! The only downside I can say about the Wilwoods, was when I got into SteamBoat Springs after the few hours of mountain driving was the screech!!!. Pulled to the first stoplight and you would have though I had a track car with cold brakes. They squealed like a pig.... and every stop after that. I immediately hit the first pressure washing place I could find. Hosed down the binders and the noise was gone.... Small price to pay for the enjoyment of these brakes.


So in summation, if you are hesitant to buy the Wilwood's you can be sure it will be a excellent purchase.

Excellent review. I've had mine on for several months now and love them. Moved from VA to FL and had quite the load and lots of miles and they of course performed great. +1 on everything you said. As far as install, its pretty straight forward, brake line threads can be tricky. Here is my quick post on them: https://www.fordraptorforum.com/thr...ruck-front-brake-kit-2020-ford-raptor.101768/