Power Brakes?

How many of you have power brakes on your cars, or is that even possible? If not, what are the options to improve braking power, maybe a different master cylinder setup with some Willwood brakes?

Mine is a Wilewood mounted on the other side of the pivot arm:



I have 4 wheel disk with pretty small wilwoods on the rear but larger willwoods on the front then came with the car. The balance is very good. I have a 1"MC and the pressure is not bad. A 7/8 would probably be ideal but I had a bit of trouble locating a duel MC aftermarket with a 7/8" bore.

Later MGBs (74.5 on) came with power brakes... so it's fairly easy to retrofit them if you want.

The variety of brake system installations on V6/V8 conversions is absolutely astounding. Instead of asking your question on a message board (where you may get a dozen responses, if you're lucky), you could take a much bigger "census" by surfing around on the "British V8" website. Brake system changes are normally detailed in our "How It Was Done" articles, and we've published a bunch of them!

You could start here: http://www.britishv8.org/British-V8-How-It-Was-Done.htm
or here: http://www.britishv8.org/Photos-MG-Conversions.htm

There are also a number of articles about brake system mods in our searchable archive. These examples come to mind:
http://www.britishv8.org/Articles/MGB-Power-Brakes.htm
http://www.britishv8.org/Articles/Budget-Brake-Mod.htm
http://www.britishv8.org/Articles/Tandem-Master-Cylinders.htm

If you want to make quicker stops... probably the first thing to do is buy stickier tires. If you can easily lock up your brakes, then you obviously don't need bigger brakes - you need stickier tires! If you CAN'T lock-up your brakes at will, then consider changes to the brake system... but check the "maintenance" items first. Some of the newer pad compounds help a lot... I recently installed "Green Stuff" pads and I like them much better than the old Feroda pads I had before. Whatever brake system you have, keep the fluid fairly fresh and properly bled.

I know Bill Guzman has commented in the past that power brakes are not necessary on an mgb, and that they don't increase stopping ability. They're only necessary if you like the way power brakes "feel". I plan to follow his advice and move the pivot hole on the brake pedal up about 5/8" to increase leverage. I've retrofitted a CPP master cylinder with integral proportioning valve (and it looks sweet too!).

James,

I agree that the power brakes are for a certain feel for daily driving. We actually removed these on my Dad's 1977 in order to have a manual system for autocross with better 'feedback'.

If your really interested in converting your car to power brakes, I have one spare system removed. The boosters always should be rebuilt and a new master installed, but all the parts are there.

-BMC.

Thanks, guys. I do prefer power brakes, have been driving Ford Aerostars for years, if anything their brakes are overboosted. When I get to that point I'll be picking your brains again, right now I'm mulling the whole thing over. I'll be pulling the old drivetrain out soon, though.

Gary, btw, I appreciate the pics you've posted on the various sites. Your '64 is as nice as I've seen, and I hope mine eventually looks at least half as good as yours.
James

Thank You James, I am almost to a 1000 miles this year. If you get in the area let me know I'll take you for a ride. It's not a rocket but I do believe a nice balance.

Gary