Removing the brake servo to create room

[jamie850]

I've been thnking of space issues in the e30 engine bay and that a common mod is to use a golf servo to make more space.
Whats the benifit of keeping the servo and not having just a straight hydrolic circult to the brakes?
Why not change out the pedal box with a bias pedal box and go to remote reseviours mounted neatly on the bulkhead out of the way?

I've seen this done before in magazines and remember a LS1 5.7L v8 engined e30 M3 that had a really clean engine bay had this setup and probabilly needed the room too!

Would this make the brakes harder and I assume the ABS would be lost too?

Just thinking out loud.... anyone got any opinions?

[E30BeemerLad]

are you actually swapping a bigger engine in?

A brake servo does take a lot of the work out od braking when driving in normal road conditions and I wouldn't like to have a pedal you have to really stab to get any action from the brakes. OK for a track slag but in a daily, the servo or some sort of brake booster makes a lot of sense.

[billgatese30]

You could still keep the ABS system and if you fit a new pedal box then you can adjust the pedal ratio and master cylinder size so you keep similar pedal travel and effort required, but fitting the pedal box does involve more work.

Theo has done just this, read the link below

http://www.e30zone.net/modules.php?name ... highlight=

[jamie850]

thanks billgates, Thats exactly what I was looking for, even some of the technical reasons behind MC changes. It's alot of work but I don't really like the idea of bodging servos and rods if I need more room for my m30 conversion. I'd like really tight brakes and if they are a bit harder then its ok as its not my daily driver.

[MarkT]

I'm also going down the pedal box route. It's just too convienient not to, However my car's going to pretty much be a dedicated track car with occasional track use. I'm sure with selecting the correct master cylinder ratio etc. it could be a quite compliant pedal feel.

[Daf318is]

I think most people go for the smaller servo because it is considerably cheaper and easier - £10-20 on a secondhand servo that is pretty much a direct swap is going to be the prefered option to make more space.

[jmc330i]

I don't really like the idea of bodging servos and rods if I need more room for my m30 conversion..

Im not sure if the servo needs moving over for the M30 converions or if it just needs a smaller servo, but if you choose the correct servo and master cylinder, nothing needs bodging - it all bolts straight up.

A pedal box would be cool though and I guess give more options in terms of brake upgrades as you can choose master cylinders to suit.

[winx]

I have kept the standard servo in the standard place on my M30 swap, there is about 10-15mm clearance and it has never once touched...

[daimlerman]

It's a clearance issue with M50/M52 manifold that makes a different shaped servo nessesary.
The Clio item is a smaller diameter but bigger front to back,so that the overall capacity is pretty much the same.
Problems arise when you start to shove V8's into E30,the space the servo occupied is now taken up by the left cylinder head/exhaust...so a pedal box swap and complete re-think is required.Work that should only be taken on by those talented enough to know exactly what they are doing....