Are you still rocking the crappy front 1990 NA6 front brakes? Skip the 4 piston Wilwoods and begin the ultimate flex at the car shows with your 6 piston Wilwood Calipers.
For around $1,000, Wilwood sells a complete 6 piston kit for a NA6 / NA8 Miata. The kit is a complete bolt-on with everything you need including hardware, stickers, rotors, brake lines and the calipers themselves.
Next, remove your crappy stock calipers, lines and hardware and prepare for your flex.
I won’t go step by step on the installation process as the guide included with the calipers is surprisingly very thorough.
Alright, so you’ve achieved the looks of a Big Brake Kit (BBK), however, the problem is:
Your braking power actually decreased. The stock master cylinder and booster on a NA6 (1990-94 1.6L) are not up to task for the increased braking pressure.
What we did, is located on eBay a 2001-2005 Miata Sport Master Cylinder and Booster combo. It ran us around $60 and they’re very easy to locate. Our Miata was not equipped with ABS from the factory and so we opted for the non ABS combination.
To top it off, we added Brembo 5.1 brake fluid, which ended up being a mistake. Stick with DOT 4 fluid as 5.1 absorbs moisture faster and you’ll be changing your fluid our more frequently in comparsion to DOT 4.
After the Master Cylinder and Booster swap, we opted for a Wilwood proportioning valve to assist in the brake balance. Without this, the front brakes were utilizing more fluid and the rear brakes were non-existent.
T the valve to your brake lines and you’re up in running! Finally, we purchased the brackets for the rear to install the NA8 1.8L rear brake discs and pads, but I’ll write that up in a second article.
Finally, you will need to adjust your airbox or swap to a cone filter. The extended master cylinder prohibits the snorkel at the end of the airbox from attaching.
Was it worth it?
Hell yeah! We drive like absolute animals some times and after months of abuse, I’ve yet to see wear on the pads or rotors. Plus behind our Konig wheels, they’re the bees knees.
