TonyB

sorry guys...work's been nuts this week.

crxsi...did you look at the product? Yes it is cross driled, but the holes are also chamfered to relive the stress....I've had them on my truck for 30k miles and my buddy's truck for over 50k miles. They have yet to crack. let me repeat that....the stress is releived and they do not crack!

Also, you have another good point about weight savings. Yes, that was the original reason rotors were driled in racing. However, have you considered what happens when the pad and rotor heat up? They outgas. What's outgassing? that's what happens when a material get hot (pads) and the bondign agent in the pad "boils" off. In an extreme braking situation (and some normal) the gas will become trapped between the pad & rotor.

Cross drilling allows 2 things to happen...release the outgassing and dissipate more heat.

HTH

Tony

CRXsi

Relieving gasses is the reason I did not say slotted rotors were bad. I have run both slotted and non slotted rotors on my race car and I actally have better pad life with the same braking characteristics with non-slotted factory rotors. Slotted rotors still reduce the total surface area of the rotor for braking action to happen and also cause faster wear on the pad because every time a slot hits the pad it scrapes the pad (does clean the glazing better though). They do not crack as drastically as drilled because the slots are only down to minimum thickness, not all the way through the rotor. Even cross drilled rotors that have holes chamfered still provide a stress riser because as the rotors start to heat check (small tiny cracks caused from the heating cooling stresses with braking) there is less metal to allow the rotor to not crack all the way through. Trust me even chamfered holes are still weaker. The only cross drilled rotors that lasted not too bad that I have used were also cryo-treated. The extra cost did not really benefit signicantly.

Realistically if you were to heat factory pads enough to cause poor braking due to gas build up then there are bigger problems. The slot in the actaull pad material that usually runs vertically is there to allow the gasses to go somewhere if they are actaully built up. I have had cheap pads that I have cooked in less than 75km (not a typo, yes 75km...really) on the track and have had pads that last a whole season (1000Km?) and have yet to experience gas build up causing loss of braking but I have managed to set a cheap set of wagner pads on fire (yes that did cause a loss of braking!)

To each their own, but either way just giving the downsides to running slotted and drilled rotors that in my opinion are not necessary or recommended on our trucks. And if was me, i would concentrate more on having a superior quality pad then looking at rotors as the biggest advantage in braking comes from better pads, not rotors. Premium mopar pads are in myopinion very good but if one wanted to deviate then that is why I listed above some of the companies I would recommend. Most of the jobber pads are not as good of quality as the originals (even if they try to claim it) .