research the 98-02 front brake swap. I have all the parts except for the rotors that im selling very cheap.

The 95-97 brakes are terrible and getting different rotors isnt going to do anything.

Im also selling the caliper adapters for the c5 corvette brake swap.

If you really want to spend some money i could sell you a wilwood 6 piston brake setup. I had brackets made up for the calipers, and they work with a 14" rotor.

So depending on how much money you want to spend i have options.

OP, if you want your car to remain stock, if I were you, I would get the Raybestos high performance rotors and Raybestos police duty pads from Rockauto.

Aside from that make sure your brake fluid is changed, you have at least new brake lines up front (Motorcraft or Raybestos), and most importantly new tires. This all contributes to being able to slow these massive long heavy cars down quickly and safely.

With all due respect, so much technology has came along since 1997. The new Raybestos formulations are amazing especially with the police line that are manufactured in Italy.

Don't bother with the slotted or cross drilled rotors. That's for pure racing and they can perform even worse then stock until they are heated up. They can also crack in between the holes. You need a street/police setup that will stop you on a dime even when cold.

Already I can think of 3 different situations where my Raybestos police setup prevented my car from being totaled. They are also very quiet.

I had to look into brakes for my 2001 Town Car. Cryogenic rotors properly treated last very long times. Given this, the current rotor available are from Diversified Cryogenics who do heat treatment for various entities including the USA military. Hardened rotors need an agressive pad and Hawk HPS work well when warm. In very cold weather initial stops are extended until heat is built into the rotors. I found the EBC Red Stuff pads are very good for this combination. If you are using standard rotors, the metal structure is more prone to wear but pad choices are more abundant. DO NOT use Ford/Motorcraft pads with cryogenic heat treated rotors. The pads just won't bite as I found to my dismay. This is the combination I have used. If heat soak is an issue, I have used to good effect the services of Goldline Brakes in Washington to good effect. Our brake calipers either use phenolic or steel (not stainless) as the piston material. Gold line is able to buy machined Stainless steel pistons that won't corrode and have half the heat transfer of standard steel. I had this done and it works. Brake fluid boil over if you have experienced this you don't want a repeat. Brake fluid I recommend is either ATE Typ 200 (not a typo) or Amsoil Racing Brake fluids. Both are DOT 4 at the top end or DOT 5.1. DOT 5.1 is like DOT 3 and DOT 4. DOT 5 with no .1 is silicon fluid and should NOT be used. DOT 3, DOT 4, and DOT 5.1 are ester based and are possible to be mixed. I hope this helps. By the way I got 100K off the rotors on the prior set of cryogenic rotors I bought.

You have a few misconceptions about brakes. Different rotors wont help you stop any better. Slotted and or drilled dont really take longer to heat up, but yes they dont do much regardless. If you can lock up the tires on factory brakes then they work just fine and going to larger brakes wont help with anything.

Bigger brakes only help you manage the heat better, and give you more braking power if you need it. You then run into locking up the tires earlier and easier. Some brake pads need heat in them to work but honestly they still work when cold. Nothing you buy from a parts store will even come close to working like a race pad that needs heat.

I have tracked a crown vic on the 98+ brake setup and its entirely possible to lock the front wheels up easily. I then moved to wilwood 6 piston brakes on factory 14" steel rotors, then the same calipers with 2 piece girodisc rotors. The car still brakes the same as the factory calipers with "beginner" race pads. The only difference is pad availabity and variety, rotor and pad longevity, and pedal feel.

More brake misunderstanding. Cryo treated rotors are just harder than normal, they do not require any different pads, and do not perform any better than regular rotors. They last longer and thats it. Brake rotors are so cheap now that its literaly throwing money out the window. Brake rotors do not change anything regarding regular street braking performance.

Different pistons wont really do much for heat soak. You cant get enough heat in your brakes on the street to get fade if you have good fluid in the car. Brake fluid absorbs moisture and if its old then it needs to be replaced. More moisture in the fluid means it boils sooner. What also matters is thickness of the brake pads. When they get thin and the pad material is less thick then the backing plate is where you run into heat transfer problems. But at that point a different piston material isnt going to solve your problem either. I have tracked a crown vic with the phenolic pistons and cheap parts store rotors. It stops just the same as my current setup of 6 piston caliper/two piece rotor setup.


There is also no reason to run any race fluid on the street, it is another complete waste of money for no benefit. You literally wont ever get enough heat in the brakes to warrant the race fluid. Regular dot 3 or whatever came in the car from the factory is just fine. Race fluid only has a higher boiling temperature before you lose the brake pedal. Thats all that it does, there is no stopping benefit or anything.

I respectfully disagree. For my 2004 P71 there was a clear difference in stopping ability by changing over to Raybestos police rotors AND Raybestos police pads and it better be because the Raybestos police rotors are now 91 dollars each. Lol

Think of it this way.... If there isn't any improvement in just changing out rotors with a different brand of the same size then why do manufacturers even offer different grades of rotors in the first place for the same car? We all might as well buy the cheapest made in China rotors and be done with it if it doesn't make a difference.

The truth is, in keeping the same rotor size, one set of rotors can be superior to another mainly due to the superior metal formulation, and as far as heat even rotors of the same size a cheaper rotor is usually constructed with less material so it heats up faster.

Check out Raybestos videos on their testing. Interesting stuff: https://youtu.be/pGEg-CgZAzw


BTW, another poster pointed out EBC brakes and they're awesome as well. I believe they are a British company that makes top notch brakes. I used them when I had a Nissan Maxima.