Powerstop Z36 Brake Kit Initial Review

Installed front & rear Powerstop Z36 drilled & slotted rotor & carbon ceramic pad kit this weekend. Of note, if u havent done rear brakes, make sure you get a piston compressor and rotate the rear pistons as you compress them. Almost ruined my week lol.

Install was pretty easy but did take about 90mins per corner with my 2 and 6 yr old helpers, taking my time, cleaning the rust off the hub surface, poking out about 5lbs of Windrock pebbles out of the calipers etc.

Quality seems pretty nice and they look fantastic especially compared to the factory rust buckets lol. Initial driving impressions after proper break-in are that they are FAR SUPERIOR to my OEM (which had 17k miles) when the brakes are WARM. When the brakes are stone cold, the OEMs seem to have a bit more initial bite.

So id say that Powerstops feel like a 30~35% improvement over stock when brakes are warmed up. OEM feels about 10% better when brakes are ice cold.

Overall very happy so far especially at the price point. Couldn’t justify $4k for front brakes only when about $600 gets you a noticeable improvement over stock.

I have less than 25 miles on them so far so I will add more feedback as I tick off some miles. Some pics below.

This is great news. My only worry with this setup will be the drilled holes. It’s not guaranteed but can definitely happen; a small rock gets stuck halfway into the hole and then needs to rotate through the caliper/pads. Im not sure what kind of damage that could cause but it’s been mentioned before and is not something that I would want to worry about. I know that you use your truck as the dirt gods have intended and look forward to additional feedback.

Definitely a no brainer for people that mostly see street use.

Thanks for puttin that 1 in my head hahaha. If a rock gets stuck in that small a hole its gettin crushed when it makes it through the caliper. TBH Im not worried about that happening other than at Windrock. Ive never seen so many pebbles fly and get stuck in the smallest, oddest crevices all the way from my calipers to my manifolds to my radiator fins. Those gravel trails are super fun to haul ass on but probably never gunna exceed the speed limit on them again.

Do the power stop rotors have the veins entrance at the base like oem?

Yes thats how i noticed nearly half of mine were plugged from windrock lol

Nice ! question did you use the "release brakes" setting in the menu ? or just twist the rears in ? I was wondering if that setting allows you to just normally compress them ?? thanks

Sinister4 said:

Nice ! question did you use the "release brakes" setting in the menu ? or just twist the rears in ? I was wondering if that setting allows you to just normally compress them ?? thanks

Click to expand...

Hmm not sure what ya mean man. What menu are you referencing?

Not to knock power stop But I've owned a total of 7 Hellcat powered vehicles and I've used power stop on my charger hellcat and one thing I can tell you is in high speed action where you have to stop constantly and go, them things won't stop They get really hot and just have you pumping the break gliding I used them because of the break dust from the brembo break was annoying asf But once I noticed I couldn't stop I went back to oem cause I rather the break dust and stopping on a dime then no break dust and not stopping at all

I noticed a setting in there that said something about releasing brakes for service, in the u connect, I was wondering what it did. I`ll look at it again I cannot find anything about it in the manual so far

blaster9 said:

Hmm not sure what ya mean man. What menu are you referencin

Click to expand...

Smoke king said:

Not to knock power stop But I've owned a total of 7 Hellcat powered vehicles and I've used power stop on my charger hellcat and one thing I can tell you is in high speed action where you have to stop constantly and go, them things won't stop They get really hot and just have you pumping the break gliding I used them because of the break dust from the brembo break was annoying asf But once I noticed I couldn't stop I went back to oem cause I rather the break dust and stopping on a dime then no break dust and not stopping at all

Click to expand...

I think your OEM TRX brakes would've caught fire & melted the wheel in that scenario lol. Powerstops will handle high speed stop/go far better than OEMs just by virtue of their superior heat dissipation being drilled/slotted. I have no doubt that the Brembos outperform Powerstops; if Brembo had an offering for the Rex that fit the 18s, I probably would've went that direction.

OK it releases all pressure off the rear parking brakes and calipers, ie they will now push normally to retract without twisting them. I "think" the trx has the full electric parking brake hold pressure on the piston, all the time and may not use the rotating kind to do that. So you hit the service brakes setting and it kills the pressure. MAYBE lol 2023 btw settings>brakes>brake service

So I went to Powerstop’s website and put in my truck and searched. I want to make sure I have the correct parts number. Is your part # k8182-36? Also, where did you purchase from? Thanks in advance.

Is this the kit you bought?

https://www.amazon.com/Power-K1906-36-Front-Truck-Brake/dp/B005UB6Q6G

Bought from Summit. https://www.summitracing.com/parts/PWR-K8182-36

Found a sweet coupon code too for like $100 off so I would look around before placing the order. Backordered rear brakes arrived like a week after order placed.

blaster9 said:

I think your OEM TRX brakes would've caught fire & melted the wheel in that scenario lol. Powerstops will handle high speed stop/go far better than OEMs just by virtue of their superior heat dissipation being drilled/slotted. I have no doubt that the Brembos outperform Powerstops; if Brembo had an offering for the Rex that fit the 18s, I probably would've went that direction.

Click to expand...

Drilled and slotted does nothing to help with heat dissipation. They are there for pad cleaning and initial bite on race applications. For street brakes it’s just looks.

AZDinoPwr said:

Drilled and slotted does nothing to help with heat dissipation. They are there for pad cleaning and initial bite on race applications. For street brakes it’s just looks.

Click to expand...

While i usually tend to agree with you on most forum topics, I couldn’t disagree more on this! Just by nature having holes in metal will allow more airflow & therefore reduce heat.

Interesting debate on this question:

blaster9 said:

While i usually tend to agree with you on most forum topics, I couldn’t disagree more on this! Just by nature having holes in metal will allow more airflow & therefore reduce heat.

What are Drilled and Slotted Rotors? (Benefits + Limitations)

Drilled and slotted rotors are great at enhancing braking performance on wet roads. Find out what they are, when to use them, their limitations, and more.

www.repairsmith.com

Click to expand...

As someone who has both worked on race cars and spent a large chunk of my engineering career performing CFD (computational fluid dynamics) analysis for fluid flow and heat transfer, the holes do NOT do anything for heat transfer or airflow. The longitudinal veins in the rotors are for airflow. Cross cut holes do nothing. From a street brake perspective they actually remove thermal mass and brake pad area to remove overall efficiency. If the holes are drilled after the casting operation they also become sources of potential cracks during heat cycles.

Cross drilled and slotted rotors help with initial bite and cleaning off of pads. Many high performance applications don’t even run cross drilled anymore, just slotted. But there is a huge aftermarket out there to convince folks why they are beneficial so they can take your $.

You can disagree all you want. Until you have run CFD on a brake rotor then your argument is based upon reiterating someone else’s opinion.

Or if you need an actual decent source…

AZDinoPwr said:

As someone who has both worked on race cars and spent a large chunk of my engineering career performing CFD (computational fluid dynamics) analysis for fluid flow and heat transfer, the holes do NOT do anything for heat transfer or airflow. The longitudinal veins in the rotors are for airflow. Cross cut holes do nothing. From a street brake perspective they actually remove thermal mass and brake pad area to remove overall efficiency. If the holes are drilled after the casting operation they also become sources of potential cracks during heat cycles.

Cross drilled and slotted rotors help with initial bite and cleaning off of pads. Many high performance applications don’t even run cross drilled anymore, just slotted. But there is a huge aftermarket out there to convince folks why they are beneficial so they can take your $.

You can disagree all you want. Until you have run CFD on a brake rotor then your argument is based upon reiterating someone else’s opinion.

Or if you need an actual decent source…

Cross-Drilled Disc Brake Rotors: Do They Really Work?

Cross-drilling disc brake rotors may no longer be relevant with today’s modern-tech brake rotor materials and disc brake pad compounds.

www.motortrend.com

Click to expand...

Couldn't agree with you more

I am currently having the Rotora HD brakes installed on the front and rear.
Stay tuned for testing and results!