corvettetimmy

I was staring at my rear brake rotors today and I noticed something.
My car has rear brake ducts(I assume all c6's do) that focus air on the rear caliper/rotor area much like the c5 zo6's.
Anyway, The silly thing is that the vent openings (for the vanes) on the rear rotors face outward such that you can see them when looking at the wheel. So the ducting does not provide any usable air to the rotor vanes.
I will try to get a pic tomorrow..

mneblett

Just checking -- you are aware that air enters the center of the disc near the hub and is thrown radially outward, right? I don't have a pic of a Z51 rear disk handy, but I suspect you will find the air entry area on the back side of the disc.

corvettetimmy

That is what I was getting at..

The air enters the center of the disc from the outward side of the rotors not the back side. Im guessing the ducts are for the non z51 cars.

corvettetimmy

HemiSport

i think that gm is little smarter than that. That is not a design flaw , it has been carefully measured and calibrated to help cool the brakes.

davekp78

We wish!
The C-6 rotors are the same on both sides. So one side (I don't remember which) draws air in the center but the other side rotor doesn't.

robvuk

It doesn't matter which way the vanes are oriented, the air still enters at the center and flows outward. There is a very slight difference in the efficiency of that flow if the vanes are oriented the wrong way, but no effect on any street driven car.

WHT

I may be missing something, but corvettetimmy is just saying that it would make more sense if the air-duct actually discharged into inner vane openings on the inside of the rotor. However, the inner vane openings for the rear rotors are on the outside of the rotor.

Not the best design at first look.

Thrill6

The air vanes on the rotors pull air through them because the outside of the rotor is spinning faster than the inside causing a pressure differential and air is sucked in from the inside to the outside. The air ducts are to move air over the calipers, not to get air into the air vanes of the rotor.

corvettetimmy

Ok.. Let me try this again..

It looks like we all know how the rotor vanes actually move the air through the rotor.

The original question has to do with the plastic ductwork that picks up air from under the rocker panels. The ductwork directs air to the back side of the rotors. The strange thing is that the openings for the rotor vanes are on the outside of the rotors. You can see them when you are standing facing the wheel.

Basically the ductwork on the Z51 cars doesn't seem to have a real purpose other than blowing some air on the caliper/rotor area..

Thrill6

That's the exact purpose of the ductwork!!! Blowing air to vane area would not increase the airflow through the vanes, but blowing air on the to the calipers will allow them to cool quicker.