Hydroboost, educate me.

[Digger]

My dual-diaphragm brake booster, even with good vacuum, is barely adequate with the big MC I'm running. I want to swap it out for a hydroboost setup.

I would like to do this with as many factory ford parts as possible. From what I understand people are either using a Mustang, Astro van or Superduty booster. What I need to know is what are all my options, pros/cons of each, what adapters do I need to make or buy to get it mounted, etc.

Currently I have the Saginaw "canned ham" PS pump and Delphi 600 steer box. My brakes are Chevy 1-ton calipers/ford rotors up from and full width big bearing drum brakes rear. Master cylinder is mid-80's F-250, 1-1/8" bore. I would like to get away from the big cast iron MC and move to a modern aluminum unit, but retain the 1-1/8" bore or close to it. Rear drums will become discs in the future, so I need to be mindful of that when picking parts.

Thanks in advanced.

[Gunnibronco]

I have the 99-04(?) Mustang h-boost & master cylinder (shows as 1-1/16" bore), 79 Bronco rotors/T-bird calipers in front, 79 Bronco drums in back. It works great. When I installed it originally I was running 79 Bronco calipers & had too much rear bias. Switching to the T-bird calipers fixed that. I suppose the 1 ton Chevy calipers would too.

The Mustang bolts right to the firewall. The h-boost reservoir hits the upper intake of my Explorer EFI. I've tilted it ever so slightly to the drivers side and it clears fine.

96-98 Mustang h-boost look like they might clear the EFI manifold without tilting it, but have a smaller h-boost reservoir. I'm not sure what the m/c bore size.

The m/c mounting ears on the 99 are at 1 o'clock & 7 o'clock. So you are limited to the Mustang m/c or making an adapter/worrying about push rod length, etc.

The m/c mounting ears on the 96-98 look to be about 12 & 6 o'clock. But I've only seen pics.

I suppose the Mustang h-boost could be installed on the factory booster angle bracket, but I haven't read of it being done.

I bought the hoses from the matching Mustang and cut, bent & flared them to work on the stock steering box & Saginaw pump. I'll probably switch to AN hoses when I put it back together with the 4x4x2 box. I'm running a T back into the return line and a single return pump, with no problems (knock on wood).

[DanHall]

I was running a Astro booster and MC with a Lincoln dual return pump and a 4x4x2 PS box. That ran great and stopped 35's with authority. So much so that I chirped the tires the first time I touched the brakes. I had the hoses made at a local shop but had to find adapters for the Astro booster.

I only say was because I needed a new timing set so, in the sickness that overcomes us with this addiction, decided to to swap in a 5.0 and new tranny, rebuild the TC, paint the engine bay....

[biohzrd]

l'm using an f450 sd booster with the dodge diplomat master cyl. Not a lot of fab involved. Had to make an adapter for between the booster and mc, but l turned the booster 90 degrees, and also needed the spacer to work with the master cyl. since the booster pushrod was the same distance too long. l found a power steering pump with dual return and larger capacity on the ground at svigals. l think it came off of a 6.2 diesel gm. just swapped the pulley with the one l was already running. Also l cut and threaded the input rod to make it adjustable. For the hoses l used the high pressure hose from my old setup, and had the high pressure hose from the super duty shortened and a new end put on
at maxair.
lt's definetely one mod l'm glad l did, the rig stops so much better.