brake upgrade

[dominique matlock]

thinking of upgrading my brakes bigger fronts and disk conversion in the rear what would yall recommend and who to buy from ??

 

[2QUICK2B6]

I didn't buy rears but I bought aerospace front bakes

 

[chris kirk]

thinking of upgrading my brakes bigger fronts and disk conversion in the rear what would yall recommend and who to buy from ??

Scott at GNS. He'll answer any and all questions and give you great advise.

 

[charlief1]

There's a sticky at the top of this forum section that has brake and suspension recipes that might help you decide.

 

[2QUICK2B6]

I bought mine from cal hartline ... Cal & Holly are grear people.... I bought the trz chromolly upper and lower control arms while I was at it

 

[Undercover87T]

I also have the Aerospace Pro Street kit on the front of my car with larger shoes and cylinders in the rear. They are suppose to clear 15in wheels but haven't tested my T wheels yet.

 

[novaderrik]

find a wrecked 98-02 Z28 or Trans Am and get the front and rear brakes off it.. or buy the stuff all new at your favorite local parts store... then make a few simple modifications to the spindles and axle flanges and bolt the stuff on.. this gets you 12X1.25" brakes up front with 2 piston aluminum PBR calipers and 12X1" brakes in the rear with aluminum single piston PBR calipers. and the best part is that everything can be bought at any parts store in the country with no more than a day or 2 wait time, try that with the aftermarket stuff..

 

[charlief1]

There is now another option for the blazer brake up-grade. I adapted the F body 12" rotor and a very large single piston caliper to the Blazer knuckles so you can keep the 16" wheel rather than have to go to a 17 or larger wheel. The best part was the cost. I got the rotors at a swap meet for $20, the calipers cost $20 each from oreilley auto, and I made a plate out of 1/2" plate so everything is bolt on. Here's a pic of stock, blazer, and the ones I came up with. Huge difference as you can see.

 

[2QUICK2B6]

ok I see this has now turned into a junkyard find .... try slowing down from 140

 

[novaderrik]

ok I see this has now turned into a junkyard find .... try slowing down from 140

i'll take the bigger OEM stuff when trying to stop a 3500 pound car from triple digit speeds before i'd trust those tiny little aftermarket drag race setups.. especially if there are multiple hard brake applications taking place one after the other, which would be the case in something like road racing.

 

[turbobitt]

I had stock front brakes with replacement cross drilled and slotted rotors, 11" ford brakes on the rear and stock power master and had no issues stopping at 154+ MPH @+ 3650#. If your not looking for weight savings there is probably not much to be gained.
I recently bought a set of Aerospace components pro street brakes and even with the added thickness vented rotors I still managed to loss 20 lbs off the front, 40 lbs off the rear, and another 10 lbs getting rid of the power master. Although I bought mine direct on a holiday special Cal Hartline is an Aerospace dealer and could supply the kits.
AG.

 

[scot w.]

i'll take the bigger OEM stuff when trying to stop a 3500 pound car from triple digit speeds before i'd trust those tiny little aftermarket drag race setups.. especially if there are multiple hard brake applications taking place one after the other, which would be the case in something like road racing.

I wouldn't trust stock brakes for that application either! I have seen many people with stock F-Body brakes end up in the grass or even worse because the brakes failed at those extreme conditions... Stock brakes were meant for stock applications & Use, anything more and they should be swapped out for aftermarket brakes that are actually made for that intended purpose.

For years Aerospace brakes were meant for drag race use only ( Not recommended for street use) now recently they came out with a new design that allows for street use, question is, are they recommended for extreme street use as in a auto-x or Road race application? I would guess no!

Willwood & BEAR brakes are actually designed for those applications, Yeah they are more expensive than another Stock system BUT they are proven to perform in those applications..

It still surprises me that people will spend Gobbs of money building their engines and transmissions to haul azz but they skimp on the brakes to slow them down... Most have as much in their built tranny alone than a complete BAER brake system costs..

 

[charlief1]

While Scott makes a valid point, I will point out that using an adapter to install Vette brakes on your car would be about the same as using a large portion of after market brake systems, since the Vette was designed for very spirited "street" driving and auto x.

I, myself, have chosen to adapt OEM GM brakes to my car for 2 reasons. The rear disc set up was inexpensive (all the parts cost me $160 plus my time) as well as replacement parts, which are easy to find and purchase. And the fronts were a challenge, since several people said that the 12" F body rotor couldn't be adapted to the blazer knuckles. This is a much more effective braking system compared to the stock brakes and I've got less than $400 in the whole conversion.

I will point out that I like to fabricate things for my own use and this route isn't for everyone, but for me, I now have a braking system that will stop my car better and if I have a problem, I can get replacement parts from just about any parts store without breaking the bank.

 

[scot w.]

While Scott makes a valid point, I will point out that using an adapter to install Vette brakes on your car would be about the same as using a large portion of after market brake systems, since the Vette was designed for very spirited "street" driving and auto x.

Charlie, Your post is kind of misleading cause there is a bunch more to being able to get corvette brakes to mount to a g-body that just an adapter! The prices might have went down from the last time I priced "Everything" out to make that swap and it was only a few hundred bucks away from a BAER track 4 system 3yrs ago. Then there are the rear brakes that won't match the corvette fronts which they might have gotten around to making kits for that too now, I don't know... Either way if your goal is to get serious about Auto-x or roadracing then NO Stock brakes will hold up!

Charlie, "Roadracing" was mentioned above and that is what I commented on. Street driving or even "Spirited" street driving doesn't come close to what brake systems go through on a full day at an actual course.

 

[dominique matlock]

I have no plans of road racing or auto-x drag racing is more my speed . I am thinking about putting 20 or 22 inch billets on the car and wanted a brake upgrade for better stopping plus looks . Even if I put the wheels on island would still like to be able to run my stock wheels on the rear with d.o.t's

 

[novaderrik]

i put the LS1 F body front brakes on my 86 Camaro (spindle very similar to a G body, except for using a strut instead of an upper control arm) with all new parts from NAPA for just around $500, got the rears with a rearend i bought for $300. i had to do a little work on the fronts: cut stock caliper mounting ears off spindle with a cutoff wheel and drill/tap dust shield mounting holes to mount the caliper bracket. made a set of rotors into hubs and put longer Dorman studs in it. and had to make a bracket to mount the caliper baskets to the spindle, which is a copy of what GM did with the 1LE brake setup in the early 90's and what you have to do with any other aftermarket brake setup..

if i ever get around to working on the Buick again, it's getting the same setup.

what i have is beefy 2 piston calipers and 12"X1.25" slip on rotors that can store and dissipate a LOT of heat. sure, oem pads might give out after a few laps on a road course, but upgrading to a set of Hawk's pads gives me a setup that has been proven on a lot of cars in Chumpcar and 24 Hours of LeMons events that got multiple races out of a set of pads and rotors without them giving up.

 

[charlief1]

Charlie, Your post is kind of misleading cause there is a bunch more to being able to get corvette brakes to mount to a g-body that just an adapter! The prices might have went down from the last time I priced "Everything" out to make that swap and it was only a few hundred bucks away from a BAER track 4 system 3yrs ago. Then there are the rear brakes that won't match the corvette fronts which they might have gotten around to making kits for that too now, I don't know... Either way if your goal is to get serious about Auto-x or roadracing then NO Stock brakes will hold up!

Charlie, "Roadracing" was mentioned above and that is what I commented on. Street driving or even "Spirited" street driving doesn't come close to what brake systems go through on a full day at an actual course.

You forget Scott, I started in SCCA GT1 vettes and went to formula Fords right after that. Even built my own SCCA super street modified, so I know a little about road racing. I even did a lot of research on the old Trans Am G bodies and the chassis set ups as well as their brakes. While they may not have weighed as much as a T type of GN they still tipped the scales to come close enough to make it to a stripped G body chassis in true racing form. The C5 and later vettes are very capable on a road course if properly prepped and weigh 3245 lbs (C5), which is in the same area of a light weight T type. The C4 even had 12" x 1.125" rotors. The C6 had 12.79 x 1.125" rotors and that's about the same as a lot of the after market set ups. Everyone has their own expectations on what they want out of their own car and how they want to do it, as well as how much they can spend. I see no reason not to give someone options on how they build their own car to suit themselves, since they own it and this board is about offering options and explanations on how to do something.

 

[novaderrik]

one other thing to take into consideration when choosing a brake upgrade: i can get a set of pads, a rotor, and a caliper for either end of my car at any parts store in the country in no more than a day or two for not very much money... the LS1 F bodies used the exact same rotors and pad as the 2000 and newer Monte Carlo and Impala- technically, they used the Camaro parts since they came out later- and they use a cast iron version of the caliper that can be put on to get you home when you are 100 miles from home on a sunday afternoon and something goes bad... try that with any of the aftermarket brake setups.. well, Baer uses a lot of Corvette calipers, so replacing those wouldn't be too hard but they do like to cut down rotors to make sure you have to buy replacements from them...

 

[MDavis]

20" and Baer trac4's work well

 

[TURBOPOWERED68]

Can one of you guys tell me which front caliper hose you used on the GN with the 02 F body brakes?
Thanks
David