Vacuum Brake Poll

[Turbo6inKY]

O.k., It May Seem Like A Chunk Of Change, But The G.n.'s Are All Worth A Lot Of Money, And Still Worth The Safety Factor Of Outstanding Brakes, Not To Mention Peoples Lives. If You Are Heading For A Crash That You Can't Stop In Time, You Can't Call "time Out" It's Too Late. As Far As Money Goes, People Have No Problem Pouring Out Money For Wheels And Tire, Turbo Upgrades, Paint, Etc. Never A Second Thought There. For Those Who Have Had Crashes Or Near Crashes, Put Brakes First. Our Hydroboost Is Not Only For The Buicks, But We Also Convert F150's,250's350's Of Any Year, Suburban/tahoes, Jeeps, Camaro, Chevelle, Mustangs, 572 Powered Cars, Hemi Powered Cars, Suv's With 20" Wheels, S10's With 20's And Air Bags.(when They Drop Them The Tire Hits The Vacuum Booster) Street Rods, (they Don't Hang Below The Frame, And Allow 3.5" Exhaust Pipes Alongside) Anything Turbocharged, Etc. The Ladies Can Easily Stop The Family Hot Rod Which They Could Not Do Before, And So On. Cars Are Being Built At A Cost Of $150,000 Now. Will The 7" Booster At 450 Psi Be A Cheap Way Out On Such A Car? We Have 20 Cars On Display At Sema Next Week With The H/b. We Will Be Doing The "overhaulin'" Show Rebuild There At Sema For The Second Time, Installing A Hydroboost On A 72 Challenger.. Is The Powermaster The No 1 Topic On This Forum? If Not, It Is At The Top. Is Your Life Worth An Extra $300.00? The G.n. Actually Ends Being Capable Of Much Higher Speeds And More Spirited Driving. You Can Put This Car Through It's Paces And Take It To New Limits With Complete Confidence. There Are Some Guys On This Forum That Have Reported Outstanding Results With The H/b.

Did you ever run that straight up 60-0 test using the same car, starting with the PM, converting to Vacuum, then Hydroboost, with everything else staying the same? I know somebody asked for that in another thread you were plugging the hydroboost in.

How many cars you have on display at SEMA tells us nothing about whether the system will actually stop the car better. Until you can demonstrate that, the extra coin for your system isn't justifiable for most of us.

If you can get that kind of data, and prove that the extra line pressure will actually stop the car faster instead of just locking up the tires and flatspotting them, then I bet you'll sell a lot more of these units to those of us that are considering or are already using vacuum. Statements like "The G.n. Actually Ends Being Capable Of Much Higher Speeds And More Spirited Driving" make you sound like a snake oil salesmen to lots of us.

 

[POWERBRAKEBOB]

Any Volunteers?

No Problem. If Any One Has A Car In The So Cal Area, And We Can Call Primedia To Do An Impartial Article On The Stopping Distances And Driveability Of This Conversion, It's Free To That Person, They Report To This Forum The Results. We Are Doing The Same Thing In Street Rodder With A Before And After Stopping Distance Test Conducted At Fontana Raceway. We Are Testing A 40 Ford Woody That Has The 7" Booster Under The Car For Them. No One Has Returned Our Hydroboost Kit Yet, Claiming Something Else Was Better. Not Yet. Lamborghini Is Trying One, Because Vacuum Is An Issue, And The Car Has To Stop With The Claimed Speeds. Wilwood And Baer Are Very Aware Of How The H/b Will Make Their Brakes Perform. People Who Buy Those Brake Kits End Up With Less Stopping Power Than They Had Before. All Factory 4 Disc Cars Have High Powered Boosters To Make Them Stop. There Have Been No Manual 2 Or 4 Disc Cars Produced By An Automaker In The U.s In 36 Years. There Are No Manual Brake Cars Produced In Japan For The U.s. Market. They Won't Stop. The Factories Have Been Grinding Conservative Camshafts For The Last 40 Years Just To Assure Vacuum For The Power Brakes. I Have A Zr-1. It Has 2 Cam Profiles. Short Duration On The "open" Port, And A Long Duration Lobe On The "closed"port. On Hot Rods, You Can Run Any Cam You Can Live With With The H/b. No Vacuum Involved. Guys Eyes Get Big With That News. The H/b With Deliver More G Force Deceleration Than You Can Come Up With On Acceleration G Force.

 

[SVORay]

How many cars you have on display at SEMA tells us nothing about whether the system will actually stop the car better.

I'm not sure which ones stops better but I am pretty sure a Hydro or vaccum boost system is more realiable than a stock Powermaster. That is the real reason I'm considering either options. As for stopping better, I would guess a hydroboost would do the trick better but like you, I would like to see some test results.

 

[chopped39]

Has anyone replaced their brake lines with classic tube brake lines. I'm doing a frame off resto and while the body is off at the shop it will be a lot better replacing them now than when the body is back on. I am also going vacuum. I bought a kirban set up . The pm is what got me into this frame off to begin with. car pulled out in front of me.I hit brakes seen pretty little brake light and then. well you know what happened after that. scrap power master. my car had 42,000 when that happened . No problem untill that day :frown:

 

[SVORay]

Has anyone replaced their brake lines with classic tube brake lines. I'm doing a frame off resto and while the body is off at the shop it will be a lot better replacing them now than when the body is back on. I am also going vacuum. I bought a kirban set up . The pm is what got me into this frame off to begin with. car pulled out in front of me.I hit brakes seen pretty little brake light and then. well you know what happened after that. scrap power master. my car had 42,000 when that happened . No problem untill that day :frown:

Damn !!

 

[Red Regal T]

I Vote For Vacuum Brakes

CHANGE OVER TO VACUUM ... AND NEVER LOOK BACK!

Tr Vacuum Brake Conversion Kit
All you need to eliminate your Powermaster brake system.
Don't spend hundreds of dollars trying to keep your powermaster working. Even GM ditched the powermaster in favor of vacuum. Change to vacuum and........FORGET ABOUT IT!

VACUUM BOOSTER W/ CHECK VALVE
BRAKE PEDAL ASSEMBLY
ALUMINUM MASTER CYLINDER ASSEMBLY
PLASTIC RESERVOIR W/ LID
ALL FASTENERS AND GASKETS INCLUDED
INSTALLATION ISTRUCTIONS
INSURED SHIPPING

ALL IN EXELLENT CONDITION AND APPEARANCE. I check out the master cylinder and the booster before shipping to make sure they are good units and like all the parts I sell, I guarantee them to be good.

ONLY $150 complete. Shipping included to lower 48 states.

 

[Red Regal T]

For you guys pondering spending $1000 for hydro-boost .... $1000? here's a thread where you can get more educated. I think POWERBRAKEBOOB should be able to sell all he wants. Problem with him, he's short on the truth and BIG on BULL $HIT!

http://www.turbobuick.com/forums/showthread.php?t=169609

 

[Ormand]

If you want, you can have hydroboost for about the same price as vacuum, but you will have to scrounge for some parts at the local junk yard.

The cost of maintenance on the PM has gone WAY up. The accumulator is now about $200, and it used to be about $50. The accumulators have a shelf life, so even if you had some that were brand new in 1987, and have been in the box ever since, there's no guarantee that they will still have the right pressure. A new switch? That's $175. Not sure you can still the kit to do a rebuild on the cylinder.

The "Master Power" kit claims the "advantage" of not having to replace the pedal. But then they remove the pedal, and redrill it, and reinstall it. If you're going to the trouble to remove it, why not spend the $5 to get a pedal with no extra holes?

Some high performance cars are now coming with vacuum boosters, a few with hydroboost, like the new V8 Mustangs.

 

[Red Regal T]

Just for informational purposes, as many of you know, when changing to vacuum, changing the pedal is a 5 minute job, and is not at all difficult.

 

[corymc]

I was lucky and my car came with them already on it

 

[J-B Racing]

Back to PM

A few years ago I wne to a Vacuum Brake. For a STREET Car that`s fine. But for Drag Racing, I kind of voted to remove it. Even though I had a Canister. During Spool up at the Line the Pedal would start rising up and I would lose Brake Pedal.
WHAT DO YOU DO IF YOU HAVE TO RUN YOUR ENGINE OFF AT 130 + MPH
for what ever reason!
I re-installed the PM and I think I did a good thing. Works great for me, and looks original...

 

[Turbo6Smackdown]

RIGHT before i took posession of my 69,000 mile car, a year and a half ago, the powermaster went out. the dude installed a newer upper half, and i havent had a problem since. she stops on a DIME, and spits 9 cents change out too.... zero problems.. who knows though.. i hear these things can go out tomorrow with no warning.. i like my stuff stock though...

 

[marred4life]

1 year and still holding 9lbs foot braking,if you have the right combo with a vacume brake setup it works just as better than the drownmaster.