Yes or No (Use large soft shoe pads)

[BUICKTR]

My brake system is still stock. What benefits will I gain by just installing the large soft shoes in the rear and nothing else. Will this help me hold a little more boost on foot brake. Can I still do a burn out with these shoes. Pros and Cons or anyone could just share their experience and opinions about these shoe pads.

 

[NJTurbo]

The reports are a few more pounds of boost can be held, however if you are going this way also get the S-10 wheel cylinders. With S-10 wheel cylinders and the soft compound brake shoe, i have heard guys at the track claim up to 5 pounds more in boost they can hold. And yes they still do nice tire burns. Just what i have heard.

 

[bandwidthpolice]

Do it but also get a line lock. There's lots of posts about line lock installations on the board with pictures if you do a search. I'm going to be doing the long shoes soon also with AutoZone PFC-Z products. Seems to be the popular choice from what I've gathered. Besides, your brake fluid is probably nice and brown and a flush/bleed wouldn't be a bad thing.

 

[Chuck Leeper]

Big shuez??

BuickTtr wrote:
Can I still do a burn out with these shoes. Pros and Cons or anyone could just share their experience and opinions about these shoe pads.

I ran this combo on my car B4 I went to a 400 w/ a t-brake. It worked OK. I do little street driving, so I never saw the dreaded rear wheel lockup, some talk of.
However, I just removed a set of S-10 cyls from a customer's car for that very reason.
I think the problem can be eliminated thru the use of an adjustable proportioning valve. This way, you can add PSI to the rear when at the track, and remove some for the street.
Some use the soft shoe compound and buy 2 sets, so the long shoes can be put on the primary and secondary sides.
Doing a burnout without a line loc defeats the purpose of the shoes and cyls. The shoes get hot, due to being partially applied. Then the hold ability goes WAY down...
Also: I see ALOT of the shoe sets that do not contact the entire face area. This is caused by the linings not being ground prior to installation. You can check this by putting the shoes in the drum prior to install and after the drums have been turned. You will also see this if you pull the drums after driving the car.

 

[KEVINS]

If you do a search you may find that the larger brake shoes and wheel cylinders only help about 50% of the people trying it.
I agree with Chuck about the proportioning valve!
I still have the stock type shoes and cylinders and I can hold 15psi. I think one reason I can hold more than others is that my pvalve is allowing more fluid to the rear brakes. There is also a Jumper Valve that directs more fluid to the rear brakes when staging and works 100% of the time. I would get this over larger brake shoes anyday. Do a search on "jumper Valve"..

hth's a bit..
ks