Most of this is just giving information on my swap, but there's a light warning/update at the bottom.

Okay, I did the LS1 brake swap and it was pretty much a direct swap over. The stock 3rd gen T-block was used and the right wheel's brake line on the axle was able to be bent to fit. We had to make a new left wheel line to the T-block, but that was easy ($3 at Lee Auto Parts).

Other than that, everything bolted up just perfect. LCAs were a pain because mine were rusted really bad. I'll hopefully be going aftermarket soon enough. Shocks were KYB Gas-A-Just for a third gen, and there were ZERO problems getting those to line up. I know someone a while back said the 4th gen shocks use a slightly different mounting require a slight modification...nothing like that at all.

I lightly sanded with a coarse rust remover to get the loose rust off and primed and painted black over it, and it hasn't rusted through that since and I did this over a month ago.

As for performance, the rear was a 2.73 which kinda disappointed me at first because that's what I originally had and I thought this one was a 3.23. Nevertheless, it jsut means my gas mileage will stay around 18mpg in the city and I don't have to re-calibrate my speedo Braking is a lot better over the stock drums. Granted they were drums, but all of the rear brake components had less than like 5k miles on them and were practically new. The rotors and pads on this LS1 rear are somewhat old. I used the stock disc/drum prop valve and did not need the disc/disc or the adj. valves I bought. However, I may gut the rear of my prop valve and put the adj one in just to have more control. There's always room for improvement on a stock setup, especially a conversion. My 16x8 black mesh wheels barely clearance the back calipers, but there is room. I can't comment on the parking brake as I did not hook it up. I may one of these days when I decide to get an LS1 bracket for parking brakes.


Now, for the WARNING/update... Everything was working perfect for a while and then maybe the last week or so I began to notice some noise from the back right wheel when I was braking, especially at slower speeds it was VERY noticeable/annoying/embarassing. It was getting worse, and the left side began to make some noise as well. I couldn't tell what was wrong at first, I took the caliper off and was looking at the pads and they looked fine, as did the rotors. I took the caliper mounting bracket off to remove the rotor and still didn't really notice anything. After messing around a little bit, I noticed that one of the sides of the drum on the inside of the rotor was shiny while the rest wasn't (as in this part was being used!). Only about 1/3 of it though. I then checked the left side and found just a tad bit, maybe 1/6 of the drum the same way. This made me come to the conclusion that this was the culprit. The right side had more shiny area, and was also the louder wheel.

After removing the drum brake pads and wheel cylinder components (mechanical though of course), I re-assembled everything with the freshly painted red calipers and decided to go for a drive. No more noise!! The original noise was weird in that it wouldn't occur when I would first start driving, but after a while, maybe after they heated up a bit. My guess is that after moving around a little bit and not being held in place by the cables, the shoe vibrates and begins to move and rub. You'd understand how that would occur by looking at the design of the wheel cylinder components.

In any case, bottom line, if you are installing an LS1 rear (LS1's used disc/drum hybrids for the parking brake), either hook up the parking brake cables, or remove the drum brake and gut the wheel cylinder (easy to do, everything pops right out really).

Oh yeah, and as for the tires sticking out, it looks KILLER! I'll try to get a picture loaded up of my car from the front/side view and rear view. They don't stick out far enough to look stupid, its just perfect. It kicks them out just enough so they are even with the fender flare.

 

Hey, I just came across a relatively cheap LS1 rears and trying to decide if I should go for it.

I have a rear out of a 96 car. So you are saying brakes themselves will be a bolt-on, right? Parking brake bracket is the only thing that needs to be fabbed?

 

Actually, I meant to find this and update it. I was actually incorrect. I had thought this was the problem because when I removed the parking brake stuff, the noise stopped for a few days, but then it came back.

I decided to get the rotors turned and then noticed my caliper was stuck. After finally replacing my caliper, the noise is still there but now I'm pretty sure it isn't the same thing. I think I should just buy some new pads, and for $20 from Murray's, there's really no reason not to.

The LS1 brakes are not a bolt-on for the LT1 rear-ends. You will have to redrill some holes I believe. I don't know for sure, since I had the entire rear out of a '98 so I didn't have to worry about it.

Make sure you have at least 16" wheels though. There is no way the stock 15x7's would work on these. In fact, some 16" rims might not even clearance them, I'm not sure. My 16" saladshooters (winter tires) clear them perfectly, and I'm not expecting any troubles out of the 17" 10-spokes I just traded for my old TA rims

 

i didnt have any parking brake hooked up on mine and never had any problems

 

Yeah I know, like I said, that wasn't the issue like I had thought it was. My pads must've worn unevenly because of the stuck caliper. I'll probably pick up some new pads next week. Like I said, they are only $20.

 

my trailblazer rears is doing the same thing as what I think you are describing and it is the same setup (drum e-brake inside the disk). Loud and annoying has h@ll. I just did brakes about a year ago, but I only drive the car about once a week so some rust could attribute to that. But even after I drove the car for a 10 days straight (when my daily driver needed a new clutch), that noise still didn't go away.

I have about 7k miles on pads and rotors. You think it is due to cheap brake pads?

 

ah, i see now. i just saw ls1 brake warning and thought id had better read that and didnt read any of the follow up posts

 

I've got an LS1 rear on my car and didn't have any issues with grinding/noises. I don't have e-brake calbes on mine yet.

I went with 4th gen wheels since I didn't like the way the GTA wheels sat, just looked a bit odd since they aren't wide enough under the car.

This is what mine looked like,

so I got a set of these with brand new KDW tires on them for $200.

 

Not sure if I am correct on this or not, but I have heard of some rear drum brake setups that use a residual pressure valve either inside of the combination valve or a separate inline valve.
The poster stated he did not change the drum/disc valve after the conversion. If this is correct there could be a up to 10 ponds of pressure on the rear calipers at all times.
Like I said I do not know if 3rd gen camaros have these
residual valves so I might be way off on this. Just trying to throw something out there to ponder.