I've found a set of 2001 2WD Blazer disc brakes, front and rear 11.6" with iron dual piston calipers up front and aluminum single piston (PBR style) calipers in the rear.

I've done a decent amount of research, but haven't found anybody with this setup. Ed Miller doesn't have anything on his site about it.

The rears are pretty simple, they look like they are an identical setup to LS1 rear brakes, so for my application the drum bracket will have to be modified but will bolt right up.

The fronts, however, are confusing me. They look just like 1LE brakes (12" to 11.6") with similar calipers, but I don't know how I should mount them. Can I modify the spindles just like with an LS1-C4 setup, and make a bracket for the calipers? Are they simply an iron version of the 1LE aluminum calipers? What kind of brackets would I have to make? Can I follow Luke Skaff's website?

Any help is appreciated, otherwise I'll just have more downtime with my car when I get them bolted up.

 

Really? Nobody knows anything about the front calipers?

 

Alright, I guess nobody here (including myself) is well-enough versed in Blazer brakes to comment.

I thought I'd aid in the discussion, so I measured the distance between the caliper bracket bolts (the ones that mount directly to the spindle) and it came up right at 8". I'm sure its probably more like 200mm or so. How does this compare to the C4-LS1-1LE brakes?

 

I thought about using front 2wd blazer brakes because they were dual piston, bigger, thicker rotors, and still fit under 15" wheels. I didnt feel like treading new ground because I got the same response you did....nothing.

I did how ever use the rear brakes on my car. They bolt up just like PBR's (with a little drilling and cutting) . I like that they have drum style parking brakes and that the e-brake cable exits out in front of the assy. I just modified two pass. side e-brake cables and used some cable clamps to make it all work. My ebrake works great and the brakes are fine.

One thing to note is that blazer rear brake hoses use old SAE flares which was fine for me since I have an 83 Z28.

 

Thanks for your response! I was beginning to lose hope.....

Well, I still have all of my hardware, so once I get the rear's mounted, I'll have to write up a thread on my progress. Maybe I'll be able to design my own attachment bracket for the front calipers so others can follow.

 

I am sure it wouldnt be too different from say a modified LS1 bracket design or something similar. I ended up putting together LS1 brakes (which I havent put on yet) for ease and cost.

For some reason I had to shim my rear parking brake bracket out for the rear brakes to get the abudment bracket centered over the rotor. My rear axle is a hodge podge of 5 different cars, but they were all F bodies except the brakes from the blazer.

 

Offhand, do you remember how much you shimmed them out? I'm thinking it couldn't be more than 1/4 inch....

Also, if I'm going to make my own bracket, it would be nice to have some data to start with, before I tear apart my dd...

What are the dimensions of the stock spindle? Spacing between the modified bolt holes from center to center? Distance from those off the center of the spindle? Distance from the modified rotor (into a hub) surface (where the rotor sits) to the plane of the bolt holes on the spindle?

It seems to me that I may be asking a bit much, especially since some people make a good living off knowing this information, but I thought I'd ask.

 

im sure there are many other options out there for swaps that are different from the main line setsups. FWIW, the rear calipers on my 04 silverado SS are 2 piston aluminum, look like a natural casting version of a c5 front caliper. I've been meaning to measure one of these days.

 

i looked at this set up b4 a did the ls1 swap. the rears actually seem easier to use due to the fact that the e-brake has a hook to mount to the get the tension right. the "hook" is on the backing plate. i ended up welding up a hook to make my rear swap work. i dont see why the front brakes cant work with the ls1 brackets, but id have to measure my abutment brackets. i do believe the iron calipers are bigger.

 

Besides my thirdgen I have an S-10. On S10 FORUM the kids over there think the Blazer 2wd dual piston 10.75 inch rotor with 140.00 dollar sealed bearing hubs are somehow an upgrade over the S-10 ( btw our 10.5 inch rotor and single piston caliper is the same) 10.5 rotor.

First off the rotor is only 1/4 larger diameter and the dual piston square inch surface area is about 5.1 inches vs the single piston's 4.9.

I have done these measurements myself.

Very little difference = very little gain.
You also have the sealed hub/bearing to deal with and they are expensive 120-150 per side..................

Go up to 12" rotors and you will feel a significant difference.

 

I spaced my brackets out about an 1/8" on either side. I used washers to space them out. Everything works great. I have done a little road time but havent been out of my subdivision since it has no windshield. I also still need to adjust my prop valve.

 

may i ask what your speaking of with a sealed hub/ bearing? you just have your stock rotors machined down to hubs.... most places will do it for 50 bux a pair if you shop around. i had no idea that the iron calipers were actually smaller. they seem so beefy? guess i learned something new today. i do have to agree that you need atleast 12" or bigger rotors to feel any difference.

 

The S-10/blazer front brakes we are talking about are mounted on unit hub bearings. They cannot be used in our application because the blazer has a different knuckle and cannot be swapped for ours because the blazer has upper and lower A-arms.

I am going with LS1 brakes up front because the swap is easy and I have everything except rotors and pads for the swap.

 

oh the hub bearing assembly. ok i knew that part. what i was responding to the op was that i looked at this as a possible swap earlier as well. the wheel bolt pattern is the same as ours so i always thought why cant the rotors go on our modified "hubs". i spent plenty of hours looking up back space and clearance issues then got a great deal on a full ls1 swap so kinda abandoned it. to be honest i never really noticed that the rotors weren't that much bigger then our own. you woulda figured the dual piston calipers had to be some sort of upgrade seeing as how the heavier blazers stopped well using them. after reading this thread kinda happy i didn't waste my time.

 

Thats interesting that the brake pad area is almost identical....

However I bought the swap because I wanted the rear discs to swap for drums (which was a steal).

With regard to the front discs, its still an upgrade. Even if the rotor and pad dimensions are almost the same. its a dual piston setup vs a single piston caliper. If everyone remembers their physics:

Force = Pressure*Area, so we need to evaluate the total area of the pistons, not the pads. Just some ballpark figures: If the 2001 blazer has dual piston calipers each measuring 28mm, that means F_b = 2*Pressure*(2*pi*(28/2)^2). And the thirdgen has a single 32mm piston, F_c = Pressure*(2*pi*(32/2)^2). Keeping pressure constant, take the ratio of Forces:

F_b/F_c = 2*(28/2)^2/ (32/2)^2 = 1.53125, so the blazer brakes apply 1.5 times the force that the stock thirdgen's do with the same amount of pressure.

Granted, these are ballpark figures, and if anyone would like to clarify on the piston diameter of either of these brakes, please feel free to do so.

Also, if I were to upgrade my hubs with this setup, its much easier to swap to 12" or larger rotors in the future when the money comes in.