Ive been reading online and narrowed it down to these two pads. Which ones do most of you prefer? I am going to be putting them in the stock from calipers for now just to tide me over for a year or two until i decide i want to spend the cash to put the LS1 calipers on that i have hanging around. Let me know.

 

I personally think the HPS are way over hyped. I have not tried the Stillens.

If you are looking at that category of pads I would be looking at the following.

Stillen Metal Matrix
Porterfield R4S
Wilwood BP10
Carbotech 1521

Just remember, what one person likes is very different than another. People forget brakes are more about feel than anything else. At the end of the day I don't think you can go wrong with any, but it will take some trial and error to find what YOU LIKE BEST.

John

 

The Hawk pads made a huge difference in two areas on a different vehicle, about the same weight and style caliper. Much improved feel and confidence in stopping her with ease. The 2nd difference you can probably guess is the mess of brake dust on the wheels.

 

yea thats the one reason im leaning towards the stillen pads. From my reading they dont dust very much if at all more than factory pads.

 

When I called Stillens yesterday to order stillen meal matrix pads, the salesman said that he thought the Hawk HPS was better than the Stillens. I asked why, he directed me to the Hawk web-site to fins out more. Ended up buying the metal matrix based on Slick Tracks recommendations.....he did a better job explaining Stillens pads than the stillen rep did...go figure.... Le you know how they work when the car gets out of hibernation.

 

They do dust though, I had to clean the wheels on my Stealth more often with the Stillens then with the OEM pads. I think thats just the nature of the beast with any performance pad. I will probably order the Stillens when I change the pads on my Miata.

 

Hmm so basically i think at this point i can flip a coin and go either way. The price difference is about 9 bucks (stillen 62, hawk hps 53) which is not enough for me to care about. Ill think a bit more about this and probably order something up in the next week or two. I plan on bringing my car to at least one autox event this year to see how everything ive done to it works together.

 

They have a big turnover in employees- don;t listen to the persons advice-alot of college age kids doing phone marketing. They make a better profit selling the hawks pads to you at almost twice the price even thought the Stillen MetalMatrix compound is far superior. All i can say is trust me, Stillen are far better than anything hawks makes. i have also used the Porterfield and Wildwood compounds. The R4s is alot like EbC green and leave alot of pad buildup on the rotor. Wilwoods are noisy, do not use them or you will be sorry. trust me, i know my stuff.

i just picked up another set last week for my vetruck. I put the best on that vehicle and i used to run them on my Camaro also. I havee them on my Mercedes and my Suga Caddy as well. I run race pads on my vette but that never sees street use.

 

Which is why I say everyone has different experiences. I have never had noise issues with the BP-10's. Everyone needs to find what works for them. Obviously the Stillens work for you.

 

I have only used Wilwood compounds on my large willwood system i built. I tried I tried every single medium track- to mild compounds they made at that time (5 years ago) and I could not get any of them to not make noise- and alot of it. I went to Porterfield for some R4s becasue Stillen would not put the metal matrix compound onto baking plates I supplied.

Guess it depends on the vehcile but I treid 4 different Wilwood compounds at $$$$ of wasted money. I had them setting around unused for several years then i tossed them away.

 

My BP-10's were the full thickness 7420 pad plate used by the Superlite calipers. This is their street compound. I have also used this pad on track days with little issue.

 

That BP-10 did not ring a bell so I just looked back to reference what I had tried.

I used 'A', 'E', 'Q', and the street cpompound at that time was 'T' which it appears they discontinued for obvious reasons.

 

I feel much better about your recommendation .... You did a great job explaining why. Thanks!

Chuck

 

You quite welcome Chuck. Just remeber when you get them to be easy on them just like any pad. You want to build a little heat into them at first with a few very mild slowdowns and then let them cool down a little prior to stopping the car completely. Then if you can, let the car sit for a few hours at least to let the pads completely cool and the compound "cure". Its all about heat cycles. Gradually build the heat into the pad as you are bedding them. This is why it takes a few hundred miles of easy driving to seat the pad to the rotor surface and then you can let them have it. Bt remeber, you should never stop on a completely hot pad-with any pad-keep the car moving best you can until they cool back to normal driving heat after hard pedal use.

THey are a great pad with a great feel. You WILL absolutely notice a difference in braking feel of the car.

Good luck

 

I've been piecing together your recommended parts list from the other thread. Napa/Stillen rotors, S/S brake lines. That brings me to brake pads.

Unfortunately, it looks like Stillen doesn't make a front pad for '89 vehicles like mine. They do make a 1LE front pad. But not the standard 10.5" fronts that I have. What would be your second choice for a daily driver that is upgraded over stock? I'd prefer low dust as the GTA wheels are a nuisance to keep brake dust out of. I'm not asking for none. Just not tons of it.

 

The standard GM pad for the DelcoMorraine caliper (10.5" rotor setup) is 154.

The Stillen D154HD IS the pad for what you need
http://www.stillen.com/product/brake...armodel=Camaro

The D412HD is the 1LE front brake pad
http://www.stillen.com/product/brake...2hd-28171.html

 

Funny you bring that up about not holding the brake after a heavy braking event. Imagine an aborted takeoff with a heavy jetliner. After reaching 80 knots (about 85-90 mph) any abort is considered a high speed abort... If that happens, the procedure is to NOT set the parking brake after the abort, duh.... In fact, there is a brake cool down chart that Boeing gives us to refer to,to determine the time necessary to allow the brakes to cool before we attempt the next takeoff.

Which goes without saying, "riding" the brakes after a high load braking event is probably just as bad (if not worse) as holding the pedal when the car is stopped.

I can always tell if the captain I'm flying with has this in mind since its the captain's job to maneuver the aircraft on the ground because the tiller (steering) is only on his side.... If the brakes are "smoking" after we arrive at the gate.... I've seen some brakes that you can feel the heat from 5-10 feet away.

 

I have an idiot twin brother that used to work for Bombardier and he and his partner would sometimes do a runway check on Sundays where the would drag one of them down a runway and reach 170knots and then take everything they have to keep it on the ground and shut it back down. He would tell me its some scary stuff foot pedaling that thing back down to a stop with the rudder controls and that it takes both guys and alot of skill to do that speed and not take off...that, and alot of runway.

BTW my twin is an Avionics wizard and also has worked and flown for Sikorsky for many years. He is a gyro dynamics whiz so you can imagine the conversations when he and I brainstorm ideas. He really makes me think.

ps- he also has an avionics thermal cylinder monitor hooked up to his dual plug Porsche 911 racecar- its quite impressive and always gets compliments from the birds guys that spot it.

 

Aviation brakes are undersized compared to sports car brakes. As you know they are not designed for repeated stops at temp. In fact even a single stop can cause major damage to the aircraft. A Max Takeoff Weight, at takeoff speed, rejected takeoff with fully worn brakes and no use of thrust reversers is the major design condition for the brakes. Typically when this happens, you will cause some damage to the undercarriage. Typically after you stop, the tires will absorb heat from the brakes and the thermal fuses will give out. Fortunately V1 RTO's are quite rare.

Of course our brakes should be designed for many consecutive high speed stops (road course).

A couple of interesting videos of this test gone wrong from our friends across the Atlantic.

 

I wonder if they had Stillen or Hawk pads? Amazing video!!!!! Next time there's an emergency stop I'm not gonna take the wing exit!

I like the Keystone Cops communication with the tower, the firefighters using water hoses to put out an airplane fire and the stairs which never seemed to appear....

 

......For some reason I thought I had PBR on the front, being an '89 and all. I guess the Delco Morraine were the same on the fronts between '88 and '89.

The brake parts buying is back on.

 

If you buy Stillen pads can you look at it and let me know the co-efficient of friction code? Hawk HPS have a FF code on the back of the pad. That's 0.35-0.45u of friction when cold and hot.


http://www.hotrod.com/techarticles/c...y/viewall.html

 

With the exception of 1LE cars, all 82-92's were equipped with Delco-Moraine fronts.

JamesC

 

My daily driver is not my Formula () but I tired Hawks HPS on my daily driver... installed in January 2013 and I just picked it up from having work done and he said my pads are down to 30 or 40% left ?!?!?

Stillen is having a sale, so I ordered a new set of those...

My thirdgen question... the standard 10.5 inch pads for the front, are those the same exact pads for the rears disc with 10.5? (My 91 Formula sadly came with drums, but I got a 10.5" rear disc 10 bolt I need pads for...)

Thanks,

Rafael

 

A life lesson; don't believe everything your mechanic tells you. Instead check for yourself.

 

Is this the Karma board??? :-)

Anywho... the Stillen site says front and back for those 3rd gen pads...

 

Most people come here for advice. That is what was offered.

Regarding your second question. The pad plate is the same for 10.5" front and the 10.5" rear discs.

 

Stillen pads are The best yet that i have tried, I have tried Hawk 4 Different compunds,EBC,Perf Friction,AC Delco Stock, Napa, Wagner, And Others the Pedal feel and the stopping power is so much better then the others and they are very quiet.

The Only issue i have is with Stillen them selves, they just don't seem to have it together in the sales Dept.