Hey everyone, I am considering doing the LSI brake upgrade, however I am determinded to keep my stock 15" steel ralley rims. Will the LS1 calipers clear? I have searched and found that they will clear only some firebird 15" aluminum rims, but no mention of the 15" Z28 aluminum, or steel ralleys. Any one try these? If they won't fit, what would be an option? I was looking at the calipers on the 2006 and up impalas. Opinions?

 

I've done some more researching, and I've found that the C4 brake swap will clear 15" wheels. So I'm thinking that's going to be the route I'll take. I'm thinking I'll price out the calipers and such at work tomorrow. The C4's will upgrade me to a 12" rotor, clear 15" wheels, and be a big improvement over stock. I'm also in the process of swapping to rear discs as well. The plan there is prob going to use the chevy blazer rear aluminum calipers.

 

The plain C4 setup stinks performance wise. Tiny tiny 0.81" thick rotor. You may like the pedal feel better, however. Shorter and firmer.

 

In what way do they "stink"? I would think that the larger rotors, and dual piston aluminum calipers would be an improvement over the stock 10.5"/ single piston brakes. I'm not doing auto X or the such, just mainly street driven, with the odd quarter mile blast. At a pure performance view point, there are better options, but I would think these would be decent all around... am I wrong?

 

I did the swap and went with first series IROC 16" refurb rims. Check out my signature
Links below for pics and info on this...

 

Certainly the C4 brakes will be better than stock, but I think if you are going through all the hassle and expense of doing a brake upgrade the 12 inch LS1 or 13 inch C5 brakes are the best bang for the buck. The only problem is that you want to run 15 inch wheels and neither of those will fit under 15's.

 

They will likely be worse than stock at thermal managment. The rotor is THINNER THAN STOCK. 0.81" vs 1.04". That is really quite a difference. Piston sizes on those calipers are also tiny.

You pedal will be much shorter and firmer (more effort) than stock. Is that what you want? Yes, is a perfectly fine answer, btw.