Have desided to do a big brake upgrade on the IROC. Doing both front and rear with parts from BBU. Want to get started as I am taking the spindles off to redo my front suspension right now.

 

I'd like to make that change myself some day. I look forward to following your progress.

 

What kit are you going with?

What wheels will you be using?

 

Bought two new AC Delco rear disc backing plates for the LS1 conversion today.

 

Ordered LS1 front calipers,

 

Very good upgrade! I did this on the front of my car last year and will never go back!

 

Forgot you were a member here Darren! I almost added to my comment the a local member of our Michigan F-body forum had done this to his 3rd gen., and was very happy with it.

 

Couldn't be happier and made a huge different in function and looks! If anyone needs a hand or advice let me know. If anyone needs some LS calipers or rotors let me know, or thirdgen rotors to machine down to hubs I have those too!

I can even make them look as sexy as mine

I also have them on the rear as well so LS1 brakes all around, but I cheated on the rear, used a LS1 rear, lol

 

Good to here you all like the LS1 conversion. I almost went with the c5, but wanted to keep my IROC 16's.

 

Keeping my 16" PW7s is part of my motivation for wanting this particular upgrade.

 

A caliper was delivered today, it's huge compared to the stock 3rd gen. Ordered the AC Delco rotors today.

 

What are you doing for your dust shields?

 

Not using them.

 

So no E brake??

 

E brake is on mounts. Works like a drum brake against the inside of the rotor. Rotor has a small drum built into the back of it that acts as the e brake. Pretty good idea.

 

Correct, but the dust plates have 3 humps that hold the shoes to stop them from walking around. Are there documented installs where they work with them??

I've been pulling my hair out searching and repairing a PS dust shield so I can send them to strange. I'd love to see pictures.

 

I found this picture on another site of a used LS1 rear disc mount is the round black piece the part your trying to fix? The e brake lever has a rubber boot/ dust shield shown here (torn in the red box)

 

I'm referring to the large black disc on the back. It helps hold it together.

 

A

 

Seen way to many of those internal drums cause problems. Material falling off, metal on metal dragging all over, spring falling out and getting wedged in there.
Big fan of the 89-97 setup over the rear LS caliper/e-brake setup.

 

Have all my parts ordered for the upgrade. Scott at www.bigbrakeupgrade.com is great to do business with.

 

I got my stuff from Scott in the mail this week... Now I have to wait for the base hobby garage to open up (of course they start a renovation the week I get my parts!) He was great to deal with.

 

[QUOTE=WTR388;6005277]I got my stuff from Scott in the mail this week... Now I have to wait for the base hobby garage to open up (of course they start a renovation the week I get my parts!) He was great to deal with.[/
Are you doing the LS1 brakes?

 

Yep, got all 4 calipers and drilled/slotted rotors for $50 off a wrecked 99 at the junkers (backing plates for the rear too).

 

What a good buy. I just received my hubs and brackets from BBU today!

 

Aren't LS1 and C6 brakes the same...both have dual piston....

 

Very close, but not the same. LS1 brakes fit 16" wheels, C5 require 17" wheels.

 

when i did the LS1 brakes on the front of my Camaro, i bought everything at NAPA.. made the hubs out of new cheap stock rotors on a lathe at work, where i also modified the spindles and made the caliper brackets out of 1/4" steel..
i could have done everything at home with basic tools like i did when i put C4 front brakes on my 71 Nova back in '02, but i had access to the machines and equipment to do it the easy way so i did it..

when i did the rears, i took the really easy path and bought a complete rearend out of a wrecked '02 Z28 convertible that got hit in the front end..

you need those rear backing plates to use the stock internal parking brake.

 

Hey derrik. I'd love to see pictures of that stuff! I'm a tech and I get great pricing from NAPA so seeing someone whose done the work already is a huge plus!!

Specifically what do you have to do to modify the factory spindles to make the adapter plate work for the new calipers. I have a machine shop near me that could do the work cheap enough.

 

sorry can't load pics.

 

Hey guys check out this page. I hate to step on BBUS toes but I found a website that details everything needed to be done to change your spindles as well as Autocad/PDFfiles for making the anchor brackets! The website is a little bizarre but the information is amazing.

http://lukeskaff.com/projects/car/th...-modification/

 

Scott's page also has the info on spindle modification... Hopefully mine will be finalized tomorrow, I've spent the last few nights prepping my calipers/brackets/hubs (cleaning and painting), and I'm doing a-arm bushings which has proven a chore, original 87 bushings with a rusted in bolt that required the torch, and then removing the stock double flared bushings from the arms also sucks up time. Tomorrow the a-arms get painted, bushings/balljoints installed, spindle mods completed and then just maybe get it all bolted up if I'm fast enough!

 

I'm doing the same thing including ball joints,
tie rods, center link, new springs, struts and founders strut mounts. It Sounds like lots of fun! Post some pics! I did buy a 12 ton shop press to help do the bushings.

 

I know about that site, all good stuff.

 

Didn't get as far as I wanted today, I took my time with tapping the bolt holes in the spindle, I'm used to aluminum more than I am cast steel.
Cutting the first spindle took me longer than the second one, used a saws all, worked great!
Here's the first one mocked up before final dressing and paint of the spindle:


Everything is now fabricated and painted, Monday it's pure assembly.
I removed the turn stops from the A-arms since they no longer function and from what I hear create interference with the Caliper, so I got myself some hardware so I can weld up my own turn stop that will retain my turn radius. Sort of like what was done here: https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/brak...s1-brakes.html

 

Looking good!

 

It sure has taken a lot longer than I originally expected!
If I was only doing the brake swap and not the A-arm bushings and ball joints and cleaning/painting, I could do it in a weekend in an every day garage.
I would suggest people buy the pre-made spindle if they haven't done much fab type stuff, it would be easy to make a dangerous or expensive mistake.

 

Well, this happened tonight... Finally. Still not done, need to weld my adjustable steering stop to the other A-arm then I can put it all together... Rotor is used but still serviceable.
The steering stop I made hits on the knuckle before the banjo bolt hits the a-arm, giving it about 1/16" gap.

 

Nice!

 

Agreed...Nice!

Does the new steering stop cause any loss of steering angle?

 

It will, how much I'm not sure quite yet... It's better than the banjo fitting hitting the a-arm though!

Scott included a couple of hub spacers for me, luckily he did because I needed one on my passenger side, the inner face of the rotor was contacting the pad bracket. Drivers side was fine without.

It's all together, tomorrow it's just line to caliper connections and bleed... We got about 2' of snow the last 24 hours so it's hostage in the shop right now though.

 

another option for big brakes that fit with 16" wheels is the Wilwood FSL 4-piston/C4 HD 13" rotor set up. i have that set up on my car. they are CLOSE but they fit, function and look awesome! they are a bit more expensive only because it's not likely to find used wilwoods in a junkyard, let alone the FSL....but all the information for the brake bracket and parts needed is cover between here and LukeSkaff. i got my brackets from flynbye (ebmiller88) not sure if BBU has the brackets or a kit for that setup. i was going to

use their kits when i was originally going to go with the SS/CTS-V 14 and 14.5 set up but i also wanted to be able to keep the factory 16" IROCs for winter tires.

 

Sort of old news but yes we have that conversion, and its not the most popular but it does fill a void (13 inch rotor & 4 piston caliper in a 16 inch stock wheel ! )



http://www.bigbrakeupgrade.com/fsl.html

 

Yes! It is old news haha I just don't want people to forget that if they want the best braking under a stock 16, that's definitely the way to go. My car stops AMAZING and I would recommend it to anyone and everyone. Your kit looks super nice. I will be upgrading to Wilwood hat/rotor combo soon but by the time I add it all up, it's not very "budget" friendly anymore

 

Any way you could make a kit for the FSL's with a larger rotor?

 

Good question, the 13 inch is actually the biggest that should be paired with the FSL according to Wilwood`s diagram on the 4 & 6 piston Lug Mount superlite`s.
Once you move into the Radial Mount calipers 14 inch is the max, but there again is a huge difference in caliper price ( more than double per caliper)

I can make the brackets if you`d like to experiment

 

And you can get a radial 6pot and 13" rotor to fit the Formula 16" wheels! But it doesn't fit everyone's budget.

 

Looks killer Ted !

 

Thanks TTOP350,
Of course, If your budget can fit the fronts, you have to do the back!

 

i bought all the parts at NAPA: told the counter lady that i had a 2000 Camaro that i needed front rotors, calipers, banjo bolts, and pads for and an 86 Camaro that i needed front rotors for... wound up also getting new rubber lines when i actually did the swap, stock replacements for my 86 Camaro worked.. i also bought the mounting bolts and stuff as i figured out what i needed: found a set of caliper mounting bolts for some Ford product to mount the caliper baskets to the brackets, and some bulk high grade metric 12mm (i think, but maybe they were 14mm??) fine thread bolts for the bracket to the spindle.


all you are doing to the spindles is cutting off the stock caliper mounting ears and drilling the dust shield mounting holes out to tap them for bigger bolts. it's what GM did on the 1LE cars, so it's a safe modification.

then i made hubs out of a set of new cheap replacement rotors by cutting the rotor part off and just leaving the hub, making sure that they actually fit inside the LS1 rotors.. i used a lathe for this, but did it with a bench grinder 15 years ago when i put C4 brakes on my Nova.. that wasn't pretty, but it worked..

to make the mounting brackets, i mocked it all up by putting the hubs on the spindles, the rotors on the hubs, and the caliper/basket over the rotor. then i made a cardboard template of where to put the holes in the 1/4" steel to make the bracket and how to contour it.