86White_T/A305

Tac return has come in and my first order of business was buying the partial ls1 conversion kit for BBU. I bought a set of used complete spindles from a 02 camaro from a member on ls1tech locally. Great guy..gave me a deal and included brand new front pads and rotors from gm in box ontop.The rotors and pads already on the spindles have easily 90% life still on them.All for $200 3 yrs ago and they have sat in my basement since lol. I recently swapped to an Lt1 rearend that already has drilled rotors and stock pads. I barely noticed the rears helping my braking ..and the wear on them is very slight.

I have gone beyond overlooking trying to stop the car with the over powered chassis. Time to remedy my safety. I read another popular thread in here about changing the prop valve spring to apply more rear brake pressure.Im opting to do this and went right for the 22lb spring.they come in a pack and will be selling off the rest if anyone needs them.

While Im waiting foe bbu to send out my conversion spindles Im also strongly looking at just putting on fresh ebc rotors and pads for the front and rears for some extra bite. I did a set of the stage 5 pads and rotors on a friends srt10 truck and man that thing stopped great before..but it whales now!!! I want to give my car a much better stopping power.I know just going from the stock 10.5 rotors to the ls1 is a huge improvement in its own right..but then again..I dont want to be just on the limits of stock ls1 pads/rotors either.

Im thinking yellowstuff pads all around and their slotted black rotors.Ill be posting pics as I go along. Excited to make this car be able to stop as good as modern cars after I blow their doors off

86White_T/A305

Finally had a decent day to get some work done. I wanted to paint and prep for the BBU spindle to arrive any moment. I grabbed my Ls1 spindle assembly and cleaned the calipers and began to paint. The first can of paint mustve had a wrong cap put on because its was a nice Hemi orange. I stuck with it to be the base coat and help bring out the brightness of red I wanted. luckily the other 2 cans of paint were actually red. Got everything painted..clear coated. I got some "TransAm" caliper decals on the way aswell to add a slight flare thought Gta wheels do cover quite a bit of the brakes.The other thing i did was change the propvalve spring and that is literally a 2min job..I had 2 drops of fluid come out.Thtas how fast i wanted to switch the springs and close the system. I doubt I would need to bleed it but once I do the ls1 conversion..ill bleed the entire brakes then.Looks like slowing the bird down wont be so scary.

I decided to not order ebc stuff yet and see exactly how i like stock ls1 brakes or do i need more aggressive pads/rotors.

86White_T/A305

*Update*

I made it home in time to receive a nice heavy package.My new spindles from BBU. I cant say how much Scott really is a stand up guy.He got me these things fast and the quality is top notch.Shipped and packaged well...powder coating looks durable.Brackets etc look factory. Im itching to put these on right now tonight just to mount my wheels and see it filled with rotor/caliper. But untill I get my driveshaft measured and installed I cant get the car to the shop to hammer out the old spindles and send them to Scott.

Im hoping to finish this up with a review of stock ls1 brakes on my car and the 22lbs prop valve spring to give you guys an idea how much an improvement overall braking is and if i feel the need for more stopping power.Ill order ebc pads/rotors after. but for now..this will be heaven compared to those dinky stock 10.5 brakes.

Pics below or the spindles, the brakes test fitted, and then other parts i got today.The hd yokes for the trans/diff i need to intall, lca relocation brackets. Still waiting on sfc's which should be here next week

DynoDave43

iTrader: (11)

I look forward to your opinion of this upgrade.

86White_T/A305

Im anxious to get it done also and report my findings. Im thinking once I get my new driveshaft installed and able to drive the car. Im going to do some videos of how the stock brakes feel with just the rear brake spring upgrade.And then review video of after putting on the ls1 front brakes. I think anyone on stock brakes should try the 19lbs spring in the stock prop valve for daily use. With my hp level and putting the ls1 front brakes on with lt1 rear brakes sounds like a better combo for my car.

Almost ready to get my new driveshaft cut. Took off the old yoke from the diff and was about to put the new one on..only to find out its the wrong size

86White_T/A305

Car is finally back on the road and Ive been able to do a few pulls.So with the 22lbs spring in the prop valve and havent bled the system yet I can tell a noticeable increase in braking power.It doesnt make my car brake bias too much on the rear and cause any unpredictable behaviour. I can see the rear rotors have gotten used more adequately and the initial brake pressure brings the car down to a stop nicely.Takes getting used to,I feel that in regualr stopping the car still lacks ability overall..but in a hard braking situation..it does significantly stop in a shorter distance and didnt lock up. Friday will be the day I get the ls1 brakes on and see just how well the car reacts to that.

-=Z28=-

iTrader: (3)

Congrats on the conversion. I'm doing a ls1 swap myself too here soon. I have everything. Question, What was your stock setup in the rear? I have a 84 z that has discs on all 4 corners and am wondering if I should try the spring or just buy an adjustable prop valve. I believe I have the old cast style valve now but need to confirm. For some reason I remember seeing an aluminum, more square style but from reading I should have the cast style.

Thanks

86White_T/A305

Well originally my car has a 9bolt rearend with disc brakes. Just before winter i swapped to a 94 camaro lt1 rearend which has larger disc brakes. I did not notice any improvement in braking by just swapping the rearends. I feel that now having the 22lbs spring in the stock prop valve has made noteable improvement and im sure it would have better pedal feel if I bled the rear brakes. But right now i just dropped my car off to have a friend swap the front spindles on pretty quick and Pick the car up after im done work. I cant see how going to ls1 brakes wont leave a smile on my face and inspire confidence in driving/stopping hard. Should be well worth the money,even with the new spring.

Buddy

So do you have many other 22lbs springs left from the pack?? You did notice a viable difference with just the spring change??

86White_T/A305

I have 4 springs.They came in a pack of 5. And yes..just a spring change is quite noticeable with the 22lbs. But not rear biased over the front..in my short experience so far Im liking it alot. As much as i want to play with the brakes tomorrow once I get it back from the ls1 conversion..my lovely canadian weather decided to dump this white **** called snow on the ground . Fml..looks like I have to wait for a nice day to bed the brakes in and get a true reaction.

bigarmzz

I'd be interested in one of your left over prop valve springs. I wanna do this same mod someday in the future also

Bullydawg

iTrader: (7)

I'd be interested in a spring as well. I want to do the 4th gen brake swap on my Ls1 swapped Iroc.

Buddy

I'm happy to grab whatever springs you have left. Few of us out here in Eastern Ontario.

86White_T/A305

Sure guys. Id say pm me and I have 4 of them. It might cost me 5 bucks to ship them if ya wanna paypal me something.

Just remember when you do go to swap the spring..be ready to change it quickly and give a good push on the bolt to stop the pv from losing any extra fluid or take in too much air.I thought about it afterwards it might be a good idea to use vicegrips on all 4 rubber lines prior to removal but oh well.

Buddy

Pm sent

86White_T/A305

Looks like you 3 just took my left over springs then lol.Buddy,bullydawg and bigarmzz

86White_T/A305

So here we go. My first impressions of my ls1 brake swap is..Im not overly impressed :P....

Kidding...wow the car stops! Let start with the installation. I cant say enough how nice the BBU kit is.Not 1 hiccup doing this swap and literally if I had the air tools to do this in my driveway like it was at my friends shop.The entire process took an hr tops. The issues I did run into however were very minor.I had a pretty rusty brake line retainer clip broke apart on the passenger side so i got some rubber hose and split it open and put it on the bracket for the brake line and then ziptied the rubber line snug into place for now. Next was just funny on my part...so Scott did say that depending on which gta rims i had can still rub on the face of the caliper when using front gta rims.So the first test fit..I shouldve done on the passenger side because sure enough..put the wheel on and went to spin in generously and the healthy scrhhh sound of caliper meshing with the rim sound and paint coming off. Ooops...luckily I had bought 1/4 inch spacers and put it on and all was well.

Or so I thought.With the spacers on and seeing a gap of 5 sheets of paper between the rim and caliper..i went for a victory price is right and spun the wheel...which ended with a quick THUD! In my hast..totally forgot the stick on inside wheel weights...smh. Now I had to take both front wheels and rebalance them with static weights,then everything was 100% good to go. Bled the system with all new dot 4 fluid and i hit the road to bed in the pads/rotors.

As it sits to recap what is on my car now. Fbody ls1 front brakes with brand new ac delco rotors and pads, the rears are stock lt1/pbr style calipers with used unknown drilled rotors/pads that came with my 4thgen rearend swap,and last is the stock prop valve with upgraded 22lbs spring.

Finally..get to the point does it work. YES...the brakes have reduced my stopping distance what feels like close to 20ft shorter than 2 days ago when i took the car out on the same street and stopped from the same speed. I shouldve marked my distances but oh well. Now you do have to keep in mind that bigger calipers means more fluid is required to get engagment. So to me I need more pedal travel before the brakes begin to do their job.Once being applied..hang on. the pedal sinks to the floor more but if i jam on them..the car haults to a stop..I havent locked them up but it will reduce speed quite quickly..smoothly without lockup so far at the rear in the rain.

Its a long post but i want to give honest feedback. Here are my concerns going forward(pun intended). Now i can say the car has stopping power both front and rear feel balanced with the 22lbs pv spring when i hit the brakes for a medium..to heavy brake...great! but for light..going to medium braking still feels like the stock brakes. the initial bite for me isnt as grabby as I hoped. few things to consider affects this..and correct if im wrong but temps right now are still chilly and I just switched to dot 4 fluid. I also have unknown rear pads/rotors..could be crap quality and stock ls1 rotors/pads were meant for everyday driving..not the abuse ill put them through in my weekend activities. Ive read many threads on here about changing to 4thgen brake masters and boosters and seems like it isnt worth changing to gain any better braking..just a cleaner looking engine bay.If thats not true then maybe Id change brake masters since my boost is a yr old and works fine. i say for sure everyone should swap to ls1 front brakes ..but im still considering performance oriented pads/rotors for a better street/strip car.But as it stands for daily driver..its the cats meow right now and I can late brake without worry.No more riding the pedal for a half block.just stop..then go.

Bullydawg

iTrader: (7)

Have my Ls1 front brakes on their way, and I just bought a set of Ls1 rear backing plates... Spring arrived and I can't wait to get started!

86White_T/A305

Awesome,what are you going to use for pad/rotor setup..i do not suggest the stock pads/rotors.They fade too quick for my liking..upgrade now before you put them on.

Bullydawg

iTrader: (7)

I'm not sure. I bought a complete setup spindle and all for 475 shipped. For the back I'll do slotted and EBC. Same setup I have on my bird. The fronts will most likely get EBC as well. Might try to just have the front rotor resurfaced.

86White_T/A305

I plan to do ebc also.stage 4 or 5.I think I need it for my power level without question lol. The stock pads and rotors are ok for normal street driving..but once the turbo gets going..I still need quicker braking

five7kid

iTrader: (14)

Okay, didn't recognize this thread before I started mine. Finally realized you're using the same LS1 front/LT1 rear combo I'm doing. (And thanks for your input on my thread).

Still wondering if I will need to go to the LS1 master cylinder (which I have from the same car that donated the LS1 fronts). I haven't gotten mine bled yet, but excess pedal travel is one of my primal fears (based on experience with this and another car). When you're trying to stall up and get a little more bite out of the brakes, running out of pedal travel is not good.

86White_T/A305

I wouldnt say i run out of pedal travel but its lower portion of the travel that really starts to grab. Light pressure just isnt going to apply much force compared to newer cars.Hence why i want to get more aggressive pads/rotors for more initial bite.

tubesncubes

Also, now that you have the slip on spacers you can run the +16 rear Gta wheels on the front for a more factory look. But don't forget about the wheel weights twice like I did

86White_T/A305

No need for me to run the rears upfront. The fronts have a very small spacer and looks factory. My rears have et streets on them so i wasnt going to swap tires around just to put rear rims upfront.

86White_T/A305

Bringing this thread back from the dead. With all I got going for the car this spring doing my floors,roll cage and sfcs.I sold my 05 ctsv and thats helping to fund some more upgrades.

I decided to get ebcs front and back.I thought long and hard about this for some time.i have used ebc on friends cars and liked the perfomance.I couldnt make up my mind on rotors..I knew id start with yellow stuff pads front/rear.My hang up was blanks vs slotted.This car is mainly street and increasingly more track use.I figure with using blanks give more surface area for the pads which should be the ideal braking power.Slotted would give a harder initial bite..create a slight hum noise under braking.

I knew i didnt want drilled rotors.Im going to see who much these yellow pads and black coated rotors work for both the street/strip and how much better they improve the ls1 brake setup.Should be here in a week or so and Ill post up pics.

86White_T/A305

Well I installed my ebc front and rear pads/rotors. I went with yellow stuff pads and their coated blank rotors. I choose not the get drilled or slotted rotors to have more surface area for the pads. I can say just like most reviews..the yellowstuff pads give off dust..jesus. But wow do they halt my car down. Ive been gentle to break them in and then put some heat into them and its scary how it dives the car down.Im confident in the car's ability to stop..I just want to get rid of the pedal travel it takes to engage stopping power.Id recommend them

BBU.COM

With the displacement increasing (piston area) over stock, the master cylinder needs to travel further to fill and pressurize the pistons, be sure your bearing are set at 12 ft lbs to eliminate any pad knock back issues and then consider maybe increasing bore size of the master to reduce the travel.

86White_T/A305

Thank you BBU,and i havent noticed any issues with the setup to date.Your products have been flawless.Im quite enjoying the new pads and rotors..but I still would like a shorter pedal travel.Would an ls1 master help reduce that,or as sen in another thread that maybe putting in a slightly longer rod for the master would cure this also.

Your thoughts?

BBU.COM

The LS1 master would not help- providing your current master is the original one and working correctly, the step bore quick take up master should keep a higher pedal than a LS1.

The booster to master pin length length is not adjustable on the 3rd gen`s I think you might be thinking of when a LS1 master is installed to a 3rd gen booster, they are too short then. The pedal to booster connection can introduce a lot of travel but you would have had it before the swap no?

I`m assuming the travel is more than previous 10.5 / LT1 rear set-up..so I`d start by finding out if one particular axle is the problem, if you have a rubber line on the body to axle tee, use a brake hose clamp or small vise grips with short lengths of tubing over the jaws to clamp off the rear brakes. Test your pedal for that drop and see if it is the same or different.

This master was used up until the end of 88, the 1LE rear disc cars got a smaller version, check if you have the original in place or not.

IRON CALIPER REAR DISKS
25.4 & 36MM CYL BORE
MC P/N: GM 18030556, or Delco 18M314