I'm not going to be road racing or using my newly acquired 91' Z28 for any HPDE. However I forgot how bad the brakes are on these cars...especially mine with rear drums. I don't recall my 87' IROC or 91' Formula ever feeling this way. Anyway I plan on going to a larger wheel at some point either the Hawk's 17" when they come out this summer for 91-92' or an 18" CCWheel. When I do this I plan on upgrading to larger brakes including a rear drum conversion to disk.

What are the best brake conversions or kits available for let's say spirited driving on twisty roads and in stop and go traffic?

 

Go to Bigbrakeupgrade.com they have everything you need The LS1 upgrade is the cheapest and gets you nice stopping power. I did the conversion myself for around $400. Here is my thread on my upgrade.https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/brak...e-upgrade.html

 

I did the 2002 LS brake conversion from bbu with the aluminum hubs. The hubs are great for lower unsprung weight and the take 1LE bearings too. I really like the LSbrake upgrade but I'd like ev.en another step up in capacity. I don't track my car in any way but now they are very adequate and what I really wanted was great brakes. If I had it to do over, I'd get a set of C4 or C5 brakes. They would be kickass for street I would think. If you are on a tight budget, the LS brakes are way better than my stock brakes were.

 

I'd agree; the LS1 brakes are the way to go for most people. While I'm sure they're not "the best", in the sense that there are no doubt other systems that would "work" "better" if you measured stopping distance or # of 100 - 0 stops before fading or some such, they are affordable, easy to install, cheeeeep to maintain over the long term, plentiful, eeeeeeezie to find parts for, and entirely "good enough" for typical street type of usage. They are a VAST improvement over the brakes that came on these cars.

 

That they are. These cars should have had brakes like these from the factory. This has been the best upgrade I have done to my car since I bought it. I have also upgraded to a 4th gen rear and now have LS1 brakes all the way around. The difference is night and day. My car is just a weekend cruiser with an occasional autocross thrown in. I refused to take my car to an autocross last year because the stock brakes scared the crap out of me! Now with the upgrade I will not hesitate to run on an autocross course.

 

Are you aware that with the aluminum hubs the bearings need to be inspected and greased every year? Just thought you'd want to know.

 

Looking at the bigbrakeuprade site. Just curious how do I tell 1LE hum option? The sticker under my center console is missing. It is 91' Z28 5.7l. Surprised it didn't come with rear disk brakes but can't tell if it has 1LE hubs in front without sticker. Do all Z28 have 1LE hubs?

 

No.

Only ones with 1LE have 1LE hubs. If your car doesn't have 1LE (which is, if it has the same cast iron calipers and 10" rotors as all the rest of these cars except the 1LE ones which the calipers are aluminum and have 11" rotors) then it doesn't have that style of hubs. You don't even have to look at them to know; the fact you have drums in the rear means you don't have 1LE, regardless.

The difference in question is, the outer bearing is larger in those hubs, than in the ones you have now. A steel hub and a steel bearing fit and stay together well. A steel bearing in an aluminum hub, not so much. They require a higher level of periodic attention.

Like almost anything else in life, you give up one thing (long-term trouble-free freedom from required maintenance) in exchange for getting something else (reduction in unsprung weight). There ain't no such thing as a free lunch. It's your call.

 

Thanks for explaining it well. I was looking at brake upgrades and considering buying the C5 complete conversion kit, some of the kits stated they would fit on 1LE hubs with no issue. Now that I know I don't have a 1LE I will look at whatever conversion kit fits the best and go with that. cheers.

 

The brakes you have now don't exactly have "hubs"; the rotor, instead of being a discrete piece, has the "hub" integrated into it. That's how they did it back in the 60s when that style of brakes was introduced. (and no matter how crappy we all feel like it is TODAY in 2020, in 1969, it was EPIC and WORLD-BEATING) So whenever you do whatever upgrade you decide on, that will change.

The 1LE hubs will fit right onto your spindles. Either steel or aluminum. The inner race of the bearings is the same as the ones you have now, it's only the outer dia that's different.. AFAIK the C5 ones will fit, as well; they're basically the same thing as the LS1, just tarted up a little bit with red paint. The actual braking SYSTEM isn't much different from the LS1 F body setup.

 

Yeah it's funny back in 87-95' when I owned my 87' IROC I remembered thinking how well the car stopped...comparison then to my 65' Mustang drum brakes at the time. I had a 91' Firebird Formula 350 that I sold in 2010 and it had 4 wheel disc on all four corners, I also had a C5 Z and a 2000 Camaro at the time and remembered thinking the Firebird still stopped fairly well...not as good as my C5 but still pretty good. Now stepping back into a ThirdGen with only front wheel disc and rear drums....it feels really bad. Even my wife is like that car needs better brakes.

What is the best route....full C5 conversion? I have 16" wheels now but am probably going to go with the 17" Hawk 92' repros that are coming out this summer, or some 18" CCW. I don't want to have any throw away work and there are a bunch of options on the bigbrakeupgrade website. Seems like the full conversion setups are the way to go....thoughts? As mentioned I'm not road racing this car, but would like a really good brake setup, plus convert the rear to disc if need be. Part of me thinks if I just get a superior front brake setup I won't be as concerned about the rear drums for the type of driving the car will see.

 

AFAIK there is no material difference in FUNCTION between the LS1 and C5 systems. One just has a bit more bling and likely costs a bit more as well. Either would be SO MUCH BETTER than what you have now, it'll be night and day.

I'd recommend though, hit your local parts store's web site, and look up parts for both. No sense in putting something on your car that you'll have to wait however long for parts to be made for it. Get something that you can readily maintain; that all the parts for it, are sitting down there at the corner, all the time, only acoupla blocks away. Check wheel bearings, seals, calipers, rotors, and of course pads. MAKE SURE it's all sitting there waiting for you when you need it.

 

If the stock brakes feel bad compared to the same year car with rear discs, there's something wrong with the brakes. There's not a lot of difference between a stock disc/disc system and stock disc/drum. If anything the disc/drum arguably works better than most 82-88 4 wheel disc cars. Sounds more like there's something wrong with your existing brakes than any design deficiency. I wouldn't blame you for wanting to upgrade, but contrary to popular opinion the stock braking systems aren't that bad.