While driving home from work today, I slammed on the brakes in order to go slow across the railroad tracks. When I was not happy with how fast the car slowed down, I tried to think of the eaisest way to upgade the brakes. Because their isn't a kit and a couple of mods are needed for the LS1 brakes, they don't seem right for daily driving. Baer is too expensive. I thought about calipers from SSBC, but don't know the improvment and the cost.

Any suggestions?

 

Cheapest way would probably be to grab the spindles and brake setup from a 1LE car. Good luck finding one though. But if you did that would be the cheapest way for sure.

I agree we should have gotten a better brake setup...hell we have the exact same setup as a s10...I think we deserved better lol.

850$ gets you the complete 1LE brake setup from spohn.net.

Kinda pricey but I hear the 1LE is way better. I remember someone posting that it cost them less than that to do c5 brakes...

 

Yes the C5 brakes would be cheaper, if you can get them to squeeze into your wheels.

Why not get some d/s rotors and premium brake pads for your current setup? Also braided hoses would help out.

 

you guys are thinking too deeply about it.



the cheapest way is to make your current brakes work to their full potential.


when was the last time you changed the brake fluid?
are you running cheapie parts store pads?
is there any air in the lines?
when was the last time you changed the flex hoses in your system? why not replace with stainless steel lines?






heres what i would do:
order:
EBC greenstuffs pads.
SS flex hoses... you can do a search to decide on brand.. i ended up getting earls
FORD heavy duty brake fluid
speed bleeders..


pull the brakes and get the rotors resurfaced.. if they're at or near the min, buy new rotors... good ones, not cheapie parts store ones.

swap the pads to the EBC ones, change the flex line, and install the speed bleeders..

then bleed/flush the brake system... get all that nasty OEM fluid out, and the clean new stuff in.


then just break in the pads carefully, and you're set.

it wont be a race setup, but on the street, you'll be able to do your emergency stop better.

 

oh, another small one is,

ditch the stock prop valve and put a adjustible one in there..... in the stock 3rdgen setup, the rear brakes are bearly used.

while you still want to lock the fronts before the rears, you do want to use as much rear brake as you can.

 

Because my rear has are drums, would you still reccomend an adjustable prop valve?

 

MrDude is right, just get you current brakes working up to snuff. I put on Performance Friction Carbon Metallic brake pads and was stunned at how much better my car stopped.

You don't have to spend a lot to stop faster. Yes, the adjustable proportioning valve will help with drum brakes as well.

 

Are the drums locking up before the fronts?

 

There's plenty of kits out there that won't break you, just do some looking around. Mark Lock (Lock) has the LS1s on his car and loves them, don't overlook these brake too quickly. There's also C4s and C4 HDs avaiable now, so look into those also. Nice budget upgrades....


Ed

 

Iwas refering to a kit for the LS1 Brakes.

 

There's a kit for those, too...


Ed

 

link?

 

https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/sho...hreadid=183169

Ed

 

I have done just about everything I can think to make my 10.5 inch stockers work to some level above Geo Metro and have done it. I tried the carbon metallic pads and they were good but dusted the wheels like crazy (big pet peeve of mine since I have GTA wheels and they suck to clean). So I bought new rotors, not slotted or drilled just good OE replacement rotors, new calipers and a set of carbon ceramic brake pads. All together in the brakes I think I'm in to them for about $150. The thing I really like about the carbon ceramic pads is they don't require a seasoning or bedding process and they work just as good cold (or wet) as they do once everything is up to temp. Plus, they hardly dust at all, yes there is still dust but I can go about two weeks between wheel cleanings where before I was cleaning them daily alomost. Don't misinterpret what I'm saying here, these 10.5's are still way inadequate for me, but they do ok for street duty. The Auto-X course has me sweating out a few turns due to fade (slotted or drilled rotors would probably helped here). My plan was to make these work as good as possible until I could get the Baer Track on there but now that money has gotten tighter around my house, I will have to live with these for a while longer. When I get the money saved up, I am going to do the C4 HD setup the Ed has come up with.

 

Cheapest way to improve braking is to lose weight from the car. Not only is it free but you can sell the stuff you pull off. So you can actually make money to have your car stop better. Same goes for the handling.

 

Mr. Dude's advice is pretty sound. I've done the 1le conversion up front and put the PBR's out back with ceramic pads all the way around to cut down on all that friggin brake dust. My next step is another thing he suggested. I bought a wilwood adjustable prop. valve. Now I just need to get it down to the shop to have the lines cut and reflared to install it.

 

properly working brakes, good pads and braided line works wonders....if it weren't for the wow factor i would have been just as happy as i am now with my baer. unless your on a road course, properly working stock disc brakes with the right upgrades are just fine.