i heard that power braking is bad for the car, and it also wears down the rear brake pads. I dont understand that either, i have front brakes, why do i have pads on the rear wheels?? and how would power braking wear down these pads, or how is power braking bad for the car??

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1992 z28 25th Anniversary
All black w/ z28 wing
Flowmaster Exhaust
350 TPI

 

Either way you have brakes on all your wheels, whether drum or disc, and while holding the brake you floor it obvisouly you will be putting stress on the back brakes. Also power braking is tough on the tranny and can ruin a torque converter. I recommend unless you plan on selling the car soon or getting a rebuilt tranny soon don't power brake.

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'86 IROC
T-TOPS, TINTED WINDOWS, BRAKE LIGHT BLACKOUTS
GM GOODWRENCH 350
EDELBROCK TES HEADERS
FLOWMASTER
EDELBROCK 600CFM CARB.
KN AIRFILTER
ACCEL HEI DISTRIBUTOR
160* Stat
2:73 GEARS
Rebuilt 700R4, with manual valve body
B&M Megashifter
Soon to be installed
Exhaust Cut-Out and different gears, either 3:73 or 3:42
"There is nothing more addicting than speed"

 

Screws up the rear end too, trust me, I know..... Not fun to have an axle fly out while you're going down the road.
bsa

 

It puts unnecessary stress on a lot of engine components.

All of your wheels have brakes, chances are though the rear tires are drum brakes, not disk brakes. When you apply pressure to the brake pedal, all four tires brake, but it's distributed a lot more towards the front wheels. So, powerbraking is a good way to grind down a brake shoe.

Also, everything from the torque converter to the differential are relatively "weak" links. Gears aren't THAT hard to throw out, and our differentials are pretty weak as it is.

Sure, it's fun, and it makes that nice cloud of smoke, but our cars weren't meant to turn the tires on pavement and not go anywhere.

Do this:

Go up to a wall or some other stationary object that's next to pavement, and push on the wall until your feet are sliding.

See how YOU like it!

heh

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89 iroc-z 305 tbi
k&n filtercharger, open element air filter. nuffin' else

 

All are true, but still, I can't resist a powerbrake every now and then.

Just remember- if you Don't have a posi axle (where both tires spin), your speedometer only shows half the tire speed. If you're doing a burnout, and your speedo shows 25mph, your tire's doing 50mph. If the speedo shows 60 mph, expect the tire to blow out!


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-Tom P (Hot rodded 1986 Firebird 2.8l) from http://www.f-body.net/mailbag/3rd/3rd_mailbag.html message boards
---Think your car could be pic of the week? Visit http://www.f-body.net for details!

 

I don't think So Tom...

Speedo gear is In the tranny, Weather one Or Both Tires are Spinning, the tranny is still Spinning the Same speed


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60 Ranchero - Project ( Money Hole )
85 Sport Coupe LG4 - Daily Driver 15.26 @ 87.0
Reader's ride -> My Ride

Just another Hot Rod kid, or thats what they all tell me.
Livin' the Stereotype

 

I don't think so Bort, Tom is correct. This is how an open diff works. Try it sometime Bort, jack the back of an open rear car up, put it on jack stands. Start the car, put it in drive, and let it idle. Carefully stop one of the back tires(a piece of wood or something works if you don't want to use your hands). As you slow down the tire, the other rear tire speeds up. When the tire is stopped the other tire is spinning exactly twice as fast. Half of the speed of the spinning tire is coming form the spinning carrier and the other half is from the spider gears spinning. The gear attached to the stopped wheel isn't spinning which forces the spiders to turn. Look at an open diff sometime and you will see what I mean. A one wheeled burnout is hell on the spider gears. A hard launch that 'hooks up' is harder on the ring and pinion than the tires breaking loose. Holding a converter against the stall speed without spinning the tires is harder on the converter than letting the tires spin. Once the tires start to spin, the traction the tires had is greatly reduced--less strain. You can kill the tranny if you just let off--remember to ride out the burnout until the tires regain traction, or let off slowly. What it really kills is tires, which translates into $$$$. If you don't want to kill the brakes, use just enough pressure to hold the car in place
--after the tires start to spin you can let off the brake a little bit.

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82 camaro--original steering wheel, brake/gas pedals, seats--everything else modified
82camaro

 

Yes, the tranny is spinning at X speed. However, if you have an open rear dif, all the power goes to one wheel, which turns at twice the indicated speed. (this is a product of the rear diff. the way the gears are set up, this is the result.)

In any case, while power braking is fun, and makes a nice cloud of smoke, it is extremely hard on the entire driveline.

Enjoy