Tested my brakes! 60-0 results and what I'm going to do now to hopefully improve...

OK, I got my car out and warmed everything up by driving around for five minutes. Then it was hook up the G-Tech and do some 60-0 stops. Here are my results:

1. 159 ft.
2. 162 ft.
3. 165 ft.
4. 168 ft.
5. 174 ft.

Hmmm, see a pattern there. Anyway, that's an average of 165.6 feet. All things considered and some of the stories I've read about cars with drums all around, I wasn't too displeased. I looked up 2001-2004 Corvettes and they all averaged between 111-125 ft.

Here's what I'm going to be doing. A Wilwood proportioning valve to replace the 1970 "hold off" valve up by the master. Up front, new cross-drilled and slotted stock diameter rotors. Original calipers and new ceramic pads. Rubber hoses will be replaced with braided stainless steel (up front and hose going to back axle). Out back I'll be putting on ceramic shoes and a new spring kit that the springs are supposed to have over twice the spring effort which allows them to release quicker. Also oversized wheel cylinders (15/16" instead of 7/8" diameter).

I'm hoping to get the car down into the 130's with all of this. We'll see. If all of this fails to make an improvement, I have someone who can hook me up with a rear disc brake setup out of a newer Chebby Camaro. Hopefully I'll have this done by the weekend and will let everybody know.

 

I take it you weren't just flat locking them up? But did you try that?

 

Yes, I did lock the back brakes up once. WWOOAAHH!!!!!!! That wasn't fun. Car started to get a little sideways, and I was doing this on a rural road with a good ditch on each side. That stop was almost 200 ft. Anyway, we'll see what happens, I now have most of it tore apart already.

 

Phil,
Thanks for the info on your up-grade.
I'll be watching this thread for you input, Very informative!!
I love V8 BUICK.com!!! :TU: :TU:

 

Phil,
Did you do the 60-0 test at the end of the 0-60 on the g-tech? I haven't tried that yet. Just wondering...If so what was your 0-60?

 

Yes, I did it at the end of a 0-60 run. I did mount the slicks up once and heated them up and tried it. Holy s*#t! I did a 3.9 second and the second time a 3.8. Times with street tires were in the high 4's and low 5's.

I've got most of the swap done. The new proportioning valve is in place with the master bled. The stainless lines are on all around. I have the new rotors on and the calipers with the new ceramic pads. The rear brakes are apart with the new, larger wheel cylinders. I just need to fill the system with fluid and drive around for a while and then I'll hook up the G-Tech again and see what happens.

 

Awesome! Is that 5's and 6's with the BFG 325/50-15's? 3.9 is great

 

Yes, I had the DragRadials on for the "slower" runs. And by the way, I didn't bother with 60-0 with the slicks on.

 

OK, I got it all back together and out for some more testing. Here's what I got:

1. 146
2. 149
3. 147
4. 153
5. 152

This gives me a new average of 149.8 ft. About a 16 ft. improvement. Not quite what I was hoping for, but still an improvement. As you can see, I now do have less fade as things heat up. I have noticed that it is now much easier to lock things up (got the car sideways one time!!).

I think that I may have gotten as good as it can get with my car, given it's weight. It may be just too much to bring down with the tires on it. I tried adjusting the proportioning valve some, but that didn't seem to help much. I started at about 1/2 way on the Willwood unit, which is @28.5% to the rear. I added some and just locked them up quicker. Taking some away seemed to help some, but they'll still lock up, although the car does go straighter. I'm guessing it's now set at about 20% or so to the rear.

I did notice that I have less pedal now. By that I mean I have to push it down farther to get the brakes to start working. Maybe I need to bleed them again, in case there is some air in there. But they do work great once the pedal grabs. If I stand on the brakes all four corners lock up and it's like sliding on an ice rink. Maybe I need stickier tires.

That's all for now. Was it worth the $400? Maybe, maybe not. But if you're going to be redoing your brakes anyway, it'll proably be less than a $200 upgrade to get the slotted/drilled rotors and ceramic pads. And then I'd have to say it'd definitely be worth the $$$$.

 

When you say it's a 16' improvement.... it doesn't sound like much.
But to put it in perspective, it's around a 10% improvement.
Thats pretty significant in my opinion.
:TU:

Just think if you could bolt on a 10% improvement in ET that easy.. and for only $400.
11.8's to 10.8's ?
:Brow:

 

16 feet is about a car length, if you have to hit the brakes hard and you end up stopping just short of someones bumper, that 16 feet is gonna mean a whole lot :eek2:

 

Yea, I'll take the improvement. If you look at the numbers for my worst stop each time, there is a 22 ft. improvement.

I just want to get the pedal feel a little better. I love the feel of a new car with a nice, firm pedal when you barely touch it. The master cylinder is new and I did bleed it before hooking everything up.

Maybe I'll get the wife to pump the brakes for me a couple of times at each wheel and see how it feels then.

 

did you tried and radical settings??? Like more in the rear then the front???

I like the dual controls of a motorcycle as you can lock the rear and then keep the front at max before locking. For me that is the quickest way to stop right now. on a bike.

maybe not good for the tires but with the rears locked up and the fronts still in control, you should be able to stop quicker or maneuver better in a bad situation.

I think the same should work in a car.

Thats one thing nice about a stick car, you can down shift and drag the rear end to a stop.

 

Did you do any type of break in procedure on the pads? I've heard/read that you should "season" the pads then make a series of hard stops? o No:

 

I drove around for a little while, but not for a week or anything like that.

 

I was just surfing online and found a CarCraft article in which they took a 1969 Camaro with drums and put Baer's Serious Street front disc brake system on the car. They went from a baseline of 234 ft. to 177 ft. A big improvement, but still 30+ ft. longer than my car, and I'm probably carrying at least 500 more lbs. than the Camaro. So I guess I'll be happy and start to enjoy the car.

Oh yea, now I've got to get that quick ratio steering box on there. :Brow:

 

I found a pic I took of my front brakes. Take a peak if you like. Braided hose, rebuilt caliper, ceramic pads, and cross-drilled/slotted rotor. Ooohhh, ahhhh.

 

Looks that could kill (a rapidly decelerating 455 motor)! :TU:

 

The local NAPA guy told me for a time they were pushing ceramic pads. He said 6 out of 8 pairs were returned for noise resons. So he quit carrying them.

He also said where the semi metallic cost about $20 the ceramics were about $80.