Bayer-Z28

I found a Wilwood 6 piston brake upgrade for cheep. Is that too much for what I have? I'm looking into it eventually. I know I will need bigger wheels.
??? 2000 Z-28, specs in sig.

z2896

Unless you plan to road race or autox you don't really need them. If you can get them cheap and want them anyway, why not.

96ss2nv

I thought braking power was one of those things that you can't have enough of. I'd definately get them if it's a good deal.

stereomandan

It could make your brakes very unbalanced. If you have too much stopping power in the front, your braking distances can actually get worse because it's not balanced. You end up driving down the nose of the car too much and upsetting the balance. Determining the correct calipers is not easy. What you need to get from your friend is the piston diameter sizes in the Wilwoods, and the rotor diameter. That will help me answer your question.

Most likely you would never use or need the full potential of the Wilwood kit. They do look great though.

Dan

z2896

You will probably need to get Wilwood's proportioning valve to adjust for the bigger front brakes. Have you seen the C5 adapters from UMI, Dan? Do you think they are as good as Bob Bishop's?

BaddAss93TA

even if its overkill it will look awsome!

and if its gonna cause uneven braking then get some back brake up grades as well... it seems silly to let back brakes limit your options if you ask me

stereomandan

I've seen UMI's brackets. Without testing them against Bob's brackets, it's hard to say how good they are. Bob has been pretty open with his design, so if UMI utilized Bob's info, I'm sure they made a nice bracket. It looks VERY similar to Bobs, that's for sure. I don't think I'd hesitate to try it.

Dan

myslowcamaro

will the willowoods fit on a 16" wheel or do you have to go to 17's like the z06 package?

lateapex

Dan,
Thanks for coming to my defense and explaining some of the more technical aspects of braking in the past. I don't post here much now, but I still do some lurking.

Since my bracket design has come up, I will jump in.

There are VERY significant differences between my aluminum brackets and what is pictured on UMI’s site. That bracket looks more like my original steel bracket, but not left and right-handed like mine.

One of those differences would increase the degree of pad taper if the car is driven on a track, or in very heavy street use.
One of the differences would slightly weaken the bracket.
A third difference would very significantly weaken the bracket. One of my prototype aluminum brackets (built just for lab testing) revealed that particular design weakness, and I redesigned the brackets and returned to the lab for follow-up tests. After that third redesign, I was satisfied with the bracket strength. It was stronger than the mounting bolts, and would sustain a load over 22,000 lbs. That was the actual load, not the calculated load. Because of the mechanical advantage the caliper generates by its distance from the fulcrum, a MUCH lower force at the caliper will generate a higher load on the bracket.

I would suggest that someone building brackets for this purpose make them from steel. You really need to understand aluminum alloys to use them safely in high load applications, especially when it will be exposed to significant heat. Even those who supposedly know what they are doing have made serious mistakes. See Ford’s recall of their Ford GT supercar for failure of the aluminum A arms. After doing all of the calculations to determine what the minimum dimensions must be to sustain the worst case load, one still needs to significantly beef up the design if the part is safety related. I worked for 2 months with the chief metallurgist at one of Kaiser Aluminum’s plants. I received further help from a couple of aerospace engineers (mainly one). It was incalculably more difficult and expensive to design the bracket in aluminum (to have a serious strength [and longevity] safety margin) than my original steel brackets.

stereomandan

Bob,

Thanks for clearing that up. I just looked at UMI's site and I didn't know that there are new pictures up. I can see the bracket much better now, and I believe I understand some of the differences you are referring to. To the untrained observer, the design looks similar, but now that I've looked closer I do see areas where high levels of stress could generate.

I guess the question is, how good will they work. I'm sure there will be people on this board buying them, since the other options, as of right now, are slim. We'll just have to see if Kevin over at frrax decides to take on making more of your brackets.

Thanks again for chiming in, and I'm extremely pleased with your brackets and the advice you've given me in the past.

Dan

z2896

They don't really describe how they make them at all. I really want the your brackets Bob, but haven't found any used. I had a set but had to sell then to pay some bills. I'm hopping Kevin will decide to make them, but I know it's a big decision for him so I'll just have to wait. I don't want to go with an inferior design just to save a few bucks.

Bayer-Z28

The ones I was looking at are in LS1speed.com They also have tha backs too. I'd prob end up getting the prop valeve w? it.
Thanx for all the advise, guys.