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Brakes on a budget

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Old 01-29-2007, 02:49 PM
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Brakes on a budget

Hey guys...im needing advice on a budget brake setup. Thinking about going with ls1 brakes on all 4 corners, but is there a decently priced brake package that would be better? I want to be able to stop at 130 mph haha...I'm looking to spend less then 1k
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Old 01-29-2007, 03:14 PM
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The LS1 upgrade is probably going to be the cheapest alternative. I got my complete front set for a 150 bucks. I wouldn't waste the time or money doing the rears, it is involved and not worth the very minimal improvements it will give.
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Old 01-29-2007, 03:24 PM
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Rear brakes only do about 15% of the work, on a street car. Front brakes are were its at. I would either buy top of the line stuff for the stock brakes or corvette frt setup. (LS1 camaro to middle ground for the $$) Unless your road racing I would think stock brakes with $100 pads would be fade resistance and have the extra bite you need. At some point your tires make more of a difference for the contact patch then all out braking power. The larger brakes really make a difference in heat disipation and modulation/control.

What are you trying to do?
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Old 01-30-2007, 01:01 AM
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I'm thinking about selling my complete C5 brake setup that I've got on my camaro. It'd easily be under one thousand. Even if you dont want it, feel free to stop by and take a look at it, since I'm in Louisville.
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Old 01-30-2007, 10:15 AM
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Originally Posted by DJ_951
Rear brakes only do about 15% of the work, on a street car. Front brakes are were its at. I would either buy top of the line stuff for the stock brakes or corvette frt setup. (LS1 camaro to middle ground for the $$) Unless your road racing I would think stock brakes with $100 pads would be fade resistance and have the extra bite you need. At some point your tires make more of a difference for the contact patch then all out braking power. The larger brakes really make a difference in heat disipation and modulation/control.

What are you trying to do?
I'm trying to upgrade to something that is going to be fade resistant. My lt1 brakes fade so bad its not even funny. I'm getting my rebuilt forged 355 in the next couple weeks, and with the ported heads, blower cam, and 15 psi, im concerned with being able to stop at high speeds. I want a brake setup that if i run into an "oh ****" situation with the new mods, ill be able to stop safely Im thinking about doing an ls1 front brake conversion...im not needing baer or brembos by any means, because this car is setup for drag. Pretty much want to be able to break safely at 100 + mph

Andy, I will be doing the brakes in a couple weeks, so once the car is done, I can cruise up to Louisville. I used to go to CU, so I'm somewhat familiar with the area, I used to make regular trips to Superior Liqour outlet
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Old 01-30-2007, 03:18 PM
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$.02 cents. I would go with pads of high caliper. Other areas often overlooked is the rubber brake lines. Old brake lines can swell and give making for a "soft" pedal feel. Race cars use steel braded lines for this reason. Make sure all 4 corners are floating and engaging smoothly. Simple lubrication of the pins with syn. brake grease. I have fixed a lot of friends/family brakes from pro's that don't clean the pins and lubricate them. Gives a "soft" feel again. Have you changed the fluid. Old fluid gets mosture and "soft" fell. Have enough "soft" feels and you get a lot of fade-no brakes.

The thing I would avoid is spending $$$$ for LS1 brakes when all you needed was to clean up what you had.

If you steering felt sloppy would you rebuild you're frt end or get a LS1, SS, brm....frt end?

PS: If you want LS1 brakes and they are a little bigger don't let me talk you out of it. Just get it for the right reasons or something like that.
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Old 01-31-2007, 04:51 PM
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Originally Posted by DJ_951
$.02 cents. I would go with pads of high caliper. Other areas often overlooked is the rubber brake lines. Old brake lines can swell and give making for a "soft" pedal feel. Race cars use steel braded lines for this reason. Make sure all 4 corners are floating and engaging smoothly. Simple lubrication of the pins with syn. brake grease. I have fixed a lot of friends/family brakes from pro's that don't clean the pins and lubricate them. Gives a "soft" feel again. Have you changed the fluid. Old fluid gets mosture and "soft" fell. Have enough "soft" feels and you get a lot of fade-no brakes.

The thing I would avoid is spending $$$$ for LS1 brakes when all you needed was to clean up what you had.

If you steering felt sloppy would you rebuild you're frt end or get a LS1, SS, brm....frt end?

PS: If you want LS1 brakes and they are a little bigger don't let me talk you out of it. Just get it for the right reasons or something like that.
Interesting info...heres the thing...i simply want better braking power than stock lt1 brakes. I get my car back from the shop that is building my forged 355 h/c 15 psi blower setup in 2 weeks...should put down 620+ corrected whp. I just want to be able to slow down without the fade of my brakes now. The brakes dont feel soft, they just dont stop the car like they should...no doubt tho that steel brake lines help stopping, and will upgrade to those when i get the new brake setup.
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Old 01-31-2007, 05:35 PM
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At the minimum i'd go with the LS1 setup. Its so cheap and makes a huge difference in braking. I just can't see any reason to put money into the junky Lt1 setup. I bought my LS1 brakes used and reused everything. They had just some cheapy autozone pads on them and stock rotors but it was still a hell of a difference over my stock setup. Just don't waste your money on getting the rear LS1 brakes as there won't be a noticable difference.
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Old 02-01-2007, 04:21 PM
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Originally Posted by Z95m6
At the minimum i'd go with the LS1 setup. Its so cheap and makes a huge difference in braking. I just can't see any reason to put money into the junky Lt1 setup. I bought my LS1 brakes used and reused everything. They had just some cheapy autozone pads on them and stock rotors but it was still a hell of a difference over my stock setup. Just don't waste your money on getting the rear LS1 brakes as there won't be a noticable difference.
Thats exactly what im thinking...good call
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Old 02-01-2007, 04:32 PM
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Originally Posted by Kredz28
Thats exactly what im thinking...good call
Just if you go LS1 setup keep it cheap. If you're thinking about buying high dollar brake lines, pads, rotors then you might as well go C5 because you'll probably need to buy new lines, rotors and stuff anyways. Thats just my opinion. I've seen some guys on here buy the LS1 setup and replace everything like the rotors and lines with stainless and start to push the price up to 500+. Once you start doing that you might as well go a head and do the C5 setup as it'll be close to the same price and perform better.
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Old 02-01-2007, 10:23 PM
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You dont need braided brake lines. 99% of the people that get them dont need them, even though they think they do
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Old 02-01-2007, 10:51 PM
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Well I'll be damned, someone else from Louisville.

Kred- Who's doing your motor? Somewhere local?
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Old 02-01-2007, 11:57 PM
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Originally Posted by benhart21
Well I'll be damned, someone else from Louisville.

Kred- Who's doing your motor? Somewhere local?
Its being built by RMCR (Rocky Mountain Competetive Research) here in colorado springs.
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Old 02-02-2007, 12:19 AM
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Can't say that I've heard of them, but now it looks like I'm going to have to cruise down there once I get back from Virginia. How much is the motor that they're building for you, if you don't mind?

Finally something on topic, UMI sells a complete C5 brake upgrade for just under a grand.

$779 for:
- (1) Set- UMI Performance’s Aluminum Conversion Brackets
- (1) Set- New GM PBR Pressure Cast Corvette Front Calipers
- (1) Set- Hawk HPS Front Brake Pads
- (1) Set- Front Corvette C5 Raybestos Rotors
- All new GM mounting hardware including new banjo bolts, guide pins,
washers and rubber boots
- Detailed Installation Instructions


OR

$969 for the same setup with a set of Power Slot C5 rotors



Last edited by benhart21; 02-02-2007 at 12:21 AM.
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Old 02-02-2007, 04:40 AM
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Originally Posted by benhart21
Well I'll be damned, someone else from Louisville.

Shoot me an email, and we'll meet up somewhere as soon as this damn snow clears.
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