fbodyboy

i was thinking of redoing my brakes because they need them, i was thinking of doing slotted and drilled rotors with hawk hps brake pads and stainless steel lines. It would cost me about 450 in parts. Should i do that or just go to the auto parts store and buy some regular rotors and ceramic pads for cheaper. I do alot of racing and do stops from 120+mph often. opinions?

StephenDeli22

Go with the Hawk pads for sure they are really nice. For rotors find some cheap blanks. Slotted/Drilled rotors do nothing for performance and are a eye candy mod. Do a search on it and educate yourself about it. Stainless brake lines im sure about, I have never put them on a car so I dont know if there is a difference other than the reliability they offer.

mthegodfather

I would just go with some Autozone Lifetime Warranty rotors and some Hawk pads. Cheap and very functional.

CALL911

I would spend the $450. However if you spend an additional $350, you could have yourself a killer brake package from Baer. That would be my biggest reccomendation for the most bang for your buck.

Greed4Speed

Forget Baer. If you want larger, go with a C5 conversion or at least an LS1 conversion.

If you want to keep the stock size, get some good stock sized blanks with performance pads (Hawk is good) and CHANGE YOUR FLUID! For street use, ATE Superblue, Valvoline Syntech, or even Ford makes decent brake fluid.

CALL911

The Baer kit is bigger than the LS1 conversion. However it does cost more.

Sam Strano

JUST USE GOOD PADS!!!!!! There is nothing wrong with any of the stock brakes on any of the cars if you use good pads. Pads are first and foremost what stop the car, they are what grip the rotors!!!!! I don't care how much rotor you have, if it's drilled, if you have C5 calipers, or racing calipers, if you use crap pads the car won't stop well. Period.

Hawk HPS of HP Plus pads. If you want the most power you can have, and you don't mind brake dust too much, I'll put you on HP Pluses. Trust me, unless you actually open track the car, you'll have all the brakes you'll likely ever need. Add some good fluid, maybe upgrade the lines (not a bad idea on any car that's 10+years old) and watch the difference. If you don't like it, you can always proceed to something more when those wear out.

CALL911

I disagree. Pads although make a difference won't do anything when it comes to fading. No matter what the pads are, if you have a stock rotor and slam on the brakes at more than 100MPH you will experience moderate to severe brake fade. Thicker and possibly slotted rotors will help with the fading (not just pads). Now, rotors combined with pads, and a stronger set of calipers= the overall best brake solution. What kind of pads, rotors, and calipers you get will vary with price, and consequently performance.

Bottom line, just using good pads shouldn't make a huge difference that I believe was the intended purpose of the thread.

Greed4Speed

Slotted won't do a thing for fading.

Fading is a product of overheating a given set of pads. Way to avoid overheating is more rotor mass, larger rotor surface, directional vanes, and air ducts. You can also run higher temp rated pads and yes, they will not fade, but they also won't brake as well until they're up to temp. What do you think track cars run?

Personal experience: Wagner Thermoquiets and stock pads faded on me like crazy. Now I'm running Axxis MM and they are not fading. Pads that can take heat make a huge difference.

CALL911

Greed, I know we have both posted on this same thing repeatedly. Didn't in one of the last posts someone show that road racing/circuit cars have slotted rotors?

Greed4Speed

I'm sure someone did, but there are also many who don't run slotted. But, there is always someone wanting bling even on a race car.

We're also talking about a STREET car. Keep things in context. The slots will do nothing for fade on a street car. They're not even advertised for that. The propganda is that they relieve "out gassing."

Outside of going to a larger rotor set up, good pads and a fluid change will be the best bang for the buck.

Dave K

I think that other thread ended up that slotting MAY benefit your brakes by scrubbing the crap that tends to get stuck in there. (I can almost buy that)

Crossdrilling doesn't do crapola that's good, and plenty thats questionable or outright bad (cracking and reduced braking surface) on a car where rotor weight is not an issue.

Sam Strano

And you are free to disagree.... but you are wrong. Brake fade is not the rotors fading, it's the pads. And pads come in a variety of compounds. Hawk alone has 11 for cars, let alone their truck specific stuff. Not all are useful, but your lumping all pads in the same pile is just wrong. $15 parts store cheapies aren't going to take heat, or have the friction of Hawk HP Plus pads.

I'm left wondering what pads you've tried since you seem to be of this opinion. I'm guessing regular nothing special specials.....

And you want but one example of how pads change the car. Note that SCCA T2 class cars and Showroom stock class cars have to run stock brake systems. Rotors, calipers. You can upgrade pads, fluid and lines... and they manage to make the brakes last throughout road racing events. Last year at the SCCA Runoffs there were front brakes glowing on some of the T2 F-bodies... and they made it the 20 laps over the 2.25 Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course (and everywhere else they run in this country, Watkins Glen, Road America, Sears Point, you name it).

Greed4Speed

You also have to take into account that they are braking under conditions a street car will not see and using pads that a street car couldn't use also. I imagine they're all running spooled rear ends, but I guarantee you won't want one for the street either.

Just becuse a "race car" runs it doens't mean a street car should or will benefit from it.

respectirocz

i used to work at autozone
and while their lifetime warrantees are wonderful and their duralast rotors for the ls1 are far better than stock
autozone never had and never will have a lifetime warranty on rotors
the duralasts have a 2 year warranty and the valuecrap has a 3 month warranty
the pads do come with a lifetime warranty, but they suck


in my opinion
both of you are right
better rotors will help reduce brake fade because they will dissipate heat better

it is the heat that causes the brake pads to fade