Black_Z28

Well, I just finished installing LS1 brakes on my car, and bleeding the brakes too. The brake pedal still seems a little mushy, so I might bleed them one more time just to make sure all the air is out of them. Personaly, I didn't feel much of a difference between the two. Maybe it's just me, but I think I'm going to end up upgrading to something else in the future. I've heard people say a night and day difference, but it's definitely not that. Hopefully bleeding the brakes will help a little more.

Xride

have you driven the car yet?

the "mushy" can be fixed a bit by using braided stainless lines instead of the stock rubber ones.

if you used a lower end pad that would be the difference there too.
a good pad in an lt1 will do better then a crappy pad in an ls1

Black_Z28

I've bleed the brakes twice now, so I don't think it's air in the line. So, could it possibly be the stock lines? Maybe I'll look into some better brake pads too. Thanks.

Oh yeah, yes I've driven it.

Xride

what pads are you using?

I put hawks into my sisters grand am and they work fricken great, and stop way better then stockers, and seem to stop faster as they heat up a bit.

when doing brakes like that I always recomend to upgrade to braided lines, at least in the front.

I cant remember what brand has the stock style connectors, I'll look it up and post it here soon.

EDIT:
I beleive its the goodridge lines, they cost a bit more, but I think they come with a covering too, jsut to make sure nothing gets into the braiding.

Black_Z28

Hmm, I'm not sure what kind of pads are on them. I'm just using what came with the calipers. Maybe stock??

Xride

if they are stock you wouldnt see much of a difference, get some nice pads and it should be all good.

I like the hawks, but dont have experinace on a fbody with them.

Fast Caddie

I felt a pretty big difference with the switch. You'll notice the most difference in the rain however, since the LS1 brakes shed water much better. The stock LT1 brakes were scary when they got wet.

LT4Firehawk

Stock pads to stock pads, there isn't a real noticeable difference in single stop dry stopping feel. Wet stopping will be much better, however. Also, if you upgrade to more aggressive pads as has already been suggested, you will see a very noticeable difference. Finally, upgrading to SS lines will also make the brakes "feel" better to you.

I can tell you from experience that the LS1 brakes are a very good system. I upgraded to them at the beginning of the year, and they have been great for both street and track use. For track use, I use Carbotech XP pads and they will just about pop your eyeballs out once they are warmed up. They definitely aren't a street pad though. Give Sam at stranoparts.com a call and see what he recommends for a good aggressive street pad, of course this will also depend a lot on how much dust and noise you can live with.

Janny

I could NOT lock up my brakes to initiate ABS at a reasonable speed when I had the stock LT1 setup. Believe me, I tried! When I went to LS1 brakes this was no longer a problem. Where I really noticed the difference however, is at the track on a lapping day. Where the LT1 brakes would be a soggy mess, the LS1 brakes will still keep dragging the car down to a stop without a lot of drama, and this with stock pads. I've recently switched to a performance pad and I'll have opportunity to test these on the track real soon. I'm looking forward to it.

Black_Z28

Well, I had a chance to get out on the road yesterday because I got the car aligned. These things are much worse than my LT1 brakes. I'm not sure what could be wrong with them, but the brakes on my toyota tercel are better than these. I had to put as much force as I could to slow down, and it still was just barely slowing down, to the point where my nose didn't even drop when I hit the brakes. It seemed as if I was almost pushed the pedel all the way down too. Any one have an idea what my problem could be? I highly doubt the brake pads are this bad, and I'm sure most of the air is out of the lines. But I guess I can try to bleed them once again. Thanks for any help.

Janny

Heh!

I've got a turdcel as my other car too. Mine is a 1992. I see yours is a bit older. Mine is a Piece of sh*t.

Anyways, as to the brake problem, I'd suggest that if you don't have a spongy pedal get the rotors turned and put a new set of pads on. The LS1 brakes ought to almost put the car on its nose. Mine do!

Black_Z28

The rotors have been turned. So, I guess my next step is pads. That's after I bleed the brakes again. Can anyone suggest a good brake fluid? I'm using a Valvoline Syn. fluid now.

Janny

I just use a DOT3 fluid that is good to 550. You don't need anything fancy to make it work right.

95 Z/28 LT1

Sounds like you have air in the lines still.

Are you bleeding just the front or all four corners when you bleed them?

If not, start at the passenger rear, then do the drivers rear, passenger front, then drivers front. That should take care of the soggy pedal feel.

Black_Z28

I'm bleeding all four brakes plus the ABS. Maybe next time I'll bleed the ABS, then the brakes, then the ABS again. Last time I just did the ABS then the brakes and called it a night. I'm using the solo-bleeder, so maybe I'll just bleed them with the stock bleeders and see if that helps. I've heard that the solo-bleeders may not work all that well. If that doesn't work then it's time for new pads.