megaladon6 said:
there is one more benefit of multi-piston calipers. if you want a pad that's 15in long you need a piston large enough to work effectively. so you'd need a piston at least 10in in diameter and solid. or say 3 3in hollow pistons. which fits better?
Fits better? Are you talking about wheel fitment? (Since the 3x 3" pistons are radially lower profile).
The 10" piston has almost 4x the surface area though...
10": 78.5 sq in
3x 3": 21.2 sq in
I think I understand what you're getting at, as far as wheel fitment. If you mean it fits the pad better, I think that just speaks to equal distribution of force. Everything has to work together. Mixing and matching brake parts is a little sketchy.
Rotor annulus width, piston diameter, pad width and length, wheel fitment, master cylinder sizing all have to conspire together to make the correct fitment and braking power for the application. If you start at one end, it all needs to add up at the other.
Regardless, I'll leave picking piston sizes up to the engineering and designing people. We're stuck with what's commercially available anyways.
megaladon6 said:
sealed hubs are nice though. they don't require adjustment, which can be done wrong and kill the bearing very quickly. they also handle large rims/tires better than the stock ones.
Yeah, the maintenance free thing is nice.
How do the sealed hubs handle larger rims and tires better?
Regarding the corvette boys, I hear they have some serious wear issues when they track (road course) their cars. Which isn't surprising.
I guess I wonder the kind of mileage you'd get out of those bearings with hard driving... after all, we are talking about a performance application here. We also need to think about the overall load on the front of the vehicles we're talking about.
To be frank, I don't have figures on how much the front of a 2wd Blazer weighs (the 98-03ish one in question), or how much the front of a vette weighs. I'll bet a nickel or two that both of them have lighter front axle loads than your typical Cutlass.
I realize there could be pretty dramatic differences in the front axle weights of g-bodies... AC? Big block? Cast iron vs. Aluminum parts? The list goes on. Just something to consider that might affect how much mileage you'd get out of them.
Pfadt racing makes a heavy duty racing bearing for the vettes. I've often wondered if the vette bearings could go on the Blazer spindles. I doubt it. Even so, I believe the Pfadt racing bearings are about $350 a pair... ouch.