Brake Upgrade

[MechMan]

I am looking at the Wilwood brake kits for a 83-88 Monte Carlo SS. I am trying to decide if I want the 4 piston or 6 piston caliper. I am planning on puttiing an LS3 into the car. Hopping to get somewhere in the 500-600 HP range with the motor. I am leaning towards the 6 piston but still not sure.

 

[565bbchevy]

Rim size will help decide which kit fits best, depending on the kit the 6 piston might require a 17" + wheel versus a 15" for a 4 piston.

 

[MechMan]

I was looking at the replica 17’s but the Wilwood part 140-12837 claim to be able use 15 in rims.

 

[houston_t]

Big jump in price if you are talking about going with the 13-14'' rotor 6 piston kit. At that point i would question if its necessary for what you will use the car for. Im looking into the Wilwoods also and will be going with the 4 piston 12'' rotor setup, should be more than enough for my street car and a big improvement over stock.

 

[mclellan83]

I had planned to do the Wilwood upgrade until we did it for a buddy down at our shop, he decided to go with the custom powder coating and got raped since they misquoted the price. So it went from $400 which I thought was a bit much just for a different color to $800 which is insane for something they do already but just put a different powder color on. After that I decided to go the C6 Z06 route just out of spite

 

[BOXCARS]

If you're not going to go with really big wheels like 20s, why not just do the LS1 Camaro upgrade to 12" rotors and LS1 Camaro calipers. You'd save a ton and your stock g-body brakes would be much improved.

 

[81cutlass]

What is the intended purpose of the car? Do you plan to road race it?

I have ls1 front brakes and blazer rears. It's enough to lock all 4 tires up 30mph. If you are only autocrossing and street driving with maybe one road coarse day thrown in a 4 piston setup is enough. 6 is good if you are running 100 treadwear track tires on a road coarse and are continuously getting the brakes hot, but anything less than that and it's overkill. Bigger breaks hold up better over long periods of heat, but for most cases using something like a c5 or c6 rotor and caliper is going to be much cheaper and get you 98% of the performance gain an aftermarket set would get you.

Also, you could put 50 piston calipers on a 10" rotor to fit inside a 14" wheel and it would be no better than a a single piston on that rotor. Your tires can only take so much torque. That torque is a result of 1. brake caliper pressure (harder you stop the harder they grab, lets say thats constant) 2. brake caliper piston area (you have control over that with 2 4 or 6 pistons or piston diameter) 3. Rotor diameter (the larger the rotor the more torque you can apply (think 1/4 ratchet vs 1/2 breaker bar) and 4. Coefficient of friction of the pad (sticky "race" pads or long life ceramic)

Those willwoods have a 12.2" diameter where a C5 rotor is 12.8". Even if the C5 caliper didn't create as much clamp force it creates more leverage on the rotor and could create basically the same brake load for much less than half the cost.

 

[mclellan83]

Thats definitely much more budget friendly especially if you go the junk yard route, I personally wanted less of a chance of the caliper going bad so wanted to do new but even those routes will be decent on the LS1 setup. Did a junkyard upgrade on my GTO many years ago and no problem but I also very rarely drive that car

 

[MechMan]

My main concern was stopping power. I plan on an engine swap that would increase the power by around 3 times what was factory. I was looking at the Moser rearends and was considering using the Wilwood brakes for that so I was just trying to match fron and back. The project is for street/strip but will mostly be driven on the street. Really just wanting better stopping ability with the neew motor.

 

[houston_t]

How much does a LS1 brake swap run with all new components ? I have never checked. The 4 piston Wilwood with 12'' rotors can be had for around $800 not a bad deal if you ask me. Of course some of the cost involved is based on the name but lets be honest that's why most of us even want it.