oversized piston calipers, are they worth it?

[treed_cutlass]

I'll still disagree with that. The pressure behind the caliper will remain constant(same force applied with your foot), but with a larger surface area if the piston the force in font of the piston will increase. So the caliper will definetly produce higher clamping pressure anytime the surface area of the piston is increased.

Ding ding ding! We have a winner. With larger calipers you're trading quantity of movement for force. With larger calipers you'll have to depress the pedal further to get the same piston travel @ the calipers, but you'll get more force at the calipers for your efforts.

And yes, don't bother with the oversized calipers. Save that dough and get your C5/6 setup sooner.

 

[pontiacgp]

The main advantage to larger pistons is the pressure is spread out to a larger area of the pad. Anyone who has really used their brakes will have noticed the pads will have a bow in them. One other thing rarely mentioned when it come to brakes is the pads themselves and pads make a great difference in braking.

 

[Veltboy618]

Yeah they are much better than stock single piston G-body calipers. But unless you are running into problems with the brakes you have, I'd just make sure the rear brakes are adjusted and have plenty of life left in the shoes, and put a set of quality pads in the front. To use a C5 or C6 front caliper, you'll need:

Rotors
Calipers
Pad bracket
Conversion bracket for the spindle
Machined hubs to allow the rotor to slide on (Vette's have sealed hubs)
Brake lines to adapt G-body lines to Vette calipers


Really unless you are doubleing or tripleing the engine output, the stock ones will be plenty. For the record, they used the same caliper up until 2003 on S10s.

Are you saying thte vette calipers & S-10 calipers are the same?

 

[axisg]

there is a guy ( guysmontess ) on the mtss boards that did this swap and he loves the upgrade. No swapping spindles, or cutting or brackets just a true bolt-on improvement over the stock braking.

IIRC the were US Metric from Summit

 

[79loserbluebu]

Are you saying thte vette calipers & S-10 calipers are the same?

S10 and G-body calipers are the same

 

[megaladon6]

some s-10's around 2001 got larger, dual piston, aluminum calipers made by the same company as the 'vette calipers.
they are not the same as the vette's but they are much better than the g-body's. they may be a direct bolt on, but you are much better off getting the s-10 spindles and hub bearings with them.

 

[dirtywhiteboy]

In my opinion, if you want to stop better, you will get more from a larger rotor than 'just' a larger caliper. I run b body spindles,caliper with 12" Camaro rotors. It stops better than any vehicle I own. I do however run 11"(maybe 10") disks on the rear as well.

If I had to do it again I would just swipe a 11" rotor, twin piston caliper assy off of a 2wd s-10 blazer (possibly extreme/ZQ8 p/u as well??) It is cheaper than buying the tubular a-arm to correct the geometry with the b-body stuff. I also do not like the extra front track width the b-body setup has, and mine still has more bump steer than I like, but I'm workin' on that.

good luck with your project

 

[79loserbluebu]

Yes, 4WD S10's and Blazers both have dual piston brake calipers. However the 2WD S10s and pre 98 Blazers all have the single piston calipers, which shares the same brake pad part number with the G-body calipers.

In my opinion, if you want to stop better, you will get more from a larger rotor than 'just' a larger caliper. I run b body spindles,caliper with 12" Camaro rotors. It stops better than any vehicle I own. I do however run 11"(maybe 10") disks on the rear as well.

If I had to do it again I would just swipe a 11" rotor, twin piston caliper assy off of a 2wd s-10 blazer (possibly extreme/ZQ8 p/u as well??) It is cheaper than buying the tubular a-arm to correct the geometry with the b-body stuff. I also do not like the extra front track width the b-body setup has, and mine still has more bump steer than I like, but I'm workin' on that.

good luck with your project

That is what I am saying. I'd like to see legit proof that an increased piston size in the caliper will stop better than the stock size, with stock everything else.

Another point is to all that are defending the theory of a bigger piston = better braking, what brakes are you using?

 

[jrm81bu]

That is what I am saying. I'd like to see legit proof that an increased piston size in the caliper will stop better than the stock size, with stock everything else.

Another point is to all that are defending the theory of a bigger piston = better braking, what brakes are you using?

As of now I'm still running stockers. I'd prefer to have an increase in rotor diameter along with an increase in piston surface area. One or the other would help but both together they will give you the most. One of the issues with the newer s10 set-up is the slight increase in rotor diameter, however it has dual pistons. Well the dual pistons don't mean anything if the surface area of both pistons combined add up to less area than a large single(which i assume the s10 dual pistons have slightly more surface area, but still possibly less than the large bore g-body calipers). As mentioned before, multiple pistons will help with even engagement of the pad.
If anyone knows the piston diameters of stock g-body, large g-body, and s10 duals, i'd like to know.

 

[G_Body_Enthusiast]

stock metric bore size is 2 1/2" and the oversized is 2 3/4" there is even an undersized one available at 2 1/4"

no idea about the s-10 calipers...