1985 Monte Carlo SS known as Barney

[FETorino]

Originally Posted by SSLance

Nightly update...

I hate brake line leaks...

That is all...

Aren't cars fun.

[SSLance]

My hard lines on rear axle had the short fittings on end to flex lines. The unions with the brake kit have deep females ends on them and the fittings wont go far enough into union to seal.

So yes, I get to make new hard lines today.... Yay!!!

[SSLance]

No leaks!

Brake calipers centered on rotors and bled...just about to go test drive!!

[Tinker]

And then......?
So did you slam your face into the steering wheel the first hit of the brakes?

[JKnight]

That's a sweet setup Lance. Now that I see all the angles it makes sense they're so rigid. #Racecar

[SSLance]

It rolls once again...

[WSSix]

Very nice, Lance. I'm glad everything went fairly smoothly for you. Those front brake really fill in the wheel.

[SSLance]

This upgrade was a LONG time coming. I've been racing this car in earnest for over 5 years and have needed a brake upgrade for at least the last 4 years. I knew of several options that were fairly bolt-onish but at the same time they only offered a moderate upgrade over what I had...I wanted more. I wanted to only do this once and to do it right.

When I found out about the Stoptech Big Brake Kit Ron Sutton was developing and especially when I held the ST60 calipers in my hand about this time last year at SEMA, I knew that was the direction I wanted to go. All one has to do is to search for "brakes not stopping good" threads on any PT forum and you will see so many people not happy with their big brake upgrade kit's performance. I wanted to avoid that completely. If I was going to go thru the trouble to redo the whole front geometry to put a big brake kit on, I wanted it to be right the first time.

During the bed in process of the pads the first time out of the garage, performance was confirmed! The brakes are night and day different over what I had before and frankly, as good as any other car I've driven both on course and street.

Even though this system was designed for a manual setup, I am using the factory G-body power booster master cylinder (for now). I can rest my heel on the floor and with just my toes on the brake pedal bring this car to an immediate stop with just moderate pressure and pedal throw. Locking the brakes up is NOT an issue either. It will take some getting used to for sure and I have a little bit of prop valve adjusting to do to dial in the rear brake bias...but I'm confident they would work great on course or on track right now as they sit. We may at some point in the future play with a different size power master cylinder or even a manual master cylinder but for now, they work just fine.

Unfortunately they won't be debuting in Topeka this weekend. My carb flooding issue is still present so it is coming off today and being sent off to remedy or replace. This saddens me but at the same time I'm super happy to have completed this total brake upgrade in a little less than 5 days total. That speaks to the quality of this package Ron put together and the fantastic set of parts it includes. This was my first attempt at a Big Brake install and while I learned some things along the way...for the most part it was pretty much plug n play both front and rear.

Thanks to Ron for all the help...and for developing the BEST Big Brake Kit on the market today.

[SSLance]

Just a bit more "seat of the pants" first impressions of the new brakes...

With the old brakes, after we put the oversize metric calipers on several years ago, the pedal throw became fairly long. We attributed it to the increased fluid the larger pistons needed to move. With the engine off, you would press the brake pedal until it firmed up (quite a ways down really) then you could press even harder on it and get the pedal to go further down...almost to the floor.

After I vacuum bled all 8 bleeders on the 4 new calipers, I hopped in the seat and immediately felt a much firmer pedal with a surprisingly much shorter throw. I then put the wife in the seat to be the pedal pusher and hoisted her up in the air. I have to say, these calipers are SO much easier to bleed than OEM style calipers. With the bleeders pointing straight up, you put a clear tube over the bleeder, point it straight up then over to catch can, have your pedal pusher pump the pedal, crack the bleeder and you can feel immediately if any air in there and as it releases. With fluid in the tube over the bleeder, it's very easy to close it again without letting any air back in.

Once done with this I hopped back in the seat and pressed the pedal...it was even firmer still but the best part was...once the pedal firmed up, it didn't move ANY further down at all, well maybe just a bit...but that was probably firewall flex. I'm not kidding, I could tell a huge difference in pedal feel after the pads made pressure on the rotors over what I had before. Being a hard line hydraulic system, this can only be the result of two things firming up...the 4 flex lines and the calipers themselves.

The flex lines that came off of the care consisted of braided steel fronts about 5 years old I guess and rubber rears about the same age. Remember though, I had the prop valve on the rears just about closed with the old setup.

Anyway, there is no flex now, when the brakes hit...they hit. Can't wait to play more with them and dial in the bias. More importantly...can't wait to test them out on a course at speed.

[SSLance]

It's been a busy month or so since my last update. I got the brakes bled and bedded in then had to send the carb out for repair. I got it back with about a day to get it installed then left on a two week trip to New Mexico and Arizona...just getting back to KC Friday. Today was kind of a rest up day, so I found some time to drive Barney around a bit and tune on the new shocks and try to find out how bad a new tire rub is.

The spindle\brake upgrade moved my front wheels out about a half inch each and the outside edge of my right front tire is rubbing the plastic inner fender top under hard compression. Before the tire just tucked inside a ridge and now it just kisses it. After many trips around the neighborhood with different shock settings and the GoPro pointed at the top of the tire...I think it has clearanced itself.

Regardless, I had fun driving it around and I can't wait to race it here at the Kansas City Region SCCA final race of the season next Sunday and my final race here before I move West. Brand new shocks, brand new brakes and new tires should make for a fun day of race tuning... I'll report back post race to let everyone know how it all went.