Is there a bigger disk for front brakes? Or rear drum?
#11
03-27-2008, 01:23 PM
RE: Is there a bigger disk for front brakes? Or rear drum?
which is why I said untreated (unseasoned is another way to put it), however every high performance application (i.e. motorcycles, and super car applications) have absolutely HUGE rotors vs. the weight they have to stop, so they have enough time and surface area to cool. All of these applications consider the reduced rolling weight advantage, as well as the minimal "green fade reduction", and "cheese grater" effect they have on pads (to keep fresher pad material in contact with the remaining metal, thereby continually bedding the pad to the rotor) acceptable to the known liabilities of cross drilling or slotting. Every "high performance" type of car that is ever intended to spend any time on the street (corvette, viper, mustang, all of the SRT series vehicles, etc etc) ALL have solid rotors because it has been proven that they last longer, and require less replacement on anything that is street driven.
from baer's website" "Racers should “Bed” a few sets of pads at a time. In the event you need to change brake pads during a race, you MUST use a set of “Bedded” pads. Racing on “non-bedded” pads leads to a type of “fade” caused by the binding agents coming out of the pad too quickly. This is called “green fade”. These binders may create a liquid (actually a gas) layer between your pads and rotors. Liquids have a very poor coefficient of friction. This condition is the reason for reverse slotting or cross-drilling rotors, as it allows a pathway for the gasses to escape."
Also, when you start degrading from the actual surface area the pad has to push against, you, in turn, lose braking performance, and when you reduce the amount of material in the rotor, you also decrease the heat load that it can incour during braking without failure, or fade. They might cool down faster when you're done braking, but they are getting hotter during braking and the fading starts earlier. Same problem with turned rotors. They heat up faster because of less material and they also cool down faster which makes them warp after time.
Long story short, stick with the biggest rotor you can get, and the most surface area you can effect with the pad, and you'll increase your braking. If you want to look pretty while doing it, get some drilled/slotted rotors, but don't expect them to improve your performanace, and do expect them to shorten your pad life and your rotor life.
As far as bigger... I don't think that the 20" wheeled 3g's have bigger rotors. I've got 12" camaro rotors/calipers/hubs on my malibu, and I just needed to get a different caliper mount made to locate the pad correctly with the larger rotor. I think, since our trucks have the "slip on" rotor (without wheel bearing inserts), it would be a matter of finding something with 5 x 4.5" bolt pattern with bigger diamater slip on rotors, tossing them on, and figuring out what kind of caliper mount you'll need to either 1)move your stock caliper out or 2)mount a better caliper (viper, camaro, wilwood, baer, whatever) to fit the larger diameter rotor. This would give you the advantage of running nearly any caliper as long as it was wide enough for whatever rotor you get. For this type of set-up, you can't beat a wilwood rotor/hat combination, but you'll need access to something or someone that can machine you a caliper mount with exacting tolerances.
from baer's website: "Pads are the only element in a brake system that can deliver measurable performance improvements without altering the original size or shape of the component."
from baer's website" "Racers should “Bed” a few sets of pads at a time. In the event you need to change brake pads during a race, you MUST use a set of “Bedded” pads. Racing on “non-bedded” pads leads to a type of “fade” caused by the binding agents coming out of the pad too quickly. This is called “green fade”. These binders may create a liquid (actually a gas) layer between your pads and rotors. Liquids have a very poor coefficient of friction. This condition is the reason for reverse slotting or cross-drilling rotors, as it allows a pathway for the gasses to escape."
Also, when you start degrading from the actual surface area the pad has to push against, you, in turn, lose braking performance, and when you reduce the amount of material in the rotor, you also decrease the heat load that it can incour during braking without failure, or fade. They might cool down faster when you're done braking, but they are getting hotter during braking and the fading starts earlier. Same problem with turned rotors. They heat up faster because of less material and they also cool down faster which makes them warp after time.
Long story short, stick with the biggest rotor you can get, and the most surface area you can effect with the pad, and you'll increase your braking. If you want to look pretty while doing it, get some drilled/slotted rotors, but don't expect them to improve your performanace, and do expect them to shorten your pad life and your rotor life.
As far as bigger... I don't think that the 20" wheeled 3g's have bigger rotors. I've got 12" camaro rotors/calipers/hubs on my malibu, and I just needed to get a different caliper mount made to locate the pad correctly with the larger rotor. I think, since our trucks have the "slip on" rotor (without wheel bearing inserts), it would be a matter of finding something with 5 x 4.5" bolt pattern with bigger diamater slip on rotors, tossing them on, and figuring out what kind of caliper mount you'll need to either 1)move your stock caliper out or 2)mount a better caliper (viper, camaro, wilwood, baer, whatever) to fit the larger diameter rotor. This would give you the advantage of running nearly any caliper as long as it was wide enough for whatever rotor you get. For this type of set-up, you can't beat a wilwood rotor/hat combination, but you'll need access to something or someone that can machine you a caliper mount with exacting tolerances.
from baer's website: "Pads are the only element in a brake system that can deliver measurable performance improvements without altering the original size or shape of the component."