I've done a lot of work on my 84 camaro and now its down to fixing some probs. The motor is now a 350 with a Quadra jet carb(calif emmissions) and the rear end from a 85 Firebird. I swapped the PV and changed all the rotors and calipers but I'm not getting the stopping power at all not even as good as the old rear end. One shop has suggested that is not enough vacum to run the system from the high rise manifold and that I need to install a vacum booster. I'm wondering if there is another way or route to go before adding $400 more to the project, can you help?

 

Quick question. did you change from drums to disks when you changed rear ends? If you did, did you change the proportioning valve? If you did, then you might want to call up Wilwood and see about putting in an adjustable valve.
Just a thought.

 

If you did the proportioning valve then grab a vacuum gauge n connect it to the vacuum port that your brake booster is pulling vacuum from, if it reads around 16-21" of vacuum your brakes should be ok as far as vacuum is concerned, if it's reading low then you have 2 other options - first is around $60 for a vacuum reserve tank from summitracing.com that stores up vacuum while ure driving so when u hit the brake the booster has plenty vacuum, the catch is that if your car is making very very low vacuum, like running a way bigger camshaft n gettin around 9" of vacuum, the reserve tank is only good for 1 pump of the pedal before it gets hard n it wont build up vacuum very quickly, especially while driving. The other option is to call MPBrakes.com and ask them for an electric vacuum pump, which is the route i'm taking, its around $250 and will give you plenty vacuum on demand, I believe they reccomend or require a vacuum reserve can too tho, it basically keeps the reserve can up to 21" of vacuum at all times. The downsides are "its kinda noisey" but I doubt its noisier than my exhaust or dual fuel pumps, and "what if your battery fails n the vacuum pump shuts off?" well I guess you just gotta jump on that brake pedal real hard if it does, but the vacuum can should have enough stored up for another 2 stops after the car dies.