I've always had brake fade issues so I upgraded my pads to Hawk HP Pluses. They were incredible at the track and never gave me problems. I was able to brake later and harder then ever before and they gave me a lot more confidence. I was very careful like usual and did the cool down lap along with cruising around the paddock for a few minutes after the session. I went to go switch back to my normal pads a few weeks after I got home and found my calipers in horrible shape. The boots were burnt to a crisp and just flaked away, and most likely my seals are wasted too.

Right now I'm going back and forth between getting a rebuild kit or just upgrading to a Z06 system. I might be able to get away with a less aggressive pad with the better system, but at the same time I don't want to throw a bunch of money at what could be a reoccurring problem. What have you guys experienced?

 

Don't worry about the dust boots. If you didn't fade out the brakes, you didn't destroy the piston seals. My dust boots vaporized too, and when I freaked out about it, my instructor with his Z06 Corvette told me that his prior corvette with the dual piston PBR calipers always did the same thing.

Consider them "baptized". Just make sure you bleed the brakes really well after each race weekend and flush a few ounces through each caliper.

 

If you have the money, upgrade. Otherwise, rebuild.

 

Since your changing brake pads, buy an extra set of calipers. Then get a few rebuild kits. You will then have a set ready at all times. Swap them out and whala, or, get two sets, one thats holding the original brake pads and one for the swap out. You can rebuild whenever you want and your car is never down. A quick gravity bleed and your done. Oh, dont forget to use new copper washers.

 

The seals are fine, don't even bother to replace the dust boots; I track my Corvette with J55's(all PBR's are similar) and this is normal. Do check the parallelism between the piston faces and the mounting ears of the opposite pads, as well as any pad taper; if you see anything funny in these two areas, the calipers are junk. Get Speedbleeders so you can quickly get a good bleed and upgrade to stouter pads, the Hawk Blacks are next in the pecking order and then the Blues, also look at some cooling ducts as a future upgrade.

Sidney in Castro Valley

 

Cooling ducts will go a long way, and for not much cost. I have Severn ducts. 4 track days with my C5 ZO6 front brakes/Hawk HT10's and no heat issues/no toasted dust boots. The cooling helps wheel bearings too!

I have plastic intake ducts mounted in my lower air dam feeding 3" hoses to the Severn stainless ducts. Not much to it.

 

Thanks guys. I thought the calipers were on their last legs after that but I guess they are still good. My brakes were more than competent for me at this point so I'll stick with what I got if they aren't getting damaged.

 

Keep in mind, for track purposes, the more aggressive the pad, the less it actually has to work, and you may find you have fewer issues with burnt dust boots . I ran with Hawk HT14's last season, and my calipers don't look any worse for the wear than they did going into the season! The boots have a couple burned spots here and there, but like I said, they were already there at the start of the season.

FWIW, the HT14's worked really well . They're just a slightly more aggressive version of the HT10, but definitely better than HP+. Hawk Blues are supposed to be one of the most aggressive pads available, but apparently they make minced meat out of rotors???

 

I didn't know that. I figured with a harsher pad it would be creating more heat since they are using more friction to slow you down.

I'll try the HTs next time, the reason I went with the HP+s was because I thought I could use them on the street as well but they squeal pretty noticeably. I guess I should just not be lazy and run two sets as needed.

 

Well, I think the thing with more aggressive pads is your braking time & distance is much shorter. I'm sure that it generates just as much heat (braking is just turning motion into heat, right? ) while you're braking, but it seems that the theory is because you're not on the brakes as much, it's actually easier on the boots?

Yeah, I resisted for awhile ... I just ran street pads and drove accordingly. Finally gave that up and got dedicated track pads. That way, you get better track performance, and cleaner wheels on the street .

 

I've heard bad things about C6 Z06 brakes. C5 Z06 are good and pretty affordable.

Personally, I want to upgrade to one of Baer's systems.

 

Yep, don't worry about the dust boots. I have ran my pbr twin piston calipers without dust boots for years and never had a problem with seals going out.

My current calipers feel like they are flexing. Firm pedal but little stopping power. They are rebuilt calipers, and I think they were not in great shape, so I want to get new ones. Any ideas of a place to get the pbr's for a decent price new?

 

You're talking about the ls1 dual pots right? I can't help you with new, but they pop up on forums pretty frequently. There was one set on a local forum for $40 with only 15k miles on them.

 

No, they are the pbr twin pistons w/ 13" rotors used on c4.

 

[QUOTE=FWIW, the HT14's worked really well . They're just a slightly more aggressive version of the HT10, but definitely better than HP+. Hawk Blues are supposed to be one of the most aggressive pads available, but apparently they make minced meat out of rotors??? [/QUOTE]

Actually, no disrespect, but a slight correction in this statement:

DTC-70 Extremely high torque with aggressive controllable initial bite. Superior release and torque control characteristics. Brake pads designed for cars with high deceleration rates with or without down force.

DTC-60 High torque with less initial bite than DTC 70. Superior release and torque control characteristics. Brake pads designed for cars with high deceleration rates with or without down force. Recommended for use with

HT 14 Very high torque with aggressive initial bite. Excellent modulation and release characteristics. Brake pads designed for cars with extremely high deceleration rates and down force.

HT-10 Intermediate to high torque with a smooth initial bite. Very consistent pedal feel. Excellent modulation and release characteristics.

Blue 9012 Medium/High torque and temperature compound with excellent brake modulation. #1 selling brake pad material for SCCA.

Blue MT4 Medium/High torque and temperature compound with Medium/High initial bite. Brake pads designed for circle track cars under 2800 lbs without high deceleration rates.

Black Medium torque and temperature compound designed to be a good, all-purpose low- cost racing brake pad.

DR 97 Excellent static and dynamic coefficient of friction. Smooth linear torque. Low pad and rotor wear. Brake pads specifically designed for use in drag racing applications.

HT10s are more aggressive than blue. Blues do not eat even the cheapest of rotors. On the street I run FR-BLUE 9012/RR-HPP. On the track I run FR-HT10/RR-Blue 9012.