im going to be doing brakes and shocks soon and had a few questions. ive got a 96 formula WS6 thats street driven and maybe ill get the time to autocross it one day. i would just like to make sure my stock brakes work to their fullest or if i can get a little more out of them from simply changing pads and fluid then great.

ive done a search and valvolines synthetic fluid seems to be a popular choice for a street driven car. is it easily availible and is there another choice that might be better? also i was just going to change the fluid the old fashion way. that is suction out the old fluid from the resevior, refill with the new stuff and bleed each caliper til the fluid has changed. will that work with an ABS car?


im still somewhat confused on pads. i would just like some good pads that last a while, since i put a lot of miles on the car, and i would like minimal dusting. i also dont wont anything that will eat my rotors or require warming up. and would it be possible to also get a pad that will possibly work better in the rain?

as far as shocks go, the car has decarbons on it now. ive got the eibach prokit on the car as well. would another set of de carbons be fine or is there another set of shocks that are resonably priced that would work better and last longer?

thanks Trey

 

i know this is the autcrossing board but yall know more about pads fluids and shocks than the others. so any help would be appreciated. thanks trey

 

Just hard to answer those kinds of questions definitively, but here's a shot.

For brake fluid, I'd suggest using a "normal" fluid rather than a "racing" fluid, as long as you're not racing. A racing fluid will require replacement more often, so there's no sense using it if you're not taxing your brakes. Valvoline is probably fine, and the method you describe should work fine. You should also bleed the abs at the two bleeders on the abs module in the engine bay.

Better pads typically dust more. You'll have to deal with that one. I've heard (but not used) the ceramic pads dust very little, though I suspect they don't stop as well. Racers don't use them, that I know of.

Stock decarbon shocks aren't well-matched for the ProKit, but you can certainly get them cheaply. The Bilsteins (shox.com) are a good reasonably priced upgrade that better suits the prokit.

Dave

 

thanks Dave.

sorry if my questions were not very good. in general i like to do easy upgrades when it comes time to replace wear and tear parts. i know stock works but if i can replace parts with better stuff or peices better suited to how my car is then i will. i just figured id ask to see what my options are instead of just quessing what my work better. thanks Trey

 

I have run several track days, and got good advice on brakes from Bob Bishop on the board, which I followed.

I run my otherwise stock LS1 brakes with Hawk HP Plus pads on the front, stock pads on the back; Motul 600 degree fluid; and Powerslot rotors on the front. While I do not have Porsche braking power now, they are very good at the track at my novice level (My best run at Road Atlanta was 1:55 per lap) and do not fade in my 20 minute sessions, and are fine for the street with no changes. My mechanic loves the braking. The only downside is that the HP Plus intermediate pads put out a lot of dust--you must wash wheels weekly at least.

Your LT1 brakes are not quite as strong as the LS1 brakes, but your ABS system is better for pad upgrades and should work fine. I have run twice with a guy running a 96 T/A with pad and fluid upgrades similar to mine and his brakes worked well. Just be sure to check pads after each run. I understand autocross is generally not as hard on brakes as track day events in any case, so you should be fine with these upgrades.

 

thank you for the help. Trey