i doubt that the cam ill be using will make enought vac for power brakes, so im looking at options to go with manual brakes. i saw the kit on bmr's site, is that the only kit that is offered to switch over to manual? thanks guys!

 

anyone?

 

I don't know about manual brakes, but I have in the past made a crankcase vent setup that runs through the exhaust instead of the throttle body. I have never bought the kit from summit. Instead I just went to Orielly's and bought a few feet of heater hose (5/8), a spark plug non fouler, a couple of clamps, and some vaccum caps. You cut the spark plug non fouler off after the threads(making a bung), tap a small hole after the o2 sensor somehwere in your exhaust(header collector, x or y pipe begining) where it will have good flow pressure. Then weld your bung onto your exhaust and connect the hose. Cap off throttle body opening. Usually good for an inch or two of vaccum depending on car. You can also Run a crank case breather off the valve cover if you are worried not enough vent for your rear main, but even without it will vent better than factory setup so not really needed.

If you need more, you can get a vaccum canister from jegs comes with mounting tabs and fitting (though I go to lowes and buy larger ones that match the size of the factory booster hose.

I have put this on a few cars that pretty aggressive cams(two were lt's) and with both kits the car stopped better than factory even with the aggressive cam, when before the kit they weren't stopping good once you were at speed.

All in all less than $150 for everything mentioned and may work for you. The cams these went on were at .600 lift and 24x/24x duration @ 50 with 112 lobe sep. If that helps any.

Josh

 

anyone else done this? lots of work for just an inch or maybe two of vac... ?

 

It takes less than an hour to install and in total you could pick up 4", maybe more depending on how good your vaccum was before cam swap and how much you lost. That's a pretty good amount for an hours work. You would probably spend more time converting to manual brakes, if that is even safe/do able.

Just trying to help you get your brakes back.

 

Chevyrules85:
Have you thought about electric vacuum pump kits and retaining the stock system?
Here's one possibility ... http://www.summitracing.com/parts/SSB-28146/

 

Good point. I've even heard of guys taking the factory lt1 AIR pump and using it as a vaccum pump. I think you may have to reverse the polarity of the motor to get it do it, but that is easy enough, swap your hot and ground. Just throwing in an inexpensive alternative, but I 've never done it. Only seen it done so I don't know how long it would last like that.

A pump designed for vaccum use may be a better choice.

 

good ideas, but im looking to shed weight, and thats why i wanna go to manual, along with the vac issue, and cleaner engine bay. so who all makes a kit or what are my options is my question

 

I know it has been a while but I just saw in Jegs a manual brake conversion kit for 4th gen f bodies. part # 142-mbk001. Summit probably sells one too if jegs does.

 

Street driven, track only, or street and track?

These are made by Mark Williams (probably similar to the Strange setup at BMR), and work great for the track... pulled a 3,400# 30th SS convertible down from 170MPH traps whenever he decided not to pull the 'chute: