Rotor & Pad Replacement

[meissen]

Hey guys,

So I have an LS1 rear end. Does that mean I have to buy LS1 rotors for the rear or do the LT1 rotors match?

Found this deal on e-bay... I don't have many plans for the winter but upgrading my brakes and tires is a big priority.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Camar...ht_2935wt_1112

[DETROITMUSCLE]

I believe the rears are different because some guys swap to LT1 brakes to clear drag wheels.

[mikek18]

I had a rear end from a 2000 camaro on my 95 firebird and I had all lt1 brakes on it. Not sure if Kyle did something to make that work or not. Also beware of the ebay brakes. Email Mike at rotorsonline.com He got me a pretty similar deal for my lt1. Might be able to get them to sponsor as well.

[nascarnate326]

Ask Kyle my95z28 about them. He has a setup like that and my car will out brake him all day long. Sure looks bad ass though.

[DETROITMUSCLE]

I had a rear end from a 2000 camaro on my 95 firebird and I had all lt1 brakes on it. Not sure if Kyle did something to make that work or not. Also beware of the ebay brakes. Email Mike at rotorsonline.com He got me a pretty similar deal for my lt1. Might be able to get them to sponsor as well.

You can switch them no problem, but I believe there is a difference in either the rotor, the caliper, or both.

[meissen]

I know the rear caliper looks different than my dad's rear caliper - maybe that's what the difference was.

[my95z28]

My recommendation. Do drilled and slotted all the way around, and get what are called Hawk hps pads. I think that you will really benefit from the look since your car is a show car. But, you will lose some braking. I switched from stock Lt1 brakes, to drilled and slotted all the way around with all from rotorsonline.com. They are worse than stock. I can completely mash the brake pedal, and it can't even lock up any of the tires usually. Nates v6 car, (with drums in the rear) can out brake my car. In day to day driving though, it isn't noticeable.

Also, I am 90% sure that the rotors is just slightly bigger on the Ls1 than on the LT1. Are you going to do Ls1 fronts?

[DETROITMUSCLE]

I hate to brake it to ya Kyle (no pun intended) but something must be seriously wrong with your brakes. I have slotted rotors on all 4 corners and Hawk pads and my car stops wayyyyy better than stock. I noticed an instant difference and I absolutely love my hawk pads, I will continue to recommend them highly.

[meissen]

Ideally I'd just like to do stock replacement as far as sizes (IE: I don't want to have to buy additional parts to make the front or rear rotors work) so if that means I need to buy 93-97 front and 98+ rear then that's fine. I'll remember to do the Hawks pads too - thanks!

[MP81]

I hate to brake it to ya Kyle (no pun intended) but something must be seriously wrong with your brakes. I have slotted rotors on all 4 corners and Hawk pads and my car stops wayyyyy better than stock. I noticed an instant difference and I absolutely love my hawk pads, I will continue to recommend them highly.

Yep - there should be no loss in braking capacity with drilled/slotted rotors (though I'd recommend merely slotted rotors, as drilled rotors have a tendency to crack under regular use - they do NOT like being hot, then cold, then hot, then...)

Hawk HPS pads are what I plan to go to when I eventually do my brakes next year...just get LS1 equipment for the rear and LT1 stuff for the front.

[Derek]

I had a rear end from a 2000 camaro on my 95 firebird and I had all lt1 brakes on it. Not sure if Kyle did something to make that work or not. Also beware of the ebay brakes. Email Mike at rotorsonline.com He got me a pretty similar deal for my lt1. Might be able to get them to sponsor as well.

actually that was out of a 2002 SS. I wish I woould have kept that rear end, 3.73s FTW lol

[sman]

The rear itself is the same, its all in what caliper/bracket/pbrake setup you used. If you used a newer rear end with your older lt1 callipers get the lt1 rotors. If you used the ls1 calipers use the ls1 rotors.

Also the rotors should be substansially different, for the parking brake on the lt1's it simply manually sqeezed the caliper. 98+ cars had a "drum in disc" setup, where the rotors inside is actually a drum that was used for the parking brake only.

EDIT: If you want to get REALLY technical, drilled and slotted will result in a loss of brakeing force vs blanks (ceteris paribus). You are taking away from the area the pad has to bite into. However, fade is often reduced and wet weather braking is often improved.

When people say "braking improved with d/s rotors", it probably did, because they bought a decent set of pads with the rotors and new rotors are thicker than used ones meaning the pedal doesnt have to travel as far before braking occurs, therefore more pedal travel actually goes to applying force on the pads vs moving the pads to the rotor then braking.

[DETROITMUSCLE]

well can't argue with that Spencer, good point.

[my95z28]

I hate to brake it to ya Kyle (no pun intended) but something must be seriously wrong with your brakes. I have slotted rotors on all 4 corners and Hawk pads and my car stops wayyyyy better than stock. I noticed an instant difference and I absolutely love my hawk pads, I will continue to recommend them highly.

Well, this could be for a few different reasons. First, I have drilled and slotted, vs just slotted. There are many many many threads on how drilled and slotted actually decrease your initial braking. The advantage to D&S over stock anymore is that they will have significantly less brake fade since they cool much better. And they look a million times better than Also, I don't have the hawk pads. Pads are extremely important, those may be a large part of my issue as well. But I swapped the brakes, broke them in, and the next day noticed that they didn't brake as well, so i don't really think that anything is wrong with them.

Also Brian, MAKE SURE whatever brakes you get are zinc coated. That way they won't get all rusty like regular brakes do.

Edit: Looks like Spencer beat me to it, lol.

[sman]

Zinc coating is nice if you want to spring for it, another alternative(that ive found to work quite well) is to clean the rotor of all machine oil(seem they come dripping in it these days to prevent rust durring shipping) and lightly scuff the rotor, then take a can of silver(or whatever color floats your boat) high temp paint and throw a few coats on, cover the whole thing.

After they dry put it all together and the first time you step on the brakes the pads will take all the paint off of the braking surface(just like theyll do to a zinc plated one) and you will be left with everything else painted.

Looks just like a zinc plated one if done right, and seems to hold up pretty well. Dont drive mine in the winter though so no idea there.