Chevelle Brake Upgrade

All right, welcome to the horsepower shop.

No doubt about it today. The trend in street machines is to combine form and function in one potent package. Well, like this 1970 Chevelle that was built by Good Mark Industries for a sweepstakes giveaway.

And I tell you what this thing is a winner all the way from the new Ram Jet 350 under the hood to the lower suspension and 17 inch rims. Of course, it's also got

a killer show stop and paint job and sure stopping. Four wheel disc brakes. You're right, Joe. That is one beautiful

Chael and you know, it's kind of the same theme that we've been trying to apply to my old 72 silver bullet wagon here. Now, if you recall the last time we had this thing in the shop, we built an A LDF I injection set up to that 502 big block and we cranked out about 408 horsepower at the rear wheel.

Of course, more power means more speed

and when you combine more speed with the extra weight of this wagon, bigger better brakes are a must.

Now, right from the factory. The old bullet here came with a set of 11 inch rotors up front and some puny 9.5 inch drums out back that were barely adequate, even with the stock 307.

And especially so when I got this thing loaded up with a week's worth of groceries.

Now, today we've got the right hardware to take this hauler to a halt.

That's right. Well, today's brake technology usually involves bigger rotors that are drilled and slotted like these that helps keep the rotors cooler and helps release gasses generated by brake pads. Without these features, the gasses would prevent contact between the rotors and pads and of course, decrease your efficiency. Now, our bear kit involves two different sizes. We've got 12 inch rotor for the rear

and these 13 inch rotors were up front. Now, you want the bigger rotors up front because deceleration shifts the weight of the car to the front and increases the workload. Good point. Of course, to get the most out of our braking system, we needed calipers that would complement those big rotors. We ordered the bear track system for the front and the turing system for the rear.

They both use aluminum PB R calipers with carbon metallic pads already loaded in

up front. You're gonna find a dual piston floating design that's held in place with a rigid iron bracket to help minimize deflection out

back. You got essentially the same setup except it's smaller of course, and it only uses one piston

to clamp the pads plus a similar iron mounting bracket. Oh, and check this out. It also has an integral parking brake assembly.

Well, you'll be glad to know with both kits. You get all the mounting hardware you need including brackets and bolts and

even new parking brake cables. Now, the advantage of this system is you get the larger rotors but you keep your stock spindles. That means steering geometry stays the same and you don't get those tire wear problems often associated with tall spindle conversions.

Yeah, that tall spindle will change your camera curve and give you some improved handling, which is great for the road course.

And if you have an unlimited budget for tires,

but you know, I drive this thing about 15,000 miles a year and I just don't have that kind of money. So I'll gladly give up a little bit of handling for improved tire wear

here in the shop. We've got the benefit of this Eagle Mobile Man lift. But if you're doing this upgrade in your driveway, make sure to support your car on level ground with jack stands

starting up front, remove the wheel

loosen the front brake line at the frame,

remove the caliper,

then the rotor

and finally remove the backing plate

and caliper played together

with that old brake hardware out of the way we're now ready for our new caliber bracket.

If your car came from the factory with drum brakes, you can just bolt the bracket on the way it comes out of the box. But if your car came with factory disc brakes like the silver bullet did here, well, you're gonna have to add this spacer between the bracket

and the spin will at the upper mounting point,

torque, the lower bolt to 85 ft pounds

and the upper bolt to 100 and 10.

Now we're gonna install these new hubs from the kit. These are made of aluminum and they come with new bearings and seals already packed with grease.

There we go,

get the washer on

and I wanna turn the nut

finger tight.

Well, I spin the hub just to make sure those bearings are properly seated.

After this, we can install the cotter pin and the dust cap.

These drilled rotors are directional so they're marked left and right now before we bolt these things up though, I want to show you the difference between them

and the stalker that we just took off. Now, that is a dramatic difference.

Not only do these new rotors give you about 30% more swept area, but they also move the caler further out from the hub center and that's gonna give you more leverage and improved mechanical advantage.

Install the rotors using a lug nut to hold them in place,

install a caliper next,

using the bolt supplied in the kit to attach it

to the bracket

torque them to 100 and 10 ft pounds.

This flexible stainless line replaces the stalker. And since it doesn't expand like the rubber one can,

it's gonna give you a good solid pedal and a lot better feel whenever you have to modulate the brakes. Now you wanna make sure to use these little copper washers on either side of this banjo fitting here and that's gonna help you prevent any fluid leaks.

Now, once you get it in place, torque it down to about 20 ft pounds. Oh, and here's another little tip for you. This banjo bolt is designed to break if you over toque it. So make sure you take it easy.

Now, once we get this thing in place here,

we can go ahead and start on the back brakes.

Yeah. Well, I might be pulling up the rear, but I'm way ahead of the game here. Now to install the rear brakes, we gotta pull the axles. So I had to remove the rear brake drums,

the differential cover and of course, drain the gear loop.

Now, if I get my partner to push in on that axle there,

I can use this magnet to pull the sea clip, holding it in place,

then slide the axle out of the housing,

disconnect the parking brake cable.

And after disconnecting the brake line, remove the four bolts holding the backing plate in place and the plate assembly comes right off.

Well, now is a good time to install a new set of axle seals and bearings. But I'll tell you what, I wanna clean off these axle

FLS first, if any break, dust or rust. So our caliber brackets will see up square against them.

Well, while Joe takes care of those

FLS, we're gonna take a break of a different kind. Now, this one is for our sponsors. So stay where you are.

Hey, great job cleaning his flans. That bracket sits nice and flat on there. Now, Joe,

nice of you to notice. I'll put it on your bill. Thanks. All right. Welcome back to the shop where Chuck and I are in the middle of a bare four wheel disc upgrade on his silver bullet here. Now, we just finished the front brakes with the massive 13 inch rotors and PB R calipers. We just installed new axle bearings and seals to get us ready for the rear brakes.

That's right. Now, the first order of business is to attach this new bracket caliper to the axle flange using the original hardware.

These brackets have a dual bolt pattern, so they'll work on either side,

just position them. So the caliper mounts down and to the front.

All right. Well, now we can slide the axle back into place. Oh, by the way,

we had to install some half inch longer studs here to compensate for those thicker rotors. Now, this way,

we'll get full engagement of the lugs when we install the wheels

with the axle in place, install the sea cliff,

reinstall, the rear cover

and fill the differential with gear loop.

Finally install the rotor onto the axle.

Well, now the calipers and I don't think we mentioned this when we were up front, but when you mount these, make sure the bleeder valves on top where the air tends to rise.

That way, you'll be sure to purge all the air out when you bleed the brakes. Well, after we get these mounted, we can install those new brake cables. We showed you

you'll have to reposition the original brake line using this relocation bracket that comes in the kit.

Then you can connect everything up. And once that's done, we just attach this flex line to the caliper

using this banjo bolt. Oh, and don't forget to torque that banjo bolt to 20 ft pounds.

Four wheel disc require a master cylinder with additional capacity to move more fluid and

operate the calipers.

Plus they require more pedal pressure to actuate them.

Now, this one comes with our kit and it's matched to our application.

But we also ordered this optional dual diaphragm booster to make sure that the power brakes operate easily.

First step is to disconnect the brake lines at the master cylinder.

Then inside the car, remove the pin, holding the booster crevice to the brake pedal.

Finally unbolt and remove the booster assembly from the firewall.

Hey, it's about time you got that thing out of there here, man, you're a slave driver.

Now you just reverse the process to mount the new master cylinder and booster. And once that's done, we can install this new adjustable proportioning valve.

It allows you to adjust for front and rear bias to optimize your braking under all kinds of load, weather and track conditions. Now, once you mount it in an accessible secure place, you just plumb a line from the master cylinder to the import here

and from the out port, run a line to your rear brakes

to set the brake bias, turn this knob about 4.5 times to mid point

before you test drive to find the lock up point for your rear brakes.

Now, this should happen just after the front brakes lock up and make sure you do this in a safe place where you got lots of room.

Yeah, you don't wanna test out these new brakes on a public highway. Now, we're also gonna have to bleed this system and to do that, we'll start at the right rear here, which is the furthest from the master cylinder. Then once we're done, we'll move across to the left rear,

the right front and finally to the left front, which is the closest to the mass cylinder.

Now, you're gonna have to keep that master cylinder filled with fluid. Otherwise you'll be pumping air into the system and

well, you'll have to start all over again.

While we finish bleeding the brakes, check out these messages. When we come back, we'll have some tips for you on how to break in your new brakes.

Welcome back to the shop in the final phase of our bear break upgrade on my old silver bullet.

So far we've installed our 12 inch rotor touring system out back and their 13 inch rotor track system up front.

Plus we added a dual diaphragm booster,

a master cylinder matched to the system and an adjustable proportioning valve to help fine tune the brakes.

No way those bigger brakes are gonna fit inside the original 15 inch rims. So to keep the silver bullet on target, we're going with these 17 inch rollers from billet specialties and we chose the Vin Tech design that combines classic looks

with high tech construction. Now, I don't know about you but I've never seen polished bullet wheels that look this shiny

because of their modular design. You get them with the right backspace to suit your application in our case, eight inches up front here, 4.5 inch backspace out back. We've got 9.5 inches with a five and a quarter inch back space

man.

Those rims make the old wagon look fast even when it's standing still. But you know, a speeding bullet needs some speed rated rubber. So we wrapped these rims in some middle 555 extreme ZRS.

A lot of testing went into their design. They use these three grooves here to efficiently evacuate water to help prevent hydroplaning.

And you combine that with an aggressive tread design and, well, you've got some reliable handling in wet or dry weather.

Now, up front here we used a 2 55 45 17 and out back we used the 2 85 40 17. Both of them speck out right at about 26 inches.

Here's a little tip for you with any aluminum wheels, make sure you ret

toque them after about 100 miles or so.

And the reason is this aluminum is a lot softer than the steel lugs. Those lugs need a chance to see properly into the wheels.

Speaking of seeding in that also applies to your brakes. For instance, you wouldn't take a freshly built engine and run it wide open without breaking it in first. So it stands to reason that your rotors need to be seasoned and your pads need to be bedded in properly to get the best performance out of your brakes.

To do that, drive the car normally for about four or 500 miles before making a series of stops from about 65 miles an hour.

Use increasing pedal pressure for each series starting with about 40% pedal pressure and working your way up just short of locking up the brakes or activating the A BS.

Be sure to allow the brakes to cool between each series. And after this break in procedure, you'll be able to stop on a dime

and give nine cents change.

We'll need all the change we can get. We're heading to Las Vegas next for a look at some hot new high performance hardware.

Want the latest on horsepower, check out our website at horsepower tv.com.

Welcome to Las Vegas where we're attending the annual S

A

show. Now, this thing got started over 30 years ago with a handful of hardcore high performance parts purveyors today. And it's grown into the largest most radical performance show on earth.

I

I

I

while the cars are the stars, it's people who make the high performance industry what it is today.

People like Vic Edelbrock junior who received Wild

Tech's Annual Leadership Award for a

family tradition of inspiring young people to pursue high performance careers.

And it's a great pleasure to present this to you. Thank you very much. Well, thank you very very much.

You know, Vic really is one of the people who is responsible for helping grow the show into something that covers more than 2 million square feet

and speaking of feet, mine are really tired. Yeah, starting to smell that way too, you know,

no way we can cover all this for you. But here is our special list of the coolest

hottest, most radical reasons to see semen

the

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The owner calls it the Frantic Frog and here's why

the blown and injected

hemi

displaces 540 cubic inches

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That's the frantic part.

The frog part comes from the color

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This Willie's gets my vote for the most radical street ride. You know what else? It's got me green with envy.

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Those classic styling cues have given way to a thoroughly modern drive train. How about a Chevy 454 backed by a four L 80 E over drive automatic.

Now, no matter how you look at it, this is one zephyr

that blows me away and hey, it gets my boat for the most radical custom.

Well, speaking of Big Motors, here's one that will help get your kids to school on time. And it's part of our pick of the most radical bus here at sa

the official bus of short cut high and

here comes some of the students and the driver.

Yeah.

Oh man, what are you doing here? You can't handle this bus, man.

I thought you rode the short bus. What's he doing here?

From low riders to the high seas, man. There's plenty of power at this year's. See a show including this 44 ft victory super cat. Let me show you around

this custom built boat has a pair of 557 cubic inch big block Chevys topped by a pair of 1471 blowers. Now, these things crank out 1050 horsepower a piece and they do it on pump gas.

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Uh

Oh, my goodness. Oh, hi.

You know, let's face it guys. The most radical and ravishing thing about

Simba is of the models Stacy Lindy. Here.

It's my pick. It's the top of the list. Well, thank you.

This doesn't ruffle your feathers. I don't know what it does

see you next year.

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Great hot parts this week. But Joe, you told me you were working at the, see Michelle looks like those girls were working. You