Wilwood Brakes

[bkkpool]

I have been researching brakes and the more I read the more confused I become. I have a 73 Camaro that has factory disc/drum brakes. I want to upgrade to 4 wheel disc brakes with E-brake. I have been looking at Dynalite, Dynapro and Superlites. My question is how do they compare because their is a huge price difference. I have read that the Dynalite is not a great improvement over my factory disc brakes. What about the D52 upgrade? I am currently running 17" wheels and plan to keep them for a little longer. Please provide any advice or experiences with these.

[SLO_Z28]

You can get C5/6 setups for less than the kits you're asking about, and the c5 setups will clear most 17 inch wheels which im not sure the others will do. This is the setup I'm going with:

http://www.kore3.com/proddetail.php?prod=10107-01

http://www.kore3.com/proddetail.php?prod=10103-01

just throwing another option out there.

[ProdigyCustoms]

The 12.2" dynapro kit is a nice upgrade for factory brakes using lighter components, larger diameter rotors, and 4 piston calipers. So they are a upgrade from stock. The Superlite kits are larger yet at 13" or 14" and are for hardcore activities. Yes there is a big cost difference.

The D52 works very well, we just added some to one of our street drag cars and it feels like we are getting more out of the front brakes, but that is all seat of the pants testing.

Our most popular kits right now use 12.2" Front (6) piston Dynapro and 12.2" Rear (4) piston Dynapro W internal E Brake.

[JRouche]

And just to add to some of the confusion. Dont forget about the forged billet superlites. They are not the superlites. A lil diff, from the superlite before :)

Here are some specs from the wilwood site.... Oh, and these specs are for the largest piston (1.75") available for the calipers. And all can be used with a large (1.25") rotor if needed, except the lil calipers at the bottom of the list.

The dynalite: Its a smallish caliper (seven inches in length)..
Piston area of 4.80" Pad volume of 2.1
http://www.wilwood.com/Calipers/CaliperList.aspx?subname=Forged%20Dynalite

The dynapro: Again, a small caliper
Piston area of 4.80" Pad volume of 3( I dont get that number, it uses the same 3.96" pad as the dynalite)
http://www.wilwood.com/Calipers/CaliperList.aspx?subname=Dynapro%20Lug%20Mount

The superlites: Now the calipers are getting bigger!! (9.5" caliper VS a 7" caliper)
Piston area of 5.18 and pad volume of 4.9 (big jump)
http://www.wilwood.com/Calipers/CaliperList.aspx?subname=Forged%20Superlite

Billet superlite: similar to the forged superlites
Piston area 5.18 Pad volume of 4.9.
http://www.wilwood.com/Calipers/CaliperList.aspx?subname=Billet%20Superlite%204%20 Lug%20Mount

D52: Big piston area. But its a single sided piston(s), and its a large caliper. Not a bad replacement IMO for an inexpensive swap from the single piston caliper. But its still a sliding caliper and limited to a 12" rotor.
Piston area 6.28 pad volume 3.9
http://www.wilwood.com/Calipers/CaliperList.aspx?subname=GM%20D52%20Dual%20Piston


And the GM single piston caliper:
Piston area 5.94. pad volume 2.9
http://www.wilwood.com/Calipers/CaliperList.aspx?subname=GM%20Single%20Piston

Even more confusing huh?? Well kinda and not really.

Take the single sided pull type calipers (GM and D52) outta the mix, they dont compare.

So then its just the dyna or superlites.

The dyna (either lite or pro) calipers use the smaller pads. They are smaller calipers and use the 3.96" pads.

The superlite ( forged or billet) use the larger pads (4.74") and they are a larger caliper, 9" vs the 7" for the dyna line.

All in all I think you can break it down to three different calipers from wilwood. The dyna line, smaller caliper, the superlite line and the direct replacement line like the D52 and the GM caliper they offer.

My personal preference was to go with the forged superlites. I already had the single pot GM calipers in place and didnt see an upgrade there. I wanted to see more bang (my head in the windshield, kidding, I use seatbelts) for my buck. The superlites were the choice for me...

OK.... I know, I skipped all the really BIG brakes, the six pot calipers. I was trying to compare apples to apples.

W6A six pot: 11" caliper, pretty big.
Piston area of 5.40 and pad volume of 5.2 (its a 5.87" pad, get ready to spend some cash for pads)....
http://www.wilwood.com/Calipers/CaliperList.aspx?subname=W6A

Buying brakes is fun right? JR

[bkkpool]

More confused is correct. Given that I have front disc brakes and I also have the 11" drum brakes, what is the best bang for the buck upgrade? I don't want to spend $2k on brakes and only get a small increase in performance.

[JRouche]

More confused is correct. Given that I have front disc brakes and I also have the 11" drum brakes, what is the best bang for the buck upgrade? I don't want to spend $2k on brakes and only get a small increase in performance.

Hahahaha!! Solly for the confusion. Best bang for the buck?? Brake pads. Other than that you have some comparable disc calipers and rotors up front already. If you dont want to spend 2 grand. I wouldnt spend a 1000 bucks for calipers that are not much different from what you have. You might be let down a lil. If yer budget is sub 1000 bucks look to incease the preformance that you have. Like brake pads and who knows, brake lines.

If you can find a sub 1000 dollar brake swap thats much better than the GM brakes you have it will surprise me. JR

[Apogee]

...If you can find a sub 1000 dollar brake swap thats much better than the GM brakes you have it will surprise me. JR

I tend to agree with JR that the OE front discs can be made to perform pretty well and for cheap with some decent pads and home grown modifications like adding ducts, however put $1000 into your front brakes since they do most of the work, and you can have a very capable and competent braking system. While discs in the rear are a great way to reduce the amount of work that the fronts have to do and are certainly better for track environments where it's all about shedding heat, the best bang-for-the buck improvements are going to be the front brakes hands down IMHO. You can always do rear discs later when your budget allows.

Tobin
KORE3