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Brake upgrade

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Old Jun 28, 2020 | 09:13 PM
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Default Brake upgrade

I was just wondering. Are the rear brakes the same on a ls car and a lt1 car. Looking to upgrade my brakes. I am planning on doing ls spindles up front so i can upgrade my front brakes but now im wondering about the rears. Or is there a good brake kit for lt cars. I was thinking of something like powerstop but ive heard mixed reveiws thanks
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Old Jun 29, 2020 | 10:00 AM
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ls1 front brakes are a little larger than the lt1 brakes and opens up more options to upgrade to c5/c6 or ctsv brakes in the future. i'm doing the swap on my 94 and got the whole setup off a member on here, do a search and there's tons of info on the swap. as for the back, unless you are going for looks there is no reason to upgrade the rear brakes on these cars, they are over biased to the rear from the factory so upgrading them can cause the rears to lockup unnecessarily and other issues like that. a stock replacement pad/rotor is all you need back there

i cleaned up and painted everything before putting on the car, also new hubs with extended studs




Last edited by hokeplaya05; Jun 29, 2020 at 10:08 AM.
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Old Jun 29, 2020 | 11:07 AM
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With the LS1 front spindle you can get several "almost" bolt on calipers now. I only had to enlarge the bolt holes on my spindle and put on C7 base 4-piston calipers, a very nice upgrade. There's a very lengthy thread discussing this, I made a video on it also. Don't cut your LS1 spindle ears for some other setups if you don't need to!
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Old Jun 29, 2020 | 08:23 PM
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Originally Posted by hokeplaya05
ls1 front brakes are a little larger than the lt1 brakes and opens up more options to upgrade to c5/c6 or ctsv brakes in the future. i'm doing the swap on my 94 and got the whole setup off a member on here, do a search and there's tons of info on the swap. as for the back, unless you are going for looks there is no reason to upgrade the rear brakes on these cars, they are over biased to the rear from the factory so upgrading them can cause the rears to lockup unnecessarily and other issues like that. a stock replacement pad/rotor is all you need back there

i cleaned up and painted everything before putting on the car, also new hubs with extended studs

wow that looks nice
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Old Jun 29, 2020 | 08:25 PM
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Ya i saw with ls brakes u can run brembos or c5 brakes ive seen alot more options. I dont want to spend 2k on a set of brakes like wilwood
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Old Jun 29, 2020 | 09:23 PM
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PM sent
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Old Jul 5, 2020 | 12:29 AM
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Op said rear brakes and everyone is talking spindle swapping lol

The 98-02 rear brakes will bolt up. However, parking brake is different. So you will have to swap that all over from any 98-02 fbody to your LT1 style 4th gen. If you don't plan to use your e brake right away... Go for it! I'm about to try something real differnt with my rear brakes on my 98... Once I figure it out all thr bugs... 4 piston floating rear caliper for me!

Last edited by FU_I_AM_UltraZ; Jul 5, 2020 at 12:30 AM. Reason: Type-o
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Old Jul 6, 2020 | 01:41 PM
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As it's already been stated, there's no reason to upgrade the rears. Just powder coat the stock calipers to match the new brembo CTSV fronts and get a proportioning valve after you ditch the abs.
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Old Jul 6, 2020 | 03:09 PM
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Originally Posted by FU_I_AM_UltraZ
Op said rear brakes and everyone is talking spindle swapping lol

The 98-02 rear brakes will bolt up. However, parking brake is different. So you will have to swap that all over from any 98-02 fbody to your LT1 style 4th gen. If you don't plan to use your e brake right away... Go for it! I'm about to try something real differnt with my rear brakes on my 98... Once I figure it out all thr bugs... 4 piston floating rear caliper for me!
If you read the post a little closer he does talk about a front brake up-grade!
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Old Jul 9, 2020 | 08:46 PM
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Well i did pick up a set of ls spindles off of a 99 camaro with like 117,000 miles they do have the hubs wich im not sure if im going to use or not mite buy new ones. The spindles are alittle rusty i was planning on sandblasting them and maybe powder coating not sure
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Old Jul 10, 2020 | 08:08 AM
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Why run extended studs? For strip use? Myself I’m also upgrading my 1994 z28 to LS1 eventually and tossed my old LT1 calipers since the car sat for so many years ago. So what you guys are saying is I should just get new LT1 rear calipers and rotor? Wouldn’t I want to stick with LS1 rotors on the rear since that would be on the front?
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Old Jul 10, 2020 | 11:43 AM
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Rotors are different between the LT and LS cars. If your car is LT rears now, get LT rotors in whatever configuration you'd like. My 95 has the stock calipers in the rear with upgraded pads and slotted rotors, the fronts are LS brakes, just gotta remember when you go to order parts!!
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Old Jul 10, 2020 | 12:13 PM
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Originally Posted by one sweet ws6
Well i did pick up a set of ls spindles off of a 99 camaro with like 117,000 miles they do have the hubs wich im not sure if im going to use or not mite buy new ones. The spindles are alittle rusty i was planning on sandblasting them and maybe powder coating not sure
Now you can do the front brake up-grade!
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Old Jul 10, 2020 | 12:47 PM
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Okay cool thanks and will leave rear LT1 stock setup. Will just order some new stock rear calipers from rock auto. When you guys are getting used calipers from junkyards or where ever. Isn’t there a chance they will fail or be bad? That’s why I tossed my old ones. Only had 30,000 miles on them but also sat in a unheated/non ac garage for 15 years so didn’t want to take a chance they were shot.
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Old Jul 10, 2020 | 04:44 PM
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Originally Posted by SCLT1
Okay cool thanks and will leave rear LT1 stock setup. Will just order some new stock rear calipers from rock auto. When you guys are getting used calipers from junkyards or where ever. Isn’t there a chance they will fail or be bad? That’s why I tossed my old ones. Only had 30,000 miles on them but also sat in a unheated/non ac garage for 15 years so didn’t want to take a chance they were shot.
Calipers are so easy to rebuild and cheap to do so!


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Old Jul 10, 2020 | 04:48 PM
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Well crap wish I didn’t throw mine and the brackets away a few months ago. Where did you get the replacement parts from? But now by the time I drive 2hrs round trip to a picknpull and rebuild mine it’s cheaper to buy new.
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Old Jul 10, 2020 | 06:57 PM
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Originally Posted by SCLT1
Well crap wish I didn’t throw mine and the brackets away a few months ago. Where did you get the replacement parts from? But now by the time I drive 2hrs round trip to a picknpull and rebuild mine it’s cheaper to buy new.
rockauto, seal kits were like $5.
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Old Jul 12, 2020 | 08:57 PM
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Originally Posted by SCLT1
Why run extended studs? For strip use? Myself I’m also upgrading my 1994 z28 to LS1 eventually and tossed my old LT1 calipers since the car sat for so many years ago. So what you guys are saying is I should just get new LT1 rear calipers and rotor? Wouldn’t I want to stick with LS1 rotors on the rear since that would be on the front?
i assume you're asking me about the extended studs, i am planning on drifting my car and have my knuckles cut shorter for more angle and just want the added strength in case i need spacers for control arm clearance
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Old Jul 13, 2020 | 07:10 AM
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Okay figured some kind of racing. Saw the kits and also saw new LT1 rears for $26.00ea but need to get the brackets.
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