gregkono

I have the 6 piston Wilwood superlites, have tried Wilwood "H"/"B"/"C"'s and am still cracking front rotors (not as often as stock rotors with aggressive pads though). Is there another mfg. (Pagid, ect.) that makes a better rotor friendly pad for the track (road course DE events) that will still stop the car with minimal fade? I'll give up some performance for longivity. Thanks, Greg (MI).

John Shiels

do you have spindle ducts? I think if pads give you minumal fade it is a very fine line to big fading problems.

Wicked Weasel

if you are not running a brake cooler you should do that.

http://www.eastcoastsupercharging.co...uct%20Kit.html

Other key things

At the end of your session you should try to run your last lap without using brakes to allow them to cool before parking.

When you park your car roll it forward after 5 mins and then again after 5 mins. This will move the heat of the pads off one spot of the rotor.

gregkono

I have had Rippie brake ducts on the car since I bought it! I've been tracking 15 years, mostly Porsche. Brake rotor life was not and issue until the C5 arrived(achilles heal for sure). I always give the last lap a no brake lap (as I teach my students). I was cracking stock rotors in a week-end with aggressive track pads. With the Wilwood super lites 6 (4 in rear) I am still cracking rotors (less often), but now they are $180/ea vs the Napa cheapies. I hear the PFC 01's are a good track pad with fairness to the rotor (if they make them for Wilwoods). Any first hand experience out there. Thanks...Greg (MI)

John Shiels

I like the Wilwood H or J better. 01 seemed to remove more material from my rotors. It does stop well. I have no proof what would crack the rotor first.

95jersey

I used the Wilwood H pad for almost 2 years and didn't crack that many rotors (maybe 3 per season tops) and my car had 423rwhp, so I was going much faster than a stock C5Z06. I always did the last lap without touching the brakes and even drove around the paddock if the last lap didn't seem enough. For what it was worth, I also moved the car around after it was parked so the pad didn't rest on one area. Also, I think most of this is really driver skill and how you use your brakes. Don't try to kill every corner or dive hard in every brake zone and that will help significantly.

I also have found the Carbotechs to be much easier on rotors compared to Wilwoods. But the downside is that they wear 2-3 times as quickly. I personally found it cheaper to just replace $20 NAPA rotors than $300 Carbotech pads, especially with the Wilwood calipers. You simply remove 2 allen bolts at light torque and you are done...MAN I MISS THOSE CALIPERS!!!

I wonder how they would work on a C6Z?

John Shiels

same except the car is faster but it is lighter. Doubt a new z with near stock hp will be pushed harder than my car.

gkmccready

There's two camps on this. (1) Do the cool down lap without using the brakes at all. (2) During the lap gradually reduce your braking. Many years ago I was taught to do the former but since then many many very experienced racers have told me to do the latter to reduce the thermal shock on the rotors.

I still use the cool down as a cool down even with some clubs wanting you to hustle around until the last couple of turns... but I no longer go at a pace where I can go without using brakes at all.

That said, I haven't noticed a difference either way...

az55

I run in NASA TT.
I've had good success with PFC 01 pads. They are pricey but Porterfield has good pricing. Last year in TTA, I ran 01 pads all around. This year I am running 01 in front and 97 compound in the rear. That was suggested by PFC technical guys to get balanced bias. I am running a much stouter car this year with 555hp/537tq at the wheels(TTU), so I wanted to get a pro opinion. My set up is Willwood Superlite6 in front and Willwood4 piston in the rear with Coleman Racing rotors all around.
I hope this helps.
Cheers,
CV

96CollectorSport

I'm assuming you have the 13" rotors for your Wilwood kit, I had 2 customers have the same issue, they put the 14" rotors on and now they get at least 5 events out of there rotors. You would have to go to 18" fronts but the rotors would last consiterably longer, all you need are new hat's, the rotors and a new mounting bracket (actually the bracket is the same they use a longer stud with a spacer). I know you were just looking for pad info, but I thought I'd let you know of another option.
BTW these customers home track is Road America, which is really hard on rotors.

ghoffman

The Wilwood H is a fine compound and since its' job is to convert kinetic energy onto heat, any "rotor friendly" pad simply has less ability to do this. I know a lot of people also like the PFC 01, but I prefer the PFC 05, but I don't know if it is available in the SL6 size.

DOUG @ ECS

I would be more concerned on your cool down process then which pads you use for the cracking issue, to rapid or uneven cooling cracks the rotors, not which pad is used on it IMO.

John Shiels

I thought SL6 caliper from LG if that's what you have won't take a 14" rotor?

John Shiels

Do you have LGM spindle ducts on the car or just Rippie ducts?

96CollectorSport

True, but I'm guessing that he has the standard Wilwood kit with the narrow body SL6, and if that is true, I have gone through this before and the 14" rotors were a big help. Now that I look at the set-up all you have to change is the brackets (and 18" rims) the hats remain the same.
Again I know you were looking at pad selection, but changing rotors really helped.

Wicked Weasel

My 13in rotors are lasting with H pads. I assume the reason some dont is because of Track and Driver. I run at WGI alot and then Limerock, Pocono and VIR and all but Limerock are highspeed. Of course my brakes have more time to cool between using them at the highspeed tracks.

96CollectorSport

I've learned to look at tracks in 2 ways, tracks that are hard on pads and fluids, typically shorter technical tracks that have a lot of corners with little time for cooling. Those tracks will have temps that are high and they stay high say (hypothetically) 900 degrees and cooling down to 700 degrees through a run, swinging around 200 degrees from hot to "cold".
Then you have tracks like RA and Pocano which are hard on rotors, here you will have long straits that will cool the rotors way down say to 500 degrees with a peak of 1000 degrees (a swing of 500 degrees will be much harder on the rotors). Long straits followed by hitting the brakes hard for a slower corner (typical at RA is from 145-150 to 75 T1 followed by 140 to 45 T5) no matter what this will thermal shock your rotors, so there is an advantage to having a bigger heavier rotor like the 14" Wilwoods.
Now there is a lot to say for driving style also, there braking philosophy has a big part in how long pads/rotors last a driver who brakes "long and light" vs a guys who "wait till I see God then brake".
One last thing that will effect your rotors are you out and in laps, we already mentioned the in laps, but your out laps are also important so you gradually bring things up to temp, I know we all want to giver hell right away but if you bring the brake temps up slowly it will help also.

ddl6289

I suggest trying DTC-70. In my experience Wilwood H and DTC-70 compounds are about the same in terms of stopping. Rotor life is longer with DTC-70. In my opinion, Wilwood H is hard on rotors.

If you're interested I'd be happy to sell my remaining new Wilwood H pads. They're the 0.800-inch thick ones for the LG SL6 caliper.

OKsweetrides

Welcome to the interesting world of wilwood brakes.

Get some serious cooling up front to help stave off the inevitable.

I run the A compounds at all 4 corners. The pads wear like iron, squeal like a pig, and slay rotors like rambo. I'm happy to get 4 hours of track time out of the rotors. Doesn't matter if they are PFC rotors or the wilwoods or oems, they all die quickly. I've written it off as an "oh-well," considering all the other money devested on spares.

I'm waiting to experiment with fans this spring.