LEAVINU

What kit are your running (calipers)?

How often do you have to change the seals for smooth operation?

Is the car purely setup for track or does it see street driving as well?

Anyone know if the C6Z brakes require "regular maintenance" such as seals/rebuilding as well over time? I'm not familiar with how those calipers are assembled.

I ask because I'm currently rebuilding my Wilwoods (new o-rings only) and curious if others do the same with the Wilwoods or other brands.

Thanks.

davidfarmer

all calipers will need seals eventually. I melted the pistons out of both OEM and Stoptech calipers in the past....now I often run a Titanium or SS shield between the pad and piston to reduce the chances of that happening.

Most aftermarket calipers have bridge pipes that may eventually get damaged or leak, and bleeders may leak eventually also. Nothing really any different than an OEM caliper as far as I'm concerned, except that they don't overheat as quickly, and time between seal replacement should be much less.

LEAVINU

David-
When you say you melted the OEM pistons are you referring to C6Z brakes? (I'm assuming yes but you know how assumptions go sometimes.)

0Anthony @ LGMotorsports

Keeping up on your brakes, OEM or aftermarket is going to depend on how they are used.

I have seen Pro drivers tear up race brakes during pratice before if they try hard enough, or the track is that demanding on brakes (ala Long Beach).

I would say rotor life is going to be directly related to cooling, pad selection and driver. There are some pads that are nicer to the rotors than others but cooling and driver can make or break any good pad on rotor life. Most aftermarket kits however should show at least 3-4x longer rotor life than OEM units.

From what I have seen on the OEM brakes..
-Rubber lines can be burnt off of the car in less than a day
-Caliper dust boots burn off in one session (almost any kit is going to do that)
-Caliper seals burnt in a day
-Poor structural design leads to poor pad wear..pads were done in 2 sessions.

I haven't rebuilt one yet...if they kill them that bad we generally replace with something better.

Now this does bring up a good point about life cycles on parts because this is where you see the difference on a $6k brake kit compared to say a $20k kit like you see on the ALMS car. Most of the aftermarket kits are going to far out last your OEM units on track but will still need to be looked after like any part of a race car. Some kits may need to be looked at every 5-6 events, some may go a season or so before needing to be torn down.

I haven't seen a kit yet that will hold a dust boot for track use without burning them out. So don't plan on any kit keeping those.

I know there is no real good clear answer on this because you need to see how you use the car and the tracks you run on. I will say that cooling is your friend, and will help any kit last you much longer between rebuilds.

CHJ In Virginia

I have Wilwood's on the front of the C5Z. Car is used 60 % on the street in all kinds of weather. Have run them for two years now a total of 26 track days and maybe 7000 street miles. No seal problems yet. I use brake klene on the pistons when installing new pads to get the garbage off. That way when you push them back in there is nothing getting on the seals. Knock on wood, they are working fine so far.

LEAVINU

My buddy and I concluded just what you said above last night. We were at the Lemans here in Atlanta so we were assuming race teams rebuild calipers after every race much like any other type of routine maintenance. Thanks for the input.

LEAVINU

Good point! I'll be sure to remember this best practice.

0Anthony @ LGMotorsports

Depends on the event. ALMS for example, I would rebuild them before the 12 hrs of Sebring, and then right after. Past that we could probably do almost the rest of the season up until the 10hrs of Atlanta because the rest of the events might only be 2-3 hrs each.

63Corvette

Stoptechs!!!