MILLER TIME

Was hoping for some input for Everyday Around Town, Auto-X, Light Road Course usage:

What seems to be better....padlets or the 1 piece?

Any problems with Caliper body themselves?

Do they hold up?

Is the C5 Base Model floating type Caliper better?

Thanks in advance for your input.

1stZ

I've had my Z06 since June of '06. It is a dedicated track car and only see the street on occasion. That said, stock padlets were capable. My only issue was that it did not last long. So I'll have to do a brake pad job at the end of first day and must have a fresh pads for the 2nd day/sunday. Back then, there wasn't much choice so I upgraded to a brembo. But if the 1 piece pad were available then, I probably would not have upgraded my brake caliper, rotor & pads.

MILLER TIME

Thanks 1stZ, I appreciate that input. I am thinking of retrofitting these ZO6 calipers to a 65 Nova of mine that will see Auto-x & Track time and want to get input from actual users of this caliper. Thanks!

Keep the info coming please!

Lawdogg

'07 with 40+ track days on oem calipers. Run Cobalt CSR one piece pads on track and street. Very loud and dusty, but works well for track and street. Did I say they are loud.

MILLER TIME

Thanks Lawdogg for taking the time to contribute. That is a great testimony!

Keep the info coming guys!

LanceFitzgiben

running one piece stoptech pads and I like them for street and track. The track I frequent is tight so high speed braking isn't really present, though we are at elevation so the air is thin and brakes don't cool as effectively.

My car had a stoptech "bbk" on it when I bought it. I put the stock brakes back on with no regrets.

whatcop?

Just get a cheap set of DBA slotted rotors and some hawk DTC70 1 piece pads. Also invest in a brake cooling kit from LG or Lambert Performance. Its a very strong combo and is cheap compared to going to a BBK.

MILLER TIME

Thanks you guys for sharing your experience, it is very important for me to get tons of feedback (good or bad). I frequent another site more geared toward "Classic Cars", and we all seam to strive to handle like a Corvette. As you can imagine when you post a component you are potentially going to purchase/run....you get all kinds of feedback. Most on the site run the C6 baseline floating caliper (which seem to be fine) and the much more expensive BAER Monoblock 6S that I think is not worth the $. After some research of my own found that the ZO6 caliper not only is a Monoblock....but actually has more pad surface even in its "padlet" form than Wilwood SL6R's, Wilwood W6's, Baer 6P & 6S, Stop Tech's ST60, and many other top brake race Calipers on the market that utilize the FMSI D1247 pad! So I was thinking how bad can this ZO6 caliper be? But first wanted to ask the people/racers themselves that run these day in and day out.

So keep the info coming and thanks!

0Anthony @ LGMotorsports

Good pads, stainless lines, and cooling ducts will go a long way to helping the calipers out.

The padlets don't wear the best because the caliper does flex and you will get a bit of pad taper to them before the pads are dead.

Light duty work they should be fine. If you are going to track the car every weekend and run a sticky tire on it, it will be to much for them to hold.

MILLER TIME

Hello Anthony, mannnn...even getting input from vendors, Thanks! You Corvette guys are alright !

That is great input that I was kinda hoping to hear (well...wanted to hear BULLET PROOF...but knew that was not going to be the case).

I definately would not track every weekend nor would my driving skills probably permit slicks but sounds like are more than capable for the average Joe's regular Auto-X and daily driving type abuse?

So are the one piece pads wearing good despite the pistons do not graduate in size?

Thanks for info!

0Anthony @ LGMotorsports

The one piece pads from Cobalt, Hawk, and CarboTech will help reduce pad taper over the padlets on it.

Fluid and cooling ducts go a long way to help the calipers last a bit longer.

I've seen Lou kill a set in a day giving rides to vendors and customers rides in a 2007 Z06 on Toyo's with completely stock brakes, so yes an experienced driver on a sticky tire can far out drive the brakes given the chance.

MILLER TIME

Sorry for all the questions.

When you say kill a set, are you referring to the pads or the entire caliper themselves?

If caliper...what actually kills them?

And do you prefer the ZO6 caliper over the C6?

blackvetterzo6

He means pads. Calipers hold up for a long long time...

0Anthony @ LGMotorsports

Actually killed the pads and the caliper that day.

The car made it though 95% of the day. Last run of the day the padlets were all but completely gone and the calipers were starting to leak fluid from burnt seals, which is why proper cooling ducts are so important on these cars. I was running on the first generation of Cobalt pads, which was before the one piece pads were out at the time. The rest of the car was stock short of the tires.

Again we are talking with Lou driving the car full load with passengers pretty much non-stop that day between runs in the race car. We were not being easy on it at all.

Light duty track weekends, AutoX, and Street use they are more than fine. Once you find your self doing 2-3 day weekends every other week at the track, and move up to sticky tires you will want to upgrade the brake system that can better handle not only the heat generated from a faster car but also will give you more pad material, better pad selections, and a more robust and stronger caliper.

Bill Dearborn

I will give you my experience. I started out using the stock calipers with my C6Z and went back and forth between padlets and single piece pads. I instruct and do about 20 track days per year. I have been running street tires most of the time and using Cobalt CSR single piece pads I got from LG, Hawk HP+ padlets, Carbotech XP10/XP8 single piece pads, AFX/Coleman two piece rotors, a spindle duct kit and LGs replacement Z06 duct. The CSR pads are great for a street tire application but do wear down fast and a full set for front and rear is going to cost ~ $700+, HP+ padlets are much cheaper but not quite as good as the CSR, under repeated hard braking from triple digit speeds they tend to overheat, Carbotechs were great and about the same as the CSRs but the XP10s only lasted one day and they weren't cheap either. The seals didn't burn off the calipers until I used the XP10s. Stock brake rotors would last about 3 days before cracking. With close to two seasons using the calipers with the various setups I hadn't changed the caliper padlet guide pins. On my second set of CSR pads I started having issues with the brake fluid boiling and losing my brakes. It turned out the outside pad in the left front caliper was sticking on the pins and not releasing from the brake. This caused it to wear pretty fast and was overheating the brake fluid in that caliper. The pins were pretty grungy and couldn't be cleaned effectively so needed to be replaced. They are about $12/ea and you need 8 per front caliper and 6 per rear caliper and they do need to be changed at some sort of an interval. Not sure how often but GM includes a set in their stock pad kit.

Pad wear rates: CSR front pads last about 6 days, HP+ pads last about 4 days if you swap padlets around to minimize tapering. Can also swap padlets from rear to front. One guy I know recommended buying 3 boxes of rear padlets for the car since it was cheaper than buying one front and one rear from the supplier he was using. The Carbotech XP10 pads only lasted one day so even though they work well they are very expensive to use. Brake rotors: stock front and rear ones last about 3 days and the Coleman fronts last about 5. I didn't crack the rear Colemans in those 5 days and they look like they have more days left in them.

Add up all of the consumable costs plus the cost of buying the calipers used from a forum member and then compare that to buying a Wilwood SL6 (wide that uses the 7420 pad style) or the Wilwood W6A with a larger surface area but thinner pad than the 7420 pad, add to that the replacement costs of pads (H pad is great and cost effective or you can get them from other suppliers) and I think you will find the Z06 caliper though capable isn't cost effective. It may have more swept area than some of those other calipers but I had the SL6s on my C5Z for 4 seasons and they were much cheaper to own than the stock calipers and performed as well as or better than the stock calipers. I gave up the fight and switched over to a set of W6As setup to fit over the stock C6Z front rotor and was immediately happier. Pad costs are lower, they last longer and they are easier to change. Almost forgot, the C6Z caliper is a PIA when it comes to pad changes. The pad guide pins freeze into the caliper when cold and you need to pull the caliper to swap pads which means fitting them over the guide pins with single piece pads are fitting padlets between the guide pins. The padlets tend to fall out when you are trying to put the caliper back over the rotor. With the W6As I just unsnap two snap rings and pull out two retaining pins pull the pads out of the caliper and insert the new pads. The SL6 calipers were even simpler. There is another nasty secret about those guide pins though. When hot they loosen and tend to release themselves. If the pin is toward the inside of the car it will fall out along with at least one but more than likely two padlets (a good reason to use the more expensive single piece pads) or if one on the outside of the caliper decides to unscrew itself it will hit the back side of the wheel spokes and that can ruin a perfectly fine expensive wheel. Both of these situations have happened to forum members who are regular participants of the forums. The pin almost ruined one of my LG World Challenge Wheels but I found a reputable shop that was able to fix it.

Bill

MILLER TIME

Thanks for the clarification, just wanted to make sure.

With info gathered so far I am gonna make the call that:

The ZO6 caliper overall are more than acceptable for daily aggressive driving/Frequent Auto-X/Occasional Road Course, but if you do plan to attend an Open Road Course (triple digits all day)....just plan on bringing extra brake pads. Oh, and also make sure you are running high temp fluid and have proper ducting to calipers.

I am gonna moniter input for a few more days so please keep the first hand experience coming! Thanks and all info is appreciated.

MILLER TIME

Hi Bill, wow, thanks for such a detailed answer. Obviously you have tons of experience with this subject and great trial and error solutions. If I got the moral of the input, I believe you do think they are good calipers overall...with the exception of some very serious triple digit track days...of which still held up but just ate through pads at a very costly rate?

I am curious why the SL6's and or W6's with less pad surface would last any longer? Or was your point not that the pads last longer as much as the pads are less expensive which directly will attribute to a long term savings?

Thanks for great info!

Bill Dearborn

I had the LG G Stop kit on my 03Z. It uses the SL6 wide calipers. The pads would taper in the calipers but if I swapped them from one side of the car to the other and used pad shims to keep the pistons inside the caliper I could get 8 to 10 track days out of a set of Wilwood H pads. LG was selling the pads for around $200 shipped back then so they were cheaper than other pads I had been using with the stock calipers and lasted over twice as long. At that rate it didn't take long to pay for the initial cost of the caliper kit. The 7420 pad is .8 of an inch thick so it is meaty.

The C6Z pads/padlets are 15mm thick which is ~ .6 of an inch. The W6A pad is around .67 thick. I can probably get a scosh more wear (don't know for sure since my car was sidelined with a bad engine 5.5 track days after I installed the Wilwoods) and can get pads for less money plus they are much easier to work with. I should have listened when I got the car two years ago. Everybody at the track said put StopTechs on. By the time I got to where I am now I had spent a lot of money on the stock setup and still ended up getting a BBK. For the money I have into it now I could have had StopTech calipers and rotors front and rear. From my experience with the W6A it looks like it is a strong competitor to the Stop Techs but at a lower price. Can't compare Wilwood rotors to StopTech since I have the Coleman's.

Bill

BEZ06

I think you've gotten some good input!!

I have experienced the pad pin coming loose like Bill mentioned - a padlet was thrown out and the piston pushed down onto the rotor putting a nice gouge in it and requiring a new piston and rotor.

You're going to need some big wheels To fit over the front Z06 calipers. They can't be used on a base C6 without putting on wider fenders and using larger wheels.

Bob

cruzin2

I have been successful with carbotech one piece pads, LG brake cooling, ATE super blue, and titanium shims. This will allow me to run a few track days per year without too much trouble on stock or cup tires. I personally just don't run enough to get a BBK but I know that if my car ever becomes a dedicated track weapon or if I upgrade to hoosiers, I will upgrade to a brembo or stoptech unit

NVM