redtopz

I've been tracking my C5Z for about a year and a half now. I'm happy with the performance of my stock brakes with cooling ducts and hawk dtc-70 pads in front. I've been burning thru pads and rotors though, so I just bought some stoptech aerorotors which are a nice upgrade I think. However, the last 2 track events I'm starting to see more and more pad taper in front. Basically my pads are wearing diagonally from top to bottom. I guess its due to the limits of the stock pbr calipers. I would like to keep my stock size aerorotors and have the ability to run my stock wheels so the Wilwood SL6 calipers from LG look like a good option. Two questions:

1. How do the polymatrix E pads compare to dtc-70 pads? Can you get hawk pads (or any others) with the wilwood calipers?

2. Will these fit with 18x11" ccw C14's in front without spacers?

I hope to talk to LG tomorrow, but maybe some of you guys already have these answers. Thanks,

Bill

Z06 Bob

Bill,

I use the LG setup. I'm not sure about the comparison between Hawk and Wilwood E pads. I use H pads for the track. It's an endurance race pad. I've got 15 track days on these pads with a few more left I think. They wear great. I get about 4-5 days on a stock rotor using
spindle ducts. I use stock caliper in the rear and I changed them after 14 days but could have gone longer. Be sure to get the H pad for the stock rear. I run CCW C10s. I'm not sure about the offset on the C 14
Stock front rims will fit over the LG kit so you are probably ok with the CCWs.. Call John at CCW to be sure it exceeds the offset of a stock rim.

Hope this helps.

Bob

gkmccready

1. You can order Hawk pads to fit the SL6R calipers. Or any other pad. Cobalt will make them for you, too. I've been using Wilwood Hs on the track.

2. With a tonne of space. On my C6 my 18x11 C140s have about 7/8" clearance.

Note that LG does not use an SL6R. They use a slightly narrower caliper that still accepts the type 7420 pads (as opposed to the Wilwood kit that uses the narrow caliper and the 7416 pads).

I went through a little "oops" moment by ordering the full width SL6R from Wilwood, and their brackets, only to find that the brackets expect the rotor to be at a non-stock offset. Tried to machine the brackets to make them work and ended up ordering the LGM brackets. The good news is that the LGM bracket works with the full width SL6Rs. Further "oops" moments included Wilwood drop shipping calipers with the crossover tubes in the wrong locations.

Not super impressed with the screwing around that was required to finally get them on the car, but they work well and offer great bang for the buck.

I fully recommend grabbing a set of DRM brake lines and just swapping out the caliper fittings -- so nice that they're modular. I went from the stock brakes to the Wilwoods with only a small cash grab at Summit Racing rather than having to buy all new brake lines.

redtopz

Thanks for the info . I was just looking at my ccw front wheels and they should have more clearance than my stockers so that looks good. I will ask LG if I can get the H pads (or maybe some dtc-70's) instead of the E pads that are included with the front calipers. I was planning on keeping my stock rear calipers also. I've been using a set of cobalt friction xr2 pads back there and I've been very impressed with them. They came very thick (barely fit in there) but they are lasting a long time and not destroying the rotors.

New question. I already have ss brake lines and it looks like the LG wilwood kit comes with new ss lines also. So I assume the new brake line fittings are different than stock on the Wilwoods? Is there any reason not to use the lines that come from LG and go with DRM instead?

Sidney004

Bill, if the wear pattern you are describing is radial pad taper(extreme pad wear at the max OD of the rotor and lessening as the position of the pad equates to a smaller diameter) that is because your calipers have overheated(Laguna Seca) and the aluminum alloy has annealed, weakened and been permanently distorted. This is the PBR "clamshell" spreading that is talked about. You can confirm this by measuring the parallelism between the pistons and the opposite pad mounting face. If that is the case, at best it will lead to a long pedal and a couple more trashed pads, at worst as I have come to find out on one occasion, the caliper will continue to to deform to such an extent that the piston will breech its seal in the bore and you will experience brake failure. Get those Wilwoods installed before the next event or at the least slap on a used set of calipers if it is in fact radial pad taper, that is the first symptom of a failure mode of these PBR's.

gkmccready

The fittings on the Wilwoods are different from stock. I forget exactly what they are. That's why LGM ships new lines. I don't know what they ship, or which lines you have. Like I said, I like the DRMs because they're modular. If I decide to sell the Wilwoods I can put the old fittings back in with the stock calipers. Or if I go AP or PFC I can swap to whatever fittings they require without having to buy new lines again.

Since LGM packages the lines probably not much point in doing anything else...

Z06 Bob

Bill,

Don't buy extra brake lines. They come with the kit. When I got mine they were shipping E and Q pads with the set. I asked for H instead of E and don't think I paid any more. You need the Q's for street use. If you use H's you could chunk the pad and ruin it according to Wilwood. Plus they don't work that great on the street. You can't get enough heat in them. This setup was the best investment I made for my track car to date. I talked to guys that did the Wilwood big brake kit and they wished they did the LG instead simply because of the ability to use stock size (inexpensive) rotors.


Bob

mgarfias

Check with Gary Hoffman (hardbar) sometime this week, hes working on the same basic package for me. The stock 01 Z06 wheels give me approximately 2.5" clearance between the rotor and rim. The standard SL6R ends up with about .2" clearance.

Looks like this is the caliper I need to go with: http://www.wilwood.com/Products/001-...6R14/index.asp as that'll give me .5" clearance. Gary indicated that the brackets were off the shelf items, but hes going to check with LG to find out why they build their own brackets. Sounds like the rotor offset issue might be the reason.

redtopz

There is a little of that, but the taper I'm really seeing is not radial, but rather vertical along the pad from top to bottom. For example, the inside pad is worn more toward the bottom than the top and visa versa on the outer pad. So if you sandwich them together they are kind of diagonal. I'll try to post a picture sometime this week. I think they are still safe to use, but hopefully I'll have the wilwoods prior to May 15th .

OK, thank you. That's what I figured but I was a little confused by your 1st post regarding the drm lines and thought maybe I was missing something.

That sounds excellent. I'm excited about this now, it seems like the perfect option for me .

Will do, or maybe he will chime in here .

96CollectorSport

I would stick with the DTC-70's you can get them for the SL6 wide and they will probably be cheaper than the E compounds. When we first tried the E compound (with the narrow SL-6) we went through a set of front E's in 1 day at Road America. I think that the H compound is a little harder on rotors than the DTC-70. All in all it's tough to beat the DTC-70's, especially when teamed up with StopTech rotors.

redtopz

Thanks, that would be my 1st choice. Hopefully LG can get some of those for me and ship them along with my wilwood calipers. I really do like those pads for the track and they are already bedded in with my aerorotors.

0Todd TCE

All Wilwood calipers come with 1/8npt inlets to allow a vast assortment of AN fittings be installed to them. Thus no oe hoses will adapt to them (at least not without a lot of hassle)

The Poly E pads really have no place on the track. Pads such as A, B, H are the more common for this use. The E pads could be considered a "tuning" pad for many rear brake apps where less tq is desired for proper bias.

The taper wear is common "leading edge wear" caused by the build up of the boundary layer that develops rendering the trailing piston less effective. This is countered by many calipers being fit with differential size pistons- the larger being on the trailing side for additional clamping force.

Rogue Wave

Curious, are the LGM brackets available without ordering the whole LG brake kit? It sure would be nice to use less expensive stock rotors with the Wilwood caliper.

kmagvette

That pad wear pattern is normal. The explanation I buy into is that the stock calipers float and there is a bit of slop in the pins. When you brake hard, all the slack and slop is removed causing the caliper to rotate about its yaw axis. So, looking at the back of the clamshell on the drivers side, the caliper will rotate slightly counter clockwise; this results in the outside pad wearing more at the bottom and the inside pad wearing more at the top (or the other way around).

When you remove the pads and place them together, the backing plates are parallel, but your pad material is thicker at one end than the other. The other pad is worn exactly opposite.

Wicked Weasel

0Anthony @ LGMotorsports

I have not sold our brackets without the calipers because it does take a specific caliper to get the kit to fit correctly. A normal Wilwood SL6 for the Corvette kit will not fit with our brackets and a OE rotor. One without the other will not fit.

gkmccready

Er, the LGM kit which includes lines, brackets, calipers does exactly what you want then...

Rogue Wave

Thanks Anthony.

I purchased Wilwood SL6's a couple years ago and was hoping your bracket would work with them. As one gains track experience one tends to go thru rotors quicker and quicker, and Wilwood rotors are not inexpensive. Oh such is life.

Bill Dearborn

The LG kit works well. I have been running mine since 2005. There is still some pad taper but the brake pedal remains consistent instead of the stroke gradually increasing as the pads taper. I flip the pads from one side to the other and upside down to balance the taper so I can get maximum wear out of the pads. I usually get 8 track days out of a set of 7420 H pads. As the pads wear down it is advisable to run a pad spacer so the pistons don't come out so far. CCW classic wheels will not fit over the calipers (I tried). There isn't enough space from the mounting surface to the back of the spokes. To get them to clear I would have had to run a 5/16 spacer. The E pads are a great autocross pad or a street pad (although they dust a lot!!) but they will not last long on a brake intensive road course. The Q pads are an excellent street pad with little dust. The calipers come in black but will change more to a reddish black after they have been heated up a few times. For the cost the LG kit is an excellent buy and after a few track days you will start to save money from increased time between pad purchases and decreased pad cost. I was running PFC 01s and 99s before I updated and the prices on those pads were going out of sight. Now all I need are rotors that won't crack as often.

Bill

redtopz

Thanks for the info, that makes sense.

Yep that's what I am seeing.

Good to hear that these are holding up over 4 years of use. Flipping the pad is an interesting idea. I might have to try that .

Anthony was able to order hawk dtc-70 pads to go with the LG wilwood brake kit for only a small additional price. I'm looking forward to getting these on my car.