I’m looking for a good place to purchase brake calipers from for an 80 or are the wilwood bolt on style worth the cost? It seems every year or two I find one seeping

 

YES....and NO. Everything that is the "Best" has its price. I rebuilt my '68 calipers myself 10 years ago/replaced all the rubber brake hoses and would "like" to convert them to O-ring piston seals but have not had the need to do so.
Expert members can name some Vendors who sell quality calipers.

 

Yeah $750 for a pair is a little steep for the type of driver it is. Top flight sells new for $150 and I don’t care about not having ac delco stamped on them. No core charge too.

 

Have your calipers been sleeved in stainless steel? Are they Delco Moraine? If so, consider rebuilding your calibers with O-ring kits. Total cost should be under $200. If your rubber lines are over 10 years old, replace them as well. The disc system on the C-2 and C-3 vettes work very well when set up correctly. Jerry

 

Do you plan to track the car? If not, the Wilwood may not be worth the added cost.

Stainless steel sleeves are great. I think https://www.cssbinc.com/ and https://lonestarcaliper.com/ are two places to check. Lone Star may make calipers that others sell. But other members, more knowledge than me, can chime in. The company that did mine is long gone.
I sent them my calipers and they put in the sleeves and returned them.

I have been doing Time Trials and HPDE since I purchased my 1969 in 1974. I have run on tracks with long straights like Bridgehampton Race Circuit where you can hit 150 on the main straight. In my opinion, if you do a few things, the stock brakes have served me. well. Some of those things:

Check the runout. Sometimes the backing plate they are mounted to are out of spec too. You want zero runout.

Pick a great high temperature brake fluid. There are a number. I will let others chime in on their favorites. Most of my friends like Motul. I have always used ATE TYP 200 Racing Quality DOT 4 Brake Fluid. I started with it when they had two colors, clear and blue. Made knowing when your flush was done. The blue has been discontinued.

Pad selection is also very important. I have had some really bad ones and some I like. You may want to consider calling the technical specialist at some of the brake pad suppliers. Tell them your car and how you use it and your preference. For example, I like a pad with a lot of initial bite. They can be very helpful in choosing the correct pad material.

 

The new no name $150 (I think they're actually $138.00 each?) calipers Top Flight sells don't have stainless steel sleeves in them which means the piston bores can pit with age just like the original Delco ones did. This is why the aftermarket started sleeving calipers, to eliminate the pitting and extend the life of the calipers. Top Flight was selling a sleeved version of the no name calipers for $168 each, but they've been discontinued and don't have any right rears left, and only a few of the other three left. This is really a shame because these were nice calipers at a fair price for new sleeved o-ring ones.

The rebuilt stainless sleeved calipers had been the the way to go years, but recently we've been seeing more and more issues with the rebuilt calipers leaking, often right out of the box. Many of the vendors and repair shops have gotten away from the rebuilts because of these issues. Most shops I know are now biting the bullet and using the new repro Delco calipers. If you chose to go that route check around because you might find a little better price than the $232 Top Flight gets for them.

The Wilwoods are great calipers, but unless you're going for the bling factor of having calipers that say "WILWOOD" on them, there's really no advantage to having them on a daily driver or a weekend cruiser. Because they're aluminum they are a couple pounds lighter than stock calipers so they reduce unsprung weight a little and they shed heat quicker than cast ones, but you'll never notice any difference with them on the street, even in spirited driving. Even if you autocross I don't think you gain much from Wilwoods, because the run time is so short, but that's not to say I wouldn't want them on an autocross car. The only place Wilwoods really could be an advantage is if you track day or race your car.

In my opinion the new o-ring, stainless steel sleeved Delco casting calipers are the best option currently available.

 

I recently went through the same process. I decided to go with delco repros with the ss sleeves and o-rings.

Wilwoods are really nice their benefits are lighter weight and less susceptible to runout than the originals.

Cons are price and a few minor challenges with the rears where the bleeder isn’t at the highest point and a little extra fitting to get them properly centered over the rotor on some applications.

As others have said, same pads so no additional braking power. The stock braking system is very good when the calipers aren’t leaking from sitting around alot but the oring seems to help with that.

If you go delco, many vendors carry them, cssb has an interesting oring design you might want to check out.

 

Thanks for all the info guys. The forum is always great

 

From what I've read Wilwood wasn't a performance upgrade.... but it eliminates the leaky caliper issue

 

I recently replaced my fronts with SS sleeved remans from CSSB, very happy with them....

 

I’ll be ordering cssb I think

 

bschuusS
My opinion is that WILWOODs are well worth it. I installed my Wllwood kit with SS hoses almost 12 years ago (August 2012). I have NOT had a single brake problem since. It was tough to make that decision because there are a lot of option and it wasn't cheap.
VanSteel was having a group sale here and I am now REALLY glad I did it. Before that every goddamed year I'd have repair at least one calilper for years on end. I haven't done jack to my brakes since, other inspect them and bleed them (for entertainment really).
I recommend it. I recommend all 4 calipers and the SS braided hoses..... however if it's too annoying just buy the pair that has been most troublesome to you (forward or aft).... then when you're happy buy the other pair.
I really, really, really am glad that I did it.

 

bschuus
Jegs has some fairly good prices for the non-powdered coated calipers with hoses..... fore and aft links below. Also there is some coupon with the code HEAT on google search. But also look at van steel website to compare. I added the coupon code image HEAT below the links.
I don't think I paid much more than this (they were powdercoated and whatnot so that was a big advantage of the group sale....and I got my favorite RED{not that anybody can see them behind rallye wheels..but anyway) but I'd compare some amazon prices and some ebay prices now that you have the part numbers. Lotsa times there is free shipping on Amazon & Ebay...... I paid shipping when I bought mine.
Take I look. I took the trouble to search because I think they are so goddammed good.

https://www.jegs.com/i/Wilwood/950/140-10790/10002/-1

https://www.jegs.com/i/Wilwood/950/1...HcBF-yNQdmrMQk

 

I didn't have time to read all the above posts (sorry if this was already mentioned). OReilly Auto was selling Lonestar calipers, lifetime warranty, no shipping or core hassles, no questions-asked lifetime warranty...I don't know how you can do better than that.

Your car might benefit from bleeding the brakes (new fluid) every 2 yrs if it's stored in a humid environment. Or at least suck the old fluid out of the reservior and put in new. That'll slow down the rest of the system fluid from going bad (and corroding calipers).

 

Many years ago, I weighed the cast iron calipers. I think they weighed 16 pounds. My aluminum calipers, Stainless Steel Brake Corporation, weighed 9 pounds. Maybe someone can post their more recent weight measurements, since my numbers, due to memory, may not be that accurate. SSBC no longer sells aluminum C3 Corvette calipers.

 

The key difference between C2/C3 calipers and modern ones are:

Modern Caliper:
1) Square-cut O-ring is mounted inside the bore (not on piston)
2) O-ring on modern disc brakes (basically anything not C3) is square-cut ...not a bellow-type. So they don't induce air into the system.
3) O-rings don't weld themselves to the piston unlike bellow-type seals. (regular use prevents that).
4) Pistons are generally chrome-plated, plastic (phenolic), or SS ...something not affected by corrosion (C3s are anodized aluminum)
5) Pistons aren't spring-loaded ...don't constantly ride against the rotors.

So going with a modern caliper has a lot of advantages. But then if you need a replacement caliper it's going to cost and there'd be a wait. That said, C3 brakes when properly performed/installed and regularly maintained by someone who understands the C3 brake intricacies ....work great.

 

This is a total aside .....but the calipers that are on my Hummer H3 look remarkably similar to C3 calipers. The mounting is similar too (not exact). The picture below is a C3 caliper on the L, old H3 caliper on the Rt. I bet it wouldn't take much to plasma-cut out a new mounting plate out of 3/8" plate to adapt to the C3 knuckle (that's all the current calipers mount to anyway), and get them to work. I've often thought of trying a swap. I've put them onto my C3s rotor just to eyeball the fit, but that's as far as I've taken it. It would be a modern caliper. Drop-in pads. H3's even have spring pad-spreaders (to push pads away from the rotor). No weight savings though and I haven't looked into how the current C3 M/C would work. And it doesnt address C3 rear calipers. Just a thought.

IDK if there'd be enough clearance with OEM wheels. H3's run 16" wheels, so if yer running 16" or larger wheels I suspect they'd probably clear ok. Or maybe a little grinder work would allow them to fit OEM wheels?? Again, something I've just always 'wondered'...

 

You're right I did say "a couple pounds", while the difference is actually 4-5 pounds so next time I guess I should say "a few pounds". Stock cast iron calipers weight about 12 pounds. I shipped a set of 4 last week, and the total weight including the box was 49 pounds. It's been a while since I've sold any Wilwood D8-4's, but I think they weigh about 7 pounds each. Regardless of what they weigh the point I was trying to make doesn't change, it's nice to be able to reduce some unsprung weight, but no one is ever going to notice any difference from that 4-5 pounds (per wheel) in normal driving.

As I said in my previous post, Wilwood makes great calipers. I've sold them, but as far as I'm concerned unless you just want the look of them, they're overkill for the average street Corvette. I crew on a Corvette vintage racer in a series where we're required to use stock cast iron calipers. With racing pads and 3" hoses directing cooling air to the brakes, our stock calipers will repeatedly stop the car throughout the 30-60 minute races we run without any fade. We'd use Wilwood's if we could, because we're always trying to save a little weight and it's always a plus to be able to reduce the heat generated under braking. But even in the race car I don't know that a switch to Wilwood's would be noticeable or show up in the lap times.

I've been very happy with the new stainless steel sleeved o-ring Delco calipers from CSSB, and I have no reason to believe the CSSB Delco's won't last as long as the Wilwood's. At $200 each verse $280 for the Wilwood's ($375 for the powder coated Wilwood's) they're considerably cheaper too.

I'm not knocking Wilwoods, or any quality aluminum caliper, but there are people who think that Wilwoods will improve the way their car stops, and they won't. The direct replacement Wilwood D8-4 calipers (and even the six piston D8-6 front calipers) use the same pads and the same diameter rotors as a stock caliper, so the pad area and volume remains the same. The Wilwood's don't really apply any more pressure on the pads either, though the D8-6 fronts may provide a little more even pressure across the pads. I just want people to understand that good quality performance pad will do far more in reducing stopping distances then changing calipers will.

 

I decided to go with CSSB’s