'14 AGM 1SS/1LE Track build [COTW 11/17/14]

[Firefighter]

I would prefer $5K-$10K worth of brakes not get shipped with a billboard on the side. Yikes... why don't you show us the cool stuff inside?

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[X25]

A few more pics of the calipers. They are not much different than the CTS-V calipers I suppose.

I finally finished the front suspension today, and the kids will be away for a party tomorrow, so I should have time to tackle the rear suspension. Things are coming along!

[tw78911sc]

Unscrew the 4 allen head bolts to remove the bridge and swap pads?

[Firefighter]

Those Stop Techs look freaking huge. They might be bigger than the Brembo 6 pistons. And you said 15" rotors? The ZL1 set up is only 14.6".

Only... lol That's a ridiculous comment. My first car had 10" discs up front and drums out back... old G Body Monte Carlo.

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[X25]

Originally Posted by tw78911sc

Unscrew the 4 allen head bolts to remove the bridge and swap pads?

Yep, I actually owned a similar ST60 StopTech BBK before for my Corvette Z06, and they worked very well on that car. The bridge sometimes gets stuck a bit as far as I've heard, but I never had that issue. My issue was rather the extreme tightness of the pad slots. I had to use a rubber hammer to insert the pads the first time. I asked about it to StopTech, and they said the slot guides relax a bit in time, so they make it extra-tight to compensate: fine.

Originally Posted by Firefighter

Those Stop Techs look freaking huge. They might be bigger than the Brembo 6 pistons. And you said 15" rotors? The ZL1 set up is only 14.6".

Only... lol That's a ridiculous comment. My first car had 10" discs up front and drums out back... old G Body Monte Carlo.

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Yeah, 15" is huge, especially considering these are iron! The StopTech pads are also smaller, in turn allowing the ring to be narrower, further saving weight. 21.2lbs for 15" rotors vs. 27.5 lbs for 14.6" ZL1 rotors or 25.1 lbs for stock 14" SS rotors look pretty good. Considering Z/28 suspension was tuned with lower unsprung weight than SS, every bit counts.

So far compared to SS and Z/28:

• Front brakes: -3lbs over SS, +2lbs over Z/28(?)
  • StopTech: 21.2lbs rotors + 13 lbs calipers
  • SS: 25.1lbs rotors + 12 lbs calipers
  • Z/28: 17lbs(?) rotors + 15lbs(?) calipers
• Wheels: -3lbs fronts / -4lbs rears over SS 1LE, -2lbs fronts / -3lbs rears over Z/28.
  • Forgestar: 24lbs front and rear(?)
  • APEX: 23lbs front and rear
  • SS 1LE: ~28lbs front and ~29lbs rear(?)
  • Z/28: ~26lbs front and ~27lbs rear(?) EDIT: I later measured both front/rear at 26.2 lbs.
• Tires: -4lbs over SS 1LE, -1lbs over Z/28 (if I choose to go with R7s).
  • Hoosier R7 315/30/19: 27lbs
  • Hankook RS3 305/30/19: 32lbs
  • SS 1LE G:2 285/35/20: 31lbs
  • Z/28 Trofeo R 305/30/19: 28lbs

[FKNGRSY]

Those brakes are gorgeous! Love how discolored the Brembos are as well.

[X25]

Originally Posted by FKNGRSY

Those brakes are gorgeous! Love how discolored the Brembos are as well.

I was going to sell them, but then thought noone would want to buy them since they are a bit 'tinted'

[X25]

I worked my butt off yesterday, and finished everything but the temp gauge!

Notes on installing / replacing suspension parts:

• You DO NOT NEED TO RAISE THE ENGINE to replace the front sway bar. BMR instructions tell you to do so, but the Z/28 suspension instructions did not mention anything like that. I tried, and it worked; I was able to get the sway bar off with no issues besides a bit of having to negotiate a few tight spots.
• You DO NOT NEED TO DROP THE CRADLE to replace the rear upper control arm. Loosening it a bit provided me plenty of space to work.
  First, while all 3 other cradle bolts are tight, remove one of the rear cradle bolts, and once removed, screw it back, and make sure the bolt has at least a few threads on. This will give you the lowest height you can go on the cradle bolts without compromising safety or the bolt. Then move on to the other bolts. The cradle bolts by the front side of the car do not need to be unscrewed much. Loosening them for a few mm drop was enough to let the rear cradle bushings freely drop in height.
  
  
  I lowered the cradle until my diff almost kissed my exhaust pipes. The angles between the shaft, diff, etc. all looked ok. This might be the case since I have the stock 2 piece driveshaft, whose slack is helping for once :P
  
  
  Success!
  
• I could not really push the car since the alignment is completely out of whack, but I was still able to notice a few things.
  • The ride is not harsh at all, and is actually pretty good. Looks like GM engineers were able to keep it within comfort limits while providing all the handling prowess by being able to individually tune low and high frequency dampening (and compression?) with Spool valve tech, which is what you would get with high end coilovers; well done!
  • I did not measure the ride height with the 1LE shocks and 19" wheels, but it doesn't seem to be effected at all; there are still big gaps.
  • During my test drive, I did not even come close to scraping the bottom, even at the usual suspect places. I think the 85% stiffer front springs are helping quite a bit on dynamic bottom clearance.
• I will get the alignment done on Tuesday. I wanna get to -2.5 fronts, and perhaps around -1.5 rears. If I installed any of those alignment bolts wrong, I'm sure my alignment guy will let me know : )

I decided to not do the brake ducting work until my more-restrictive wheels (Forgestar 19"x11") are delivered. It feels good to be able to steer from lock to lock with no worries again.

[X25]

Brake inspection and StopTech install:

• Cobalt Friction XR1 for SS Brembos: Take a look at the first picture below. The pads on the left are Cobalt pads at ~1000 miles + 1 track day. The pads on the right are the stock SS pads @6000 miles. ST43 pads, in comparison, had 90%+ of their life left. The Cobalt pads seem to be at 60+% after 1 track day!
  
  
  ST43 pads for my StopTech caliper, next to Cobalt pads:
  
  
  Long story short, I am disappointed by how fast Cobalt pads wore out. Considering their incredibly expensive pricing as well, it is not acceptable in my opinion. My only concern in this comparison is that I might have pushed the brakes harder during the second track day even though the track conditions were same, since I was testing the oil cooler. Nevertheless, I've never seen that much pad wear on a race pad with just 1 track day! Wow. I should note, XR2 pads at the rear were fine, and did not share the same faith.
  
  I will sell these Cobalt pads for cheap if anyone is interested in trying them. As I mentioned, they are at 60+% of pad thickness.
• Just like my experience on Z06, installing StopTech brakes was very easy. StopTech manufactures custom brackets for each car they create a kit, and everything is a very simple bolt-on. This is not the case with Wilwoods, since you need to use the washers and shims provided (and they provide 20+ of them) to align and center the pads, and the calipers. Anyway, I think was done with the whole brake installation in under 30 minutes!
  
  
  The lines plugged right in, and follow the OEM route.
  
• The brakes cleared the APEX wheels very easily; they were not even close. I am glad I did not go the 18" wheel route : )
  
  
• The StopTech 2-piece 380mm (15") rotor next to OEM 355mm (14") rotor:
  

[X25]

Legend: Planned | Procured | Installed

• Engine / Powertrain
  • TSP 304 LT Headers with custom 3" X Pipe (TSP's own x-pipe did not fit perfect).
  • Improved Racing oil pan baffle.
  • DEI coil boots.
  • 2000 degrees F matte-gray header coating.
  • Diablosport Intune w/ custom tune from FSP - $489 shipped.
    
  • DeWitts radiator - $575 shipped.
  • Improved Racing oil cooler with Setrab Series 1 / 72 rows.
  • Improved Racing oil sensor manifold (ENV-150).
  • BMR engine mounts - $259 shipped.
    
• Interior
  • Schroth Racing RallyE 3 ASM - $179.95.
  • Autometer 5286 direct-fit gauge pod.
  • Autometer 6348 Oil Temp Gauge.
  • Autometer 6327 Oil Pressure Gauge.
• Handling
  • Z/28 suspension package . $3449 shipped.
    
    • Front/Rear DSSV struts,
    • Front/Rear sway bars with end links ,
    • Front control arms,
    • Rear upper and lower arms.
  • BMR BK024 Cradle Bushings,
  • BMR BK018 Front Lower Control Arm Bushings.
  • Tires
    • Hankook Ventus R-S3 305/30/19 for daily driving.
    • Pirelli Trofeo R, Hoosier R7, or similar 305/30/19 for track duty.
  • Wheels
    • Forgestar CF5V 19"x11" (+17, +40 offsets) spin forged for track duty.
    • APEX ARC-8 19x10.5 +22 spin forged wheels for daily driving / rain.
• Brakes
  • Quantum - Competition Brake Cooling Kit - $239.95.
    • Naca ducts: $20.
  • StopTech ST60 Front BBK 15” red (83.193.6800.71).
  • Stock rear rotor (92245929) - $85.31 shipped x2.
  • Pads
    • Raybestos ST43 R2600.18 Front pads for StopTech ST60 caliper.
    • Cobalt Friction XR2 Rear (CRB-XR2-D592-15.0MM-R).
• Fluids
  • Engine oil: Mobil1 0W-40.
  • Differential oil: Amsoil 75W-110 (no additive required).
  • Transmission oil: Amsoil Signature Series Multi-Vehicle Synthetic ATF.
  • Brake fluid: Motul RBF 600.
  • Coolant: GM DexCool @50%.
  • Suspension grease: Amsoil Synthetic Polymeric Truck, Chassis and Equipment Grease, NLGI #2.
• Miscellaneous
  • Blown smart-fuse for skip-shift - $1.
  • HSA elimination - $80 shipped.

[L99CAMA2011]

Originally Posted by X25

Legend: Planned | Procured | Installed

• Engine / Powertrain
  • TSP 304 LT Headers with custom 3" X Pipe (TSP's own x-pipe did not fit perfect).
  • Improved Racing oil pan baffle.
  • DEI coil boots.
  • 2000 degrees F matte-gray header coating.
  • Diablosport Intune w/ custom tune from FSP - $489 shipped.
  • DeWitts radiator - $575 shipped.
  • Improved Racing oil cooler with Setrab Series 1 / 72 rows.
  • Improved Racing oil sensor manifold (ENV-150).
  • BMR engine mounts - $259 shipped.
• Interior
  • Schroth Racing RallyE 3 ASM - $179.95.
  • Autometer 5286 direct-fit gauge pod.
  • Autometer 6348 Oil Temp Gauge.
  • Autometer 6327 Oil Pressure Gauge.
• Handling
  • Z/28 suspension package . $3449 shipped.
    
    • Front/Rear DSSV struts,
    • Front/Rear sway bars with end links ,
    • Front control arms,
    • Rear upper and lower arms.
  • BMR BK024 Cradle Bushings,
  • BMR BK018 Front Lower Control Arm Bushings.
  • Tires
    • Hankook Ventus R-S3 305/30/19 for daily driving.
    • Pirelli Trofeo R, Hoosier R7, or similar 305/30/19 for track duty.
  • Wheels
    • Forgestar CF5V 19"x11" (+17, +40 offsets) spin forged for track duty.
    • APEX ARC-8 19x10.5 +22 spin forged wheels for daily driving / rain.
• Brakes
  • Quantum - Competition Brake Cooling Kit - $239.95.
    • Naca ducts: $20.
  • StopTech ST60 Front BBK 15” red (83.193.6800.71).
  • Stock rear rotor (92245929) - $85.31 shipped x2.
  • Pads
    • Raybestos ST43 R2600.18 Front pads for StopTech ST60 caliper.
    • Cobalt Friction XR2 Rear (CRB-XR2-D592-15.0MM-R).
• Fluids
  • Engine oil: Mobil1 0W-40.
  • Differential oil: Amsoil 75W-110 (no additive required).
  • Transmission oil: Amsoil Signature Series Multi-Vehicle Synthetic ATF.
  • Brake fluid: Motul RBF 600.
  • Coolant: GM DexCool @50%.
  • Suspension grease: Amsoil Synthetic Polymeric Truck, Chassis and Equipment Grease, NLGI #2.
• Miscellaneous
  • Blown smart-fuse for skip-shift - $1.
  • HSA elimination - $80 shipped.

Thanks for the choice in Stoptech brakes. Hey I got an Idea. Let me break them in for you and I promise I'll send them back asap LOL.

[hkittrell]

Why can't we get lucky and have a GM tech that knows his shit like you. Cool bro.

[X25]

Originally Posted by L99CAMA2011

Thanks for the choice in Stoptech brakes. Hey I got an Idea. Let me break them in for you and I promise I'll send them back asap LOL.

I might actually get to try the whole system on Saturday at the Oregon Raceway Park! I asked this morning if we could add a track day to the club even though the official season is over, and they will do so if at least 5 guys sign up until Thursday. 3 signed up in one day already, so I'm hopeful. Now, all I need to do is to swap back to race pads, install the ducting hoses back, and put the gauges on; nothing hard. I should mention, though, it will be my first time installing a gauge.

Originally Posted by hkittrell

Why can't we get lucky and have a GM tech that knows his shit like you. Cool bro.

I only got the oil pan baffling installed by a shop, and I regretted it. Engine mount bolts were way over-torqued, some of the wheel well plastic retainers were missing, so were two 10mm bolts holding coolant lines around the pan, and one of the oil pan bolts was not torqued enough, leaking tiny bit of oil. All this after just one job! When I told them about missing bolts in hopes that they could find them, they said the car was already missing them (it was not, I looked around the pan before leaving the car with them since I almost did the work myself; I wish I had). I'm sure the pros are much more experienced than me, but they care so little about your car, in the end, I usually end up doing a cleaner job :(

[X25]

I just sent an email to Maxxis, asking if they have plans for RC-1 tires in 305/30/19 size. If they did it, it would be both affordable and consistent. This tire very closely resembles NT01 in terms of its driving attributes.