[Atomic Ed]

I'm not one that normally posts "which one of these is the best" kinda posts, but I'm getting pulled off track in purchasing the 6 pot GM/Brembo brake upgrade by the Wilwood Aero 6 kit. I've done my homework a looked at a lot of posts on both of these kits and I'm beginning to think that going with the Wilwood over the GM Brembo kit isn't a bad idea.

The Brembo kit appeals to me in that, well, its GM, therefore OEMish. Known product that works well and falls in line with my sleeper/grand touring build I'm putting together. Pads are easy to find from various sources. The negatives seem to be initial bite is not as strong as the Wilwood kit (reading between the lines here) and seems to be a little heavier.

The Wilwood kit seems to offer a two piece, larger diameter rotor (15"), better initial bite, Aluminum calipers for weight savings, a little less expensive, and a good selection of pads. And if you feel you need them, thermo isolated pucks to reduce heat transfer to the brake fluid. With no other information than other opinions, it would seem that the overall braking performance leans toward the Wilwood's. The negatives are, a little harder to change pads, somewhat more open to the environment, and not OEM looking.

I seem to be heading towards building a trackable car and 6 piston brakes have always been part of the overall plan. I don't think there is a bad decision here, but input from you folks is always welcomed.

Your thoughts?

[oneredry]

not sure about all that, however, my GM brake kit is a 2 piece rotor and is fantastic at what it does. Only down side that I've seen is the brake dust. cant stand it.

[TJay74]

Originally Posted by oneredry

not sure about all that, however, my GM brake kit is a 2 piece rotor and is fantastic at what it does. Only down side that I've seen is the brake dust. cant stand it.

If you are just driving on the street then go get the Powerstop Z26 pads. They will all but eliminate the dust issues. They work very well for street driving, they can handle some aggressive driving as well, but they are not good for track driving.

I kept my OEM pads for that use.

[apexit53]

willwood stuff is ok. They tend to leak and need to be rebuilt quite often from what I have seen.

[Atomic Ed]

Originally Posted by apexit53

willwood stuff is ok. They tend to leak and need to be rebuilt quite often from what I have seen.

Thanks for the comment. Hadn't considered the reliability angle. This may push me back towards the Brembo side.

[Atomic Ed]

Originally Posted by oneredry

not sure about all that, however, my GM brake kit is a 2 piece rotor and is fantastic at what it does. Only down side that I've seen is the brake dust. cant stand it.

Yea, Don't misunderstand all of my ramblings. It's just how I have my thoughts organized. I truly don't have a real clue.

I don't think there is any huge difference overall in performance. Isn't the brake dust issue manageable with different pads?

[PolynesianPowerhouse]

Originally Posted by apexit53

willwood stuff is ok. They tend to leak and need to be rebuilt quite often from what I have seen.

had the WA6 calipers and SRT rotors on my charger for 5 years and about 220,000miles.... never had any leaks. daily driven, autox, and track. only had them reubuilt after the first 115,000 miles. bleed fluid every 3 months religiously.

100,000 miles on the aero6 setup with 2 piece rotors on my 2013 Camaro, no leaks at all. sold em and put the money towards the current Camaro. same driven uses as the charger.

however, one here with the 6 piston brembo calipers on a 1le:

*2. The second problem with the brakes is all 8 bleeder valves keep leaking. Now, I've owned pretty much all the brakes over the years, barring carbon-ceramics. Wilwood still wins for having the least leaky race-style bleeders (yes the tiny 1/4" ones), AP's are kind of good, but these 1LE Brembo's need an absolute crap-ton of torque to simply minimize the weeping. I was literally using a 3/8" ratchet and deep-well socket and giving a good heave to the bleeders. Every heat cycle they'd need another 1/8 to 1/4 turn to get tight again. Looking at my PDR video, I'm not adding any notable more pedal pressure than others, so either my bleeders are crap or nobody else is reporting the bleeders suck.

http://www.camaro6.com/forums/showpo...0&postcount=42



there was also 2 guys that do serious track driving on a CamC group I'm in that stated the same. one thought it may be the pads used and how much thermal conductivity is occurring.

personally if wheel choice was critical and youd have/want to use 18... I would go with wilwood. if you plan to use 19 or 20, it would be a coin flip for me on wilwood vs OEM, but the brembo setup, you may find that there is a larger pad choice over brands....


as far as the 4 vs 6.... theres a guy in the road and track forum running the 4 pistons in a class. trying to find that post now, but its his own race site... considering what they've done race wise with the car, the 6 piston can be a want option, more so than a need. all personal choice and what you plan to do with the car overall I guess.

[Atomic Ed]

Originally Posted by PolynesianPowerhouse

had the WA6 calipers and SRT rotors on my charger for 5 years and about 220,000miles.... never had any leaks. daily driven, autox, and track. only had them reubuilt after the first 115,000 miles. bleed fluid every 3 months religiously.

100,000 miles on the aero6 setup with 2 piece rotors on my 2013 Camaro, no leaks at all. sold em and put the money towards the current Camaro. same driven uses as the charger.

however, one here with the 6 piston brembo calipers on a 1le:



http://www.camaro6.com/forums/showpo...0&postcount=42



there was also 2 guys that do serious track driving on a CamC group I'm in that stated the same. one thought it may be the pads used and how much thermal conductivity is occurring.

personally if wheel choice was critical and youd have/want to use 18... I would go with wilwood. if you plan to use 19 or 20, it would be a coin flip for me on wilwood vs OEM, but the brembo setup, you may find that there is a larger pad choice over brands....


as far as the 4 vs 6.... theres a guy in the road and track forum running the 4 pistons in a class. trying to find that post now, but its his own race site... considering what they've done race wise with the car, the 6 piston can be a want option, more so than a need. all personal choice and what you plan to do with the car overall I guess.

Thanks for sharing your first hand experience with the Wilwood brakes! I find it interesting that even with your hands on knowledge, you're at a coin flip between the two, just like me.

It was another interesting comment on the bleeders posted by the 1LE track guy. I've had the same problem on my sport bikes and found that a tiny strip of Teflon tape took care of the loosening.

[dontlifttoshift]

The Aero 6 is easily the bet caliper in the Wilwood lineup but I don't think it is better than the OE Brembo. The W6 is the worst caliper they ever made (notice you can't buy them anymore) they were all replaced with the Aero. I have never had leaking issues with any Wilwood calipers and over the rears have installed hundreds of them on mostly off topic cars.

Initial bite is a characteristic of pad compound.

Between the two I would run the Brembo.

Given a choice, StopTech.

[Deakins]

I have the Wilwood 6 piston kit that you are looking at. I chose the wilwood kit over the brembo kit for several reasons. First, a lot of race shops in my area stock pads, hardware, and other parts that you will need if you put the car on the track often. Second, while I dont have 10 different brands of pads to choose from, I have more than enough compounds to choose from and Wilwood does publish all needed data for me to use. Lastly, I will always prefer and use radial mount caliper whenever possible. Brembo makes excellent stuff, no doubt about it, but the GM offering is really setup for a production street car and isn't as focused as their much more expensive kits are. You cant go wrong with either...just get ready to part with the money!

[flyinlow]

AP Racing brakes for the win

[PolynesianPowerhouse]

Originally Posted by Atomic Ed

Thanks for sharing your first hand experience with the Wilwood brakes! I find it interesting that even with your hands on knowledge, you're at a coin flip between the two, just like me.

It was another interesting comment on the bleeders posted by the 1LE track guy. I've had the same problem on my sport bikes and found that a tiny strip of Teflon tape took care of the loosening.

yea its only a coin flip due to sizing for wheels. being in a v6, and a larger guy (double the size of most here) I try and keep the smallest wheels and tires on the corners. its served me well.

as of now, I know brembo GT and wilwood have a kit that fits 18's if I need something in the 6 piston range.

but as someone pointed out, pad feel, modulation, temp fade, and coefficient of friction is all up to the pad choice.


I did find the article with some help from another in the road and track forums... http://www.camaro6.com/forums/showth...ighlight=build




the article is here:

https://theblock.com/news/wheel-whee...-tells-you-how

On the brakes, the SCCA rules allowed the 6 piston package but it carried a 100# weight penalty. Another 100# may not seem like much percentage wise, but the it does reduce lap times which has to be offset by braking distance and early throttle. With little time, we decided to test the 4 piston package first and had excellent results in race trim with aggressive race pads and tires. Very gratifying to see how the abs programming/algorithm is much better suited for race trim in the 6th gen.

that started to get me more info to what was available pad wise at the time.


I can say that with the wildwood's I ran the BP-20's most of the time, but used the Polymatrix E pads for track use. towards the end before I removed em to start parting out the car, I just ran the polys daily driven. lots of loud noises coming to stops, but you could stop on a dime and give someone 9 cents back. so even if you go Wilwood, like Deakins said, there a good amount of variety out there to get the job done.

I always err on the side of whatever you can get parts and pads for in an emergency. oem vs Wilwood, would be a toss up still. now if it were brembo aftermarket GT setups, or Stoptech, then you're talking a slightly upscale league.

[Atomic Ed]

PolynesianPowerhouse: Your input is always helpful in this area, but there is one point that I struggle with; that is the comment from the SCCA builder that states that "...the 6 piston package but it carried a 100# weight penalty." I find it hard to believe that there is a 100# weight differential between the 6 piston and the 4 piston. Perhaps 10#, but not 100#. I wonder what he was really meaning there. Is it a dead weight add-on requirement?

All of the comments so far are giving me much better insight and will help in making a purchase decision. I'm one of those that believes that brake upgrades are mandatory when you do a big power increase. With the E-Force supercharger installed, a brake upgrade just seems to be the right thing to do.

[Atomic Ed]

Originally Posted by dontlifttoshift

Given a choice, StopTech.

I've looked around for a StopTech kit for the 6thGen Camaro and have yet to find one. Are they out yet?