6 pot front brake caliper conversion worth it?

[TheBrightSide]

Is it worth it to do a 6 pot front brake caliper conversion? I’ve been debating this for a while, since I stuck to the OEM Brembo GM factory brake rotors and pads. I forget exactly what material the factory Brembo GM rotors and pads were. Aren’t the factory Brembo GM bone stock brake rotors (similar to the bone stock 5th gen Camaro SS ones) made from some sort of material, one that complements the use of the factory brake pads? I know there’s other Brembo brake pads that are ceramic or a low metallic..

Anyways, I wasn’t planning to shell out lots of dough for a OEM, brand name brake calipers, let alone some nice 2-piece brake rotors. I was planning to just cheap out on some generic (refurbished?) 09-13 Cadillac CTS-V front brake calipers, and some random solid front brake rotors. For the brake pads, I wasn’t gonna cheap out all the way, but I was probably going to settle for some cheaper Brembo semi-metallic or low metallic brake pads. The OEM Brembo GM front brake pads, similar to the factory ones for the 5th gen Camaro SS, were like $200+ a set.

I wanted to know how badly I’d be compromising on braking performance, by going with some cheap solid (1-piece) brake rotors, and also maybe some cheap semi-metallic brake pads. I didn’t think going with generic (refurbished) brake calipers were too bad, as long as they were (brand) new, at least. I figured that my current fully OEM brake setup, all around on my 5th gen Camaro SS, was at least good for moderate track use. I also run decent DOT 4 or DOT 5.1 brake fluid, so there’s no concern there; although I sometimes cycle in some brake fluid, ones that might not be strictly for racing purposes (lower boiling points), but still have roughly around a ~500+ dry boiling point.

[FASTFATBOY]

Buy Carbotech AX6 brake pads and have ALL the brakes you could ever need on the street on your stock setup.

Also flush the brake fluid to high temp fluid.

Buy some Centric rotors, flush the fluid to Motul 600 or 660, but on Carbotech AX6 brake pads, burnish them in CORRECTLY.

Have bad ass brakes.

You put cheap ass parts store semi metallic pads on anything and they will melt onto the rotor then you'll have a paint shaker at Lowes whenever you use the brakes.

[CamaroDreams76]

I did the 6 pot brakes about a year ago. Braking performance increased but I did notice the brakes activate ABS much sooner and more abruptly. I got OEM ZL1 calipers from a member here, disassembled them and then sent them to Unit F14 Powder Coating where they rebuilt them, at my request, with Z06 vented pistons. As for rotors i went with OEM 2 piece ZL1. Got them from ZZPerformance. They also sell 1 piece rotors. ZZP was the cheapest I found rotors and pads for.

So I dont really do autocross or anything where the braking would be noticeable but how I can tell the improvement is when I brake boost my car. With stock brakes and stock rotors I was able to build 0psi maybe .5psi. Now with the 6 pot im able to build 3-3.5psi. So big improvement. Also have much much much more pedal to go. So the brakes are holding the car back building that PSI, foot to the floor. Before it was a balancing act.

[ariZona28]

OP, what type of tracking are you participating in and how often? I too am a big Carbotech fan and a good set of their pads in the factory original calipers along with decent quality rotors (OEM) might be all you need.

[TheBrightSide]

Originally Posted by FASTFATBOY

Buy Carbotech AX6 brake pads and have ALL the brakes you could ever need on the street on your stock setup.

Also flush the brake fluid to high temp fluid.

Buy some Centric rotors, flush the fluid to Motul 600 or 660, but on Carbotech AX6 brake pads, burnish them in CORRECTLY.

Have bad ass brakes.

You put cheap ass parts store semi metallic pads on anything and they will melt onto the rotor then you'll have a paint shaker at Lowes whenever you use the brakes.

I’m gonna look into those Carbotech brake pads. Looks like some others have recommended them for hard use and track driving as well. I wonder how well the model Carbotech pads you recommended, would do for daily street driving however…

At the moment, I just had a front and rear Wagner semi-metallic brake pad set on my car, along with the bone stock GM Brembo rotors. It took a while for them to actually “bed” in, and at times it felt like I was glazing over my brake rotors.. Nowadays, my brakes are obviously a lot cleaner (not that I care “too” much), but they perform like maybe half to 70% of the stock GM Brembo factory brake pads at best.

Should I sand down my rotor surfaces with getting new pads..? And about the brake fluid, I already have good brake fluid in there. I cycled out the rest of the old fluid like 6-7 times with a chicken baster. I’ve been running VP Racing 622, but don’t care for it too much right now, since I’m not gonna be tracking the car anytime soon.

[TheBrightSide]

Originally Posted by ariZona28

OP, what type of tracking are you participating in and how often? I too am a big Carbotech fan and a good set of their pads in the factory original calipers along with decent quality rotors (OEM) might be all you need.

I’ve done some light to moderate auto cross, as well as some track lap driving. During those times, I was on the bone stock GM Brembo brake pads and rotors, however. Good God, my wheels looked like they came out of a volcanic eruption, with all the brake dust those factory brake pads generated… LOL

I’m gonna do some research, since I don’t think I’m gonna track my car for a while. I don’t know if those Carbotech brake pads the other person recommended, is gonna be okay for daily street driving or not. I have some under-performing Wagner semi-metallic brake pads all around right now, with the factory brake rotors. At most, these things are clean and quiet, but only see maybe up to 70-75% of the “peak” performance that the bone stock brake setup saw…

I figured that better brake pads and tires, as well as good brake fluid, would do more justice than tossing on a bigger front brake setup, with a bunch of cheap hardware/components… I’d have additional rotating mass at that rate, and then crappy brake pads and rotors that wouldn’t be working to my needs.

[Joe.G]

I did the 6 Piston conversion, I used Braided brake lines Brmebo 2 piece front and 1 piece rear along with new ZL1 spec OEM pads. Fresh Dot 4 track rated fluid. I was replacing a very low mileage SS set up that worked well as well. The 6 Piston do offer more stopping power and less fade.
If I was not going to be doing the ZL1 swap I would have gone with Baer rotors slotted/drilled 2 piece front and back with possibly the pads l;listed in the posts above.
Brakes are not somewhere to cheap out especially with tack days. New OEM calipers were not that expensive when looking at the CTSV's ZL1 were more. I think for light track days you would be well served with the Baer rotors and pads listed.
Anytime you change pad compound and not the rotors you need to scuff them so new material can bed to the rotor otherwise braking will never be optimal for the set up.

[FASTFATBOY]

Originally Posted by TheBrightSide

I’m gonna look into those Carbotech brake pads. Looks like some others have recommended them for hard use and track driving as well. I wonder how well the model Carbotech pads you recommended, would do for daily street driving however…

At the moment, I just had a front and rear Wagner semi-metallic brake pad set on my car, along with the bone stock GM Brembo rotors. It took a while for them to actually “bed” in, and at times it felt like I was glazing over my brake rotors.. Nowadays, my brakes are obviously a lot cleaner (not that I care “too” much), but they perform like maybe half to 70% of the stock GM Brembo factory brake pads at best.

Should I sand down my rotor surfaces with getting new pads..? And about the brake fluid, I already have good brake fluid in there. I cycled out the rest of the old fluid like 6-7 times with a chicken baster. I’ve been running VP Racing 622, but don’t care for it too much right now, since I’m not gonna be tracking the car anytime soon.

AX6 are great street pads, put high temp anti seize on the pad backing plate wherever they touch anything and they won't squeal.

You need to Google "how to bed in brake pads" and watch some videos, it is a certain process you do when you put on the pads, you get them VERY hot then let them cool off to ambient temp.

Sucking the fluid out of the reservoir with a turkey baster does nothing, the fluid needs to be in the caliper. Suck out what you can at the reservoir, fill it then bleed the brakes.

Sanding the rotor with 80 grit will help the bed in process.

[Trawz]

I have also done the 6-Piston conversion with the Z06 calipers and ZL1 rotors.
As for pads, I got Hawk DTS-70s for the fronts and DTS-60 for the rear.
The car is taken to at least 4 track days each season and the track I frequent is quite fast with two straights that top over 160 mph.
Its quite hard on the factory setup, so I just jumped straight to the 6 piston conversion.
They work great and the braking power difference is very noticeable and far less fade.
I also upgraded to stainless lines at all 4 corners and switched out my fluid to Motul 660.
Also added some custom brake cooling ducts for more cooling.

If you are not planning to do regular track days, I would defiantly just stick to flushing out the factory brake fluid to Motul 660 or Castrol SRF, switching to stainless brake lines and getting some good pads like Hawk, Raybestos, or Carbotech.
That will get your braking performance to be plenty powerful for the street or even the occasional track day.

[olblue75]

So I did the 6 piston upgrade about 10 years ago with a set of caddy calipers, stainless lines, and rotors was huge difference over the 4 piston setup.
My next upgrade is a set of Z28 with Giro Disc iron conversion rotors I got the hats for 200 bucks off eBay.
The Brembo HTC is also a very good fluid to use.
Also look over on the Corvette Forum C7 for sale threads and there’s several J56 brakes for sale, same caliper as ZL1 just different colors.
Hell there’s even a few J57 CCM calipers if you wanna go all out like I’m doing.
I would suggest a rebuild new inner and outer seals, the J56 and J57 pistons are the same diameter just a little different in depth, Racing Brake makes a cool set pistons as well the contact points are scalloped.
So good luck on your upgrade and if you need anything shoot me a message.

[Joe.G]

ATE 200 brake fluid I like this fluid for street use and random track days.
Of course certain tracks are harder on fluid than others.


olblue75, What do you think you will have in the CCM set up? do you have a list of parts you will be using going from 6 Piston to CCM.
Thanks

[olblue75]

Originally Posted by Joe.G

ATE 200 brake fluid I like this fluid for street use and random track days.
Of course certain tracks are harder on fluid than others.


olblue75, What do you think you will have in the CCM set up? do you have a list of parts you will be using going from 6 Piston to CCM.
Thanks

Not going CCM I doing the conversion using the Giro Disc CCM tomIron kit. I got about;
1K in Calipers
200 in the Giro Disc Front hats
Rotor rings are 700’ish a pair
An brake pads vary from 2-400 bucks, I might be able to use the 6th Gen ZL1LE pads.

[Joe.G]

Not bad price wise, be interested to hear you feel they are compared to the 6 piston set up.

[TheBrightSide]

Originally Posted by FASTFATBOY

AX6 are great street pads, put high temp anti seize on the pad backing plate wherever they touch anything and they won't squeal.

You need to Google "how to bed in brake pads" and watch some videos, it is a certain process you do when you put on the pads, you get them VERY hot then let them cool off to ambient temp.

Sucking the fluid out of the reservoir with a turkey baster does nothing, the fluid needs to be in the caliper. Suck out what you can at the reservoir, fill it then bleed the brakes.

Sanding the rotor with 80 grit will help the bed in process.

You have to get as much brake fluid out as possible, but normally a chicken baster or siphon will do the trick. Trust me, if you ever even do one single cycle, especially on really, really nasty or oxidized/aerated fluid, you can absolutely feel the difference immediately. This DIY method can take time, but you can manage to drive around 100-200+ miles in a day, and cycle in new fluid about 5-6+ times.

Normally when I bleed my brake calipers to just get out air, I use a vacuum pump and run through the caliper sequence (furthest to closest to ABS module, if not master cylinder). If it's for purposes of getting out dirty, old, worn brake fluid, I'll usually just start at the front passenger brake caliper and try to suck out as much brake fluid as I can. Then, I run through each caliper from the normal brake sequence, from furthest to closest to the ABS module.

And yeah, I've bedded in track pads before and those pads also had to get warm/hot to work better, which suck on the street or for daily driving. I just simply chalked it up to currently having cheaper brake pads.... Most of the time when I bed in new brake pads, if it doesn't smell like brakes and boiled brake fluid, I know they haven't gotten hot enough. lol