Consensus on upgraded brakes

[letsbangout]

Hi all.. 99 Yukon C1500 here with 97k miles. For the last 2k miles I've been running with 22 inch rims.. what an upgrade over stock! But now I'm concerned about the brakes. With the way I drive, I'm not too terribly concerned about braking distances and such, as long as the brakes could be trusted to hold together under stress. But I'm not sure that's a reasonable assumption since my truck is a 1500 and the brakes are known to be deficient as-is. To compound my concern, last week I had one of my rear drums lock up due to a fluid leak in the wheel cylinder. In the process of changing both of the rears, I discovered that the other side was about to give way because it leaked fluid when I pulled the shoes off.

So to hopefully save my precious new rear brakes, and to give me better performance that I can count on, I'd like to do some upgrades to the front. Specifically, I've read that you can upgrade to 2500 calipers and a 2500 master cylinder for better performance. Will that defeat or cause problems with ABS? If so, what can I do to maintain working ABS - maybe just slotted/cross-drilled rotors and a good set of pads (perhaps ceramic)?

Any advice is appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Donnie Yukonie]

why not just look at a set of D/S rotors with ceramic pads? and SS lines to top it off? I bet you would see a noticeable difference

 

[retorq]

ABS works fine with the 2500 upgrades.

 

[letsbangout]

why not just look at a set of D/S rotors with ceramic pads? and SS lines to top it off? I bet you would see a noticeable difference

I'll be doing all of the above, though it sounds like the 2500 upgrade will work fine in my application, even with ABS. The motivation for the 2500 upgrade is larger calipers with more surface area on the cylinders. It's my understanding that you can run those calipers with nothing more than an upgrade to the master cylinder. Of course I'd do the braided stainless lines too, as you mentioned, but for a different reason. Apparently the stock lines are known to develop blockages. I've yet to encounter anyone on a forum who could say with certainty that SS lines helped them brake better.

---------- Post added at 10:13 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:09 PM ----------

ABS works fine with the 2500 upgrades.

Sweet! Just to confirm, the 2500 upgrade equates to new 2500 calipers and a new 2500 master cylinder (and i'll do the braided stainless lines at the same time). Pads will be ceramic 1500 pads, otherwise i'd be shaving the pads if they were 2500. Is that all correct? Anything else I need?

Also, can you guys recommend a good economical manufacturer of slotted or drilled/slotted 2500 rotors? Anything that's around double the cost of regular rotors, or less, would be fine. Thanks!

 

[Donnie Yukonie]

Well SS lines won't help your Actual braking performance in short term uses but they are less susceptible to fade . Rubber brake lines when hot tend to expand . SS does not and retains its memory .

 

[retorq]

Sweet! Just to confirm, the 2500 upgrade equates to new 2500 calipers and a new 2500 master cylinder (and i'll do the braided stainless lines at the same time). Pads will be ceramic 1500 pads, otherwise i'd be shaving the pads if they were 2500. Is that all correct? Anything else I need?

I used AZ C-Max 1500 pads.

 

[letsbangout]

I used AZ C-Max 1500 pads.

Ok so I take it the calipers and master cylinder are all that's necessary. Should I use the 7200 GVWR parts, or the 8400?

 

[_Dylan_]

8600.

7200 will be the same as what you have now and is basically a heavy duty 1/2 ton badged as a light duty 3/4ton. K2500 and K3500 use the same calipers, so just order k3500 ones so the monkey behind the counter doesn't sell you the light duty(7200) k2500 stuff that you don't want. Use your k1500 brake pads and rotors and just bolt on the k3500 calipers.

Hydroboost swap should go on the list as well.

 

[letsbangout]

8600.

7200 will be the same as what you have now and is basically a heavy duty 1/2 ton badged as a light duty 3/4ton. K2500 and K3500 use the same calipers, so just order k3500 ones so the monkey behind the counter doesn't sell you the light duty(7200) k2500 stuff that you don't want. Use your k1500 brake pads and rotors and just bolt on the k3500 calipers.

Hydroboost swap should go on the list as well.

Ok will do. I thought maybe the 8400s would not bolt up directly. So I'll get 3500 calipers and a 3500 MC then.

BTW Dylan, thanks for the write-up on your truck with the interior lights and such. I hope to do the same to mine soon. You're fortunate to be in Boca, right in Dan Maslic's backyard (he's an EFI tuning legend, in case you're unfamiliar). When I had Passlock problems, I brought him my ECU to have Passlock disabled in firmware, and I later bought a copy of HPTuners and his own book on EFI tuning. Not only was his turnaround reasonable on such a small job, the money involved was extremely reasonable as well. I highly recommend Dan Maslic at Masport Speed Shop in Boca if you ever need any tuning/dyno work.

 

[foreverfalcon40]

I rock Dub Deuces...

I got Stock Calipers, SS Lines, Cross Drilled and Slotted Rotors and I stop fine. With SS Lines also your brake pedal will respond faster since Less fluid has to go thru. With Rubber lines, the rubber expands unlike the SS Lines.

The only reason why I want to upgrade my brakes b/c they look so tiny on my Big RIMZ!