71cutlass442

I have stock front disk brakes on my 71 cutlass and I'm looking to upgrade to a better brake.... Does any know of any nice kits out there that'll keep the stock rotor size? 10.375 I think??? I don't mind going bigger if i have to but I want to still be able to put my stock wheels back on. Photos of any upgrades would be nice. Thanks in advance

71cutlass442

I guess this might be a better place for my question....
I have stock front disk brakes on my 71 cutlass and I'm looking to upgrade to a better brake.... Does any know of any nice kits out there that'll keep the stock rotor size? 10.375 I think??? I don't mind going bigger if i have to but I want to still be able to put my stock wheels back on. Photos of any upgrades would be nice. Thanks in advance

joe_padavano

I'm not sure what you mean by "upgrade" while maintaining the stock rotor size. Braking force at the wheel is increased by one of several ways. By far the easiest is to increase rotor diameter. This provides a longer lever arm for the same caliper and pedal pressure - just like putting a pipe over the end of the breaker bar. As you correctly point out, you won't be able to do this with the stock wheels.

The only other way to upgrade is to increase the clamping force at the caliper. This can be done by increasing the piston area in the caliper or by increasing the line pressure. Increasing the piston area requires new calipers with greater piston area. Wilwood sells D52 dual piston replacement calipers that bolt in place of the stock single piston calipers and increase clamping force. They are slightly larger than the stock calipers, so again, it isn't clear if they will clear the stock wheels. Or course, you haven't told us what your "stock" wheels are, but if you have SSII/III wheels (either 14' or 15"), I don't think the Wilwoods will clear.

Increasing line pressure requires using a master cylinder with a smaller bore. Pedal travel will increase as a result.

Of course, any change to the front brakes upsets the front/rear balance. You should probably get an adjustable prop valve instead of the factory one and dial the balance in.

And since it will likely come up, drilled/slotted rotors may look cool but won't provide any additional braking force, particularly on a street-driven car.

71cutlass442

Joe... I'm gonna check out those D52's... How can I tell if I have the ss2 or 3's?? They're the 15's

joe_padavano

If they are painted argent (silver) they are SSII. If they are body color they are SSIII. The only difference is the paint color. There are bolt-on center (1974-down) and snap-on center (1975-up) versions of both. The outer rims that govern clearance to the caliper are the same for all 15x7 SSII/III wheels and have the extra-deep center drop to pick up the wheel disk. This is what causes the clearance problem to the caliper.