W-27

I am thinking of converting my manual front drum brakes to power disc brakes as well as upgrading the lines to stainless steel, replacing both rear cylinder brakes and running silicone brake fluid in the system. Also there is an option of holes in the rotors for better cooling but I have heard they form cracks with time between the holes. As with anything else they are always pros and cons so I wanted to get as many opinions as possible before proceeding. There are also a million people selling the parts and the two i was recommended where: Inline tube and Stainless steel brake corp. as anybody used them for this purpose?

RonFX

Guys:
I bought the complete conversion kit from OPGI for my 66 Cutlass this summer, everything fit and worked great. The kit was from a major aftermarket company in California, I believe it was Classic Performance? The price was less than $600.00 delivered to my front door.
Thanks Ron

jag1886

I used ECI brake conversion and it is a very well built setup. All HD parts and mounting brackets are tig welded plate steel not those cheap looking stamped things that come with most.
If you are talking about Dot 4 fluid don't use it, it will leave you with a spongy feeling pedal.
What ever you get just make certain they are the full size brakes from the old 60-70s cars, some of those kits come with the downsized 80's brakes.

s i 442

Go ahead and get drilled and slotted rotors now instead of waiting until next time. Plus get the best pads as you can afford so the dust won't be a problem all the time.

drop top olds

As an FYI calipers and rotors from a full size will not fit inside SS1 or SSII wheels that are 14" diameter. Don't forget about your rims....Do you have stock rims or something aftermarket?

Look at the drilled rotors carefully the better rotors will have chamfured "holes". These will not crack as noted above.

oldstata

I got a kit from eBay store that was right stuff detailing brand slotted rotors powder coated caliper and braided lines for less then 625.00 to my door. I was told not to get the prebent lines from eBay because they were more generic have not installed but have read good things

Koda

Well, that's not precisely true on the wheels. SSII's are designed for disc brakes from what I understand. And, there are certain SSI's that will accommodate disc brakes. I am not an SSII expert. I do know my SSI's.

Observe, please.






The one on the left is a 66-67 original SSI. The one on the right is a 69 only, no trim ring, disc brake compatible SSI. The later 14x7 trim ring SSI's will do disc brakes.

Also, this helps.

http://www.oldsmobility.com/old/superstock.htm

joe_padavano

That's an excellent photo to show the difference between disk brake and no-disk brake wheels. Many of the aftermarket disk brake kits claim that they require 15" wheels. I've asked several of the vendors about this, since these cars came from the factory with disk brakes and 14" wheels. The responses were all the same - it's easier to say use 15" wheels than to try to explain the difference between disk and non-disk wheels.

And yes, ALL SSII/III wheels in any factory-available size clear factory 10.75" disk brakes.

Finally, I would not recommend drilled/slotted rotors for the street. You don't need them and they are potential cracks waiting to happen. Most local shops won't turn them, either.

drop top olds

To further clarify my statement above.....Full size rotors will not fit inside a 14" diameter rim. Full size rotors are 11.75" diameter. A body rotors are about 1" smaller in diameter.

s i 442

Ran these "Power stop" rotors for years on a 71 Supreme drag/street car and a 70 Camaro showcar and they looked brand new after 3 years.
And its most likely what I'll buy soon for replacements on my 68.

W-27

Here is a picture inside and outside of my spare tire which is the same as all my tires and from the looks of it it would seem as the 10.75" rotors should fit.

joe_padavano

One more time:

therobski

You have seen my thread in Major projects-building a 64 F-85 pro-touring car. I went with the B-spindle upgrade with manual disc brakes. It was alot of fun sourcing all the parts. There are articles on this project, if you decide to look into it, I can help. My B-spindles are off a 90 Buick Estate wagon. These huge IROC Z28 ILE rotors and Caprice Calipers will stop this car. I just checked Rock Auto they have the 91 Z-28 IROC ILE rotors new from $36.00 - $62.00 each. However I used Hotchkiss for the rest of the front suspension. It was alot of work and alot of fun. This will also take the A-body under steer out of the car.

drop top olds

One more time... I do not dispute the SSII/SSIII will work with the 10.75" rotors and calipers. However the B body rotors/calipers will not fit on 14" SSII/SSIII. I was commenting about jag1886's post about using B body rotors/calipers.

s i 442

Not that this has anything to do with this thread but, I tried to put a set of 14X7 SS1s with the trim rings on a 79 Cutlass and they hit the tie rod ends.

W-27

The final question which totally surprises me that nobody brought it up is if I have a choice on the 10.75 calipers of the original 4 piston calipers or the later single piston caliper (I cant remember which year they started installing them) and what are the pros and cons of both of them.

Koda

Holy canoli, man, don't do the 67 4 pistons. I have a 72 setup for my 67, and I know it won't be correct, and I don't care. Some things are not worth the hassle.

nsnarsk65cutlass

X2 they used the 4 piston setup on 67-68 a body gms,simular to corvette,the rotors are same diameter but different, they are problematic and fairly rare,not worth the expense,use 69 -72 single piston style.

joe_padavano

Unfortunately we now have two separate threads going on concurrently. I was responding to W-27's question about his SSII/III wheels.

joe_padavano

You're right, it doesn't.

joe_padavano

Unless you care about factory correctness, go with the single piston sliding calipers. The four piston calipers have two fundamental problems. First, since they are fixed and not sliding, they are very sensitive to rotor runout. If there is any appreciable runout, the rotor causes the pistons to be pushed back into the caliper (called knock-back). This in turn results in excessive (and sometimes unsettling) brake pedal movement being required before the brakes actually catch. Second, the four-piston calipers use seals on the pistons that slide in the cast iron bores. Any corrosion in the bores chews up the pistons and causes leaks. Only sleeving with stainless steel sleeves fixes this problem. The single piston calipers have the seal fixed in a groove in the bore and the piston slides in the seal. The piston is chrome plated to minimize the chance of corrosion, and is easily replaced if it does rust.

Bottom line is that the single piston calipers can be bought for as little as $15 each, rebuilt. The four piston calipers are nearly ten times that much.

ScottMHoffman

As a person that takes cars to road course tracks. You do not need cross drilled or slotted rotors or any more than a single piston calipers. These are are great at the track where you build heat from multiple hard breaking (100mph to 40mph) over a short period. But we do not do this on the street. All you will be doing is spending more money for additional braking you will never need use. Cheap cross drilled rotor are much more likely to crack and you pay considerably more to get ones that will not crack. 90% of the time cross drilled/slotted/mutilple pistons are done for looks.

jag1886

If you are looking at those 10.75 rotors and the small brake calipers you might as well stay with your drums as those brakes are not designed to stop the good old 4000Lbs tanks that we drive. Id change to aftermarket look alike wheels before I used a different undersized brake system.

s i 442

Ain't any worse than you screaming your opinion at someone.

Same goes for running headers, big after market carbs, 411 gears and lopey cams on the street.
But if ya got it spend it because its great for bragging rights at the cruise ins.

joe_padavano

There are several unrelated discussions going on in this thread, and taken out of context the info can be confusing to a newbie.

To summarize:

The factory disk brakes used 10.75" rotors (some people round this off to 11") and the large SAE calipers with 2.75" pistons. The OP was asking about a using these brakes with SSII/III wheels and they came that way from the factory and stop the car just fine. There are aftermarket kits that claim to fit 14" drum brake wheels. I have no experience with these and cannot comment on how well they work (or don't). I do know that they use the smaller metric calipers with the 2 5/16" pistons, so by inspection the braking force will be lower if you use the same master cylinder. You can get braking force back up by using a smaller M/C, but then the line pressure to the rear brakes also increases, potentially causing premature lockup unless you have an adjustable prop valve. Finally the B-body spindle conversion, as originally popularized by H.O. Racing, allows use of 12" (actually 11.75") rotors but the SSII/III wheels do not clear these due to the specific backside contour of those wheels.

The clearance of SSI wheels to suspension components is still unrelated to the O.P.'s questions or anything else in this thread.

The use of drilled/slotted rotors is a matter of personal preference. Unlike headers or other engine mods, which HAVE been proven to increase performance on the street, these rotors have not been shown to have any benefit in street driving other than increasing profits for the manufacturers. Again, your money, your call.

s i 442

No headers won't help on the street because the speed limit on a city street is 25MPH.

joe_padavano

And had you been talking about your experience with SS TWO wheels on a 64-72 A-body like the O.P., it WOULD have been relevant. SSI wheels of unknown vintage on a 79 Cutlass is still not relevant to this particular thread or the O.P.'s question. It might be useful, however, to someone who has that combo. A separate thread discussing the exact wheels and fitment problem would be helpful to the rest of us.

Thanks for that well thought out and articulate argument.

s i 442

Thank you very much, as long as I own an Olds I will be here to help you out all I can buddy!

W-27

Since I have SSII wheels I can (and will) put 10.75" calipers with plain rotors (street driven only) single piston calipers (4 piston ones are not worth the trouble) and I will change the brakes lines to stainless (peace of mind) as I will most likely use silicone brake fluid (unless for valid reasons I get talked out of it). I want to thank everybody for their input. This is my last step to put her back on the road after a 18 month lay over (changes fuel lines, body mounts, gas tank, differential, shocks, rebuilt radiator core support, repaired frame, stabilizer bars between upper and lower rear .... rebuilt AM/FM to solid state w/plugs to accommodate Ipod,4 new speakers and entire new break system with upgrade to front power disc brakes). I probably left out a few things but it is near the end.