Big Brake Upgrade - October 2011

The big brake upgrade requires that you go with 18 inch wheels or larger. This means you are making commitment to a larger wheel size (and the incumbent costs). According to Factory Five Tech Support, this is the same brake package they installed on their LS7 powered test mule that did 0 to 60 in 3.0 seconds.

Z06 C5/C6 Big Brake Upgrade Kit

The stock C5 Corvette front/rear set up is 17 and 18 inches respectively. This is not large enough to accommodate this package. This package requires 18 inch wheels (minimum). Some vendors will warn you about this on their websites. West Cost Corvette had the best price. As I have purchased other major systems for the my Corvette from them, I felt comfortable making this purchase. The Big Brake Upgrade includes the following:

• (2) 6 piston front calipers
• (2) 4 piston rear calipers
• (2) drilled and slotted 14 inch front rotors
• (2) drilled and slotted 13.4 inch rear rotors
• (1) set HAWK Z06 front and rear HPS brake pads
• (4) DOT steel braided brake lines   
• (4) pints Motul Racing Brake Fluid

In the overall budget, I allocated a separate line item for this package.

Left side front/rear suspension

This is an enhancement to the overall build, and I can complete it prior to ordering the GTM chassis. The suspension is no longer connected to the rest of the car, so you need to brace it.

These 22mm bolts turned very stiffly. They were the biggest problem I encountered.

The first thing you need to do is loosen the 22mm bolts that attach the caliper pistons to the knuckle. Warning: These bolts haven't been turned since the donor car left the factory, and the rear suspension ones seemed to have been tightened down by Godzilla. I was using an old torque wrench as a breaker bar. It went past 150 foot pounds (end of the scale), and I only got tired. 

I clamped down the suspension, sprayed the bolts with penetrating oil, tapped them lightly with a hammer, and used a 20 inch breaker bar. You may have to repeat this a couple of times. Give the oil some time to work (at least 15 minutes). There were some comments from the management that the oil stinks. You can't keep everyone happy.

Crush washer.

Second, you will find crush washers on the front rotors. Use a small screw driver and needle nose pliers to get the free. You don't really need them. There are none on the rear rotors.

The new rotor is on top. You can see it is a larger diameter and it is drilled. 

Third, slide the caliper off and pull the rotor off. For the most part these just slide right off, but a couple of them required some persuasion. While the rotor is off, I took some Rem Oil and steel wool to clean up the surface rust on the hub.

Thread the 22mm bolts back on.

 Fourth, slide the new rotor and caliper on the hub. Insert the 22mm bolts back into the caliper. I plan to wait until the suspension is mounted on the chassis before torquing to spec (125 ft-lbs).

There is a pad for each piston. Six pads for each front caliper and 4 pads for each rear caliper.
The penny is there to give you an idea on large these are.

Fifth, insert pads right through the top of the caliper. The pads are head in place by bolts that slide into the half moon notch on the side of the pads. The bolts are stainless steel that screw in using an Allen wrench.

Top down view on caliper. There is a pad installed on the right side, and the left side is still open. You can see the stainless steel bolt and piston on the left hand side.

It takes about 5 minutes to put these pads in. Probably a little longer, once the suspension is mounted on the chassis. This is easier than playing around with two wrenches and swinging the caliper up to replace the  pads.

Remove the plug and install the braided steel brake lines.

Sixth, we need to attach the braided brakes lines. This is very easy. This connect to the reservoir on the back of the caliper using a banjo bolt.

Banjo bolt and end of the braided brake line.

This was pretty easy to do. Once I figured out how everything fit together, the second brake/rotor went very fast.

Finished product.