Wilwood brakes vs power
 

I'm working through the mock up stage on my 56, and need some opinions. My truck has flat out engineering C4 corvette front and rear suspension, stock C4 brakes, 5.3 and 5 speed AR5 transmission out of a chevy colorado. The transmission is a hydraulic internal slave so I was planning on running a wilwood clutch pedal and firewall master cylinder with a firewall brake booster. The more I'm looking at it, I'm wondering if I get a matching wilwood clutch and brake box to have both pedals match and position the pedals the same. This would be a cleaner firewall but manual brakes with either a tandem M/C with proportioning valve or dual M/C with bias bar on the brake side. Wondering if anyone has experience running manual wilwood brakes in these trucks or with a C4 vette? This truck will be street driven, not a track truck. Opinions?

Below is not my truck, I wish, but an example of the wilwood set up

Re: Wilwood brakes vs power
 

I'm not entirely sure what you are asking but I've been running manual Wilwood discs on my '53 for 7 years now. I was initially concerned about not having power brakes; the folks at Art Morrison assured me it would be fine. In my opinion, they were right. As long as you have discs on all four corners, the stopping effort is smooth and strong. I probably have to push a little harder than I do on my modern daily driver, but it's not awkward or uncomfortable. My master cylinder is under the cab just below the driver. I cut a little access panel in the floor under the carpet.

Re: Wilwood brakes vs power
 

Thanks for reply, thats what I want to know. To clarify question, how much pedal pressure and stopping power of manual 4 wheel disc vs power disc on the C4 platform.

Re: Wilwood brakes vs power
 

I am running the Same 85 C4 Flat Out Kits front & rear on my 58 Cameo,
I so far installed the swing pedal assy from CPP and an After Market 8" Booster and master
cylinder < Forget where i purchased ?? I haven't plumbed the system in yet and i am running the Stock brake system from the 85 Corvette also. I am kinda second guessing
myself also on running a Wilwood system like you are asking about now on my Cameo.

Allen

Re: Wilwood brakes vs power
 

I'm going to say that "feel" as far as brakes or steering or handling of the suspension of these trucks centers at least 50% on what you are used to as your daily drivers and what you have driven in the past. We have guys who have never driven a vehicle without power steering or power brakes amongst us simply because they have never had one around to drive. On the other hand some of us who were mechanics may have driven a number of different cars of all kinds every day at work and while we know what certain rigs should feel like we aren't as apt to say our AD or TF steers hard or takes extra effort to stop. My daily drivers are a BMW 528I and a Chevy HHR and it takes a stop or two in the HHR to remember that it is a disk/drum rig with a bit higher center of gravity than the 528 that drives like a slot car and as quiet as it is will get you in trouble simply because it will easily cruise above 80 if you aren't paying attention and do i for hours on end. That Wildwood setup is a top level setup if you have all the matching pieces from them and that is one key, have all the proper pieces and don't take short cuts.

Re: Wilwood brakes vs power
 

Have you given Wilwood a call? When they put together a custom brake kit for my 53 Drag and Drive build they spent several hours (thanks Erik) on the phone with me, Pete and Jakes and Frankland QC to get everything right. My mounting surface widths came out perfect. After weeks of back and forth they gave me a list of part numbers and sent me to Summit to buy them. It saved me $600 over their prices. I ask them how that was possible and they replied "they sell a lot of brakes".

Re: Wilwood brakes vs power
 

There is a reason every production disk brake vehicle has power boosted brakes. Going manual will require more leg muscle use to stop, people are not used to that any more. Your truck will leave a first impression of weak brakes and you will caution everyone about to drive it to 'watch the brakes'. You may end up regarding it as a 'handful' to drive as opposed to a cruiser.

But if designed properly (pedal ratio & master diameters) the brakes will work fine, the pedal feel will be more visceral and the three matching masters will be cooler. Being an handful to drive may be part of what you are after....no-one takes up riding motorcycles because they are easier to drive than mini vans.

take your DD, cap the booster line, take it for drive. That pedal feel will be worse than what re-engineered brakes would be, but it will give you an idea of the relative driving experience.

Re: Wilwood brakes vs power
 

Thanks for the responses guys, Mick that is an incredible set of brakes you have, more like a work of art. I used to drive this truck all the time years ago when it was manual 4 wheel drum, they stopped surprisingly well. I think if I went with a wilwood 7:1 pedal and matching master cylinder diameter it would give a nice pedal feel/response. My clutch pedal recommendation for the AR5 is a 6:1 pedal with 3/4" MC. I'll call wilwood and get some info.

Re: Wilwood brakes vs power
 

In my 53 I'm doing an under cab set up with remote reservoirs on my brakes and clutch. All Wilwood. I don't like to mix and match manufacturers if I can help it. For some reason I'm compelled to polish everything.

Re: Wilwood brakes vs power
 

I have polish envy!!!!

Mick53 that is some set of brakes you have there buddy!

I am also running a Flatout front and rear set up with a C4 disc brake system on all 4 corners and power booster!

Haven't got her up and running as of yet but soon.

Would love to not have to run a booster under my cab.

Merry Christmas All

Re: Wilwood brakes vs power
 

Thank you. It was a lot of work to get them to fit but once I set my mind on something I'm hard to convince otherwise. If someone says you can't put that on there I say why not? These brakes only fit on a Heidts spindle pin and no such thing exists in a straight axle spindle. Pete and Jakes (thanks Jerry) sent me un-chromed spindles and a friend with an industrial fab shop cut out the stock pin and welded in the Heidts pin. The good folks a Wilwood helped me come up with a couple of caliper brackets that I could mind meld together (allegedly). My under cab duel diaphragm booster is 1" bigger than stock so I will have to deal with that. I'm also running a scroll vacuum pump for the booster. Mostly because with my blower I have no manifold vacuum but I also like the idea of power brakes if my engine fails. I bought an aftermarket pedal assembly with the clutch but haven't played with it yet. Sorry so long. Thank you for your time.

Re: Wilwood brakes vs power
 

wait now, is that a non-polished aluminum part there mick53? the clutch master is RAW aluminum?
haha, had to, sorry.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Re: Wilwood brakes vs power
 

You had to challenge him, didn't you Dennis??? LOL.

Re: Wilwood brakes vs power
 

Easy now, don't panic. I'm not using the cylinders that came with the pedal bracket. I'll be putting my Wilwood cylinders on it if I use it. Great, now I might have to polish it anyway for the next guy.