GREAT Brake Upgrade!!

If any of you are lucky enough to have double piston front brakes, you know how good your braking is, It can be even better! STAINLESS STEEL BRAKE LINES. What a difference in braking application. If you are planning any kind of performance upgrade make sure that you take care of your brakes first. We drive Blazers (heavy) we can go fast but we might have to stop even faster.

Even if you are not looking at a performance upgrade stainless steel brake lines make sense, Even if you have the older model Blazers (single piston models) these lines make sense! When you hit the brake pedal rubber lines actually expand (minutely) . But they do expand, stainless lines do not expand therefore giving all of the compression energy too the pistons!

There is only one place that I know of to get stainless lines for our Blazers and that is at www.Truckxessories.com they built a custom set for my 98 and worked with me to the point of day to day phone calls for fitment. We have several different part numbers for our Blazer, which can be frustrating! They accomplished the task. Talk to Gary 1-800-772-3731.

Next, think of better brake pads. I use Kevlar ceramic, But you might not want to put up with the black dust, But the stopping power is amazing! I also use slotted and drilled rotors, You don't need these unless you go the performance route. If you do it is a must!

You can upgrade your pistons just by finding a donor set from a salvage yard. Just make sure that you get the carrier to.

On your back brakes you also have Pins (only the rear disc) if you can not turn them with your hands they are frozen, It is not just the Bolt, the bolt goes into the pin! Pull your pins and regrease them with high temp caliper grease, also spray the bore with brake clean to remove the hardened grease this is overlooked so often.

Bad rear brakes contribute to so many problems, everything from bad mileage to very bad handling problems! Just imagine driving with one rear brake dragging and going over uneven pavement, enough said!!

Last, drain you brakes!! At least once every 2 years, the fluid acts like a sponge for dirt and especialy water!

http://photobucket.com/albums/c391/Blazer111/

good write up for the modders out there, if you have abs, never let the break resivor get dry, even when exchanging fluid, can damage abs

True! And as I said before in so many of my threads, GO SYNTHETIC! Higher boiling points and just all around better. A lot of people don't know that if they have front and rear discs that they have a full floating caliper set up. High end!! GM did there job in giving us such a good braking system. and just a word to remember, just because the piston goes in and out does not mean that the caliper is not frozen, the pins must also slide freely! If not, one of your pads will always drag.

You wont believe how many people that I see , using their new pads to push in their pistons DON'T!! Use the old ones.

Your parking brake pedal is also very important. As was said in another thread , USE IT!! It adjusts the brakes inside of the drum of the disk, Yes on the rear we have two sets of brake pads!! they are located inside of the drum of the disc. they should be checked also! Just not as often.

Next try out speed bleeders, they are direct replacments for your bleed screw, a real time saver, all you need is a hose and a container, truly one person brake bleeding. If that isn't the route you want to go,try a vacumn system, just as good but you will find yourself emptying the bottle often. But still one person bleeding.

To me Brakes are the most important part of a car, you can make your Blazer look beautiful, you can make it just as fast as a corvette, and you can use it to make a statement about yourself , But you can loose it all, if the one time that you hit your brakes and nothing happens.

If you don't want your Blazer ending up as a donor parts car, CHECK YOUR BRAKES!!!!

blazer ss, no negitive ment to you, people think they can throw synthetic into anything, but, going synthetic on abs systems is bad, i cannot even stress how bad anything greater then a dot 3 is in something with abs, DO NOT use a dot 4 or 5 with our blazers, i beleve it is an issue with foaming, but im not 100% because its been so long seince someone has mentioned it... remember to ALWASE on abs systems to open the bleeder to push the piston in... and finally, you do not need to use the parking break to adjust the rear drum system, some rear disk's require it, but the drums are selfe adjusting... if the parking break hasn't been touched in a while, leave the damn thing alone, its a world of hurt if it sticks, and its real apt to stick if your in the rust belt

Thanks, all info is good info, I was only refering to rear disc systems in which the parking brake is within the disc itself. I use valvoline synthetic brake fluid made for ABS systems it is 100% synthetic.

And you are right about not messing with the parking brake on rear drum applications, if you have never used it, don't start now, unless you inspect your cable for binding ,kinking, sticking, or a severe rust build up on the lever.
if it checks out and releases fully use it. Save the pawl in you trans, it will break real easy, and if it does, you will find yourself using a rock or anything else you can find to keep your Blazer parked where you left it!

I have added a few new pictures of the rear disc setup and you can see what the stainless steel brake lines look like.


http://photobucket.com/albums/c391/Blazer111/

It is an issue with the silicon compounds in the synthetic brake fluid. Wears the bores out on the hydraulic pump inside the ABS unit, post haste. NOTHING but DOT-3 fluid goes into our Blazers. Period.

thanks wolfox, it got to buggen me so i had to dig out my break book and look, and you are correct

I am ordering a set of the red stainless line for my truck on Monday. Thanks for finding them for me. Had been looking for them when I replaced my brake pads (and rear calipers) with no luck. $108 shipped is not a bad deal.

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This is the fluid that I have been using in my ABS system for the last year , I have since switched to Valvolene full synthetic Dot 3 and 4. For ABS systems. I have had absolutely no problems whatso ever with it, I just tested my ABS activation on a rain slickned road at 80mph. Worked perfect!

I have noticed that there is a lot of talk about greasing our caliper pins. Please also think about the type of grease to use.

Ultrex makes a full synthetic high temp brake grease just for disc brakes.

Do not use the same grease that you use for your balljoints or front end. Multi purpose grease will harden and thicken and will eventualy cause your caliper pins to sieze all over again!!

You can try anti sieze compound, but that is not meant as a lubricant!

Do, use brake cleaner to clean your bores before reinserting your caliper pins!


CENTRIFUGAL FORCE is a mutha! Have you ever tried to stop a spinning bicycle wheel with your hand? Now think, your brake caliper is a little bigger than your hand, now, add over 2 tons of weight to the spin of that bike tire, times the speed that you are traveling!! Now something the size of your hand is going to stop the tire from spinning! That produces an enormous amount of heat!!!!!


Brakes get very hot when you use them! When you stop from a high speed your rotors get so hot that they might even glow red. And that is hot! It is the heat that causes brake rotors to warp. The more that you spend on your rotors Hopefully the better the Quality! And the more they will stand up to warpage.

This is why you don't ever skimp on brake parts!! Use grease designed for brake calipers!! And treat brakes like your life depends on them, OH YEAH! YOUR LIFE DOES DEPEND ON THEM!!!!!!

I'm sorry I made a mistake on the name of the Disk Brake Caliper Grease. The name actually is PERMATEX- ULTRA HIGH TEMP BRAKE GREASE. it comes in single use and in a full 8 ounce bottle with a brush applicater. sorry for the mistake.

i have to agree with ss on that, permatex is great grease, but you do not HAVE to use a syntec greese, just something that will stay lucid and is non watter soluable (ie wheel b earing grease will wash away in the pin bore)

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c391/Blazer111/th_CIMG0085.jpg (http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c391/Blazer111/CIMG0085.jpg)
This is the fluid that I have been using in my ABS system for the last year , I have since switched to Valvolene full synthetic Dot 3 and 4. For ABS systems. I have had absolutely no problems whatso ever with it, I just tested my ABS activation on a rain slickned road at 80mph. Worked perfect!

That's cool and stuff, but last time I checked - Valvoline says this product is safe for *most* ABS systems. It's not labeled as safe/approved in *ALL* brake systems. Also - I cannot seem to be able to find the MSDS on this product, as it's curiously missing from their database at the moment - let alone anywhere else I look. Probably the cause of this is moving and settling after partnering with Ashland petroleum. But in any case, yeah, it will work just fine for now... until you can PROVE that it doesn't have silicates (And the 500+ degrees boiling point indicates this strongly) I would stay far and away from it. If you have a properly set up and maintained Ceamic/Kevlar composite material brake system - you WOULDN'T need synthetic brake fluid - they operate at much LOWER temps than NAO pads or Semi-metallics. Again, stick with Dot-3 fluid ONLY in Blazer braking systems...

The next time you apply your brakes, you may not have ABS or rear plungers in the bores of your drum actuators. If 4-wheel disc - again silicates simply rot out the bores and pistons in ABS pumps in GM vehicles and love to eat the rear drum actuators... in short, do not do it unless you are 100% certain of your fluid's chemistry. And since Valvoline at the moment is not forthcoming in the MSDS information to help me make up my mind - Gunk brand Dot-3 I will continue to use and flush annually through my brake pots. :D

the high temp fluid is for carbon fiber type pads on race cars, no advantage in ours

I understand where all of you are coming from, I am simply stating things that have worked for me.

This shows how bad brake fluid is anyway, and how caustic it is! Remember that this is your standard fluid.

The best thing that anyone can do for their Blazers is to remove the caliper completely , put out a piece of white paper, and shake and drain the contents on to the paper, Tell me how much gunk and junk comes out! Clean it out completely and reinstall, Do this to all of your calipers, then run in new fluid.

The reason that I do use synthetic is that I have a little more HP than normal. I need a lot of braking force! Try driving a high HP Blazer in City traffic! Also after 3-4 runs from full throttle I have to make sure that I can stop.

Also thanks for all of the info, I love the fact that there are always both sides to every Issue, as I always say all information is good information!

Rock on bro. ;)