Prior to purchasing my 86, the PO had swapped out the rotors to drilled and slotted rotors. The pads were swapped for ceramics and the rubber lines were swapped out for SS braided lines.

I'm assuming the PO may have done something like autocrossing and for that it can made alot of sense.

I do mostly cruising with it and find that when the brakes are cold it takes a fair amount of pedal pressure till they start to warm up.  Once warmed up, they do an exceptional job of slowing the car down.  Thing is most of my braking would be considered 'normal' driving conditions so the current pads may not be the best combination for my driving style.  I'm seriously considering when the pads need replacing to go to semi-metalic pads.

If it makes sense for you then go-for-it but be realistic in why you want to do it and you'll be fine.  From everything I've read, no matter whether you add newer Vette brakes or something like Baer's in larger rotors/calipers/pads, you're going to need to get larger rims and tires to fit over them

So what your saying is, I should try to replace the brake pads and see how that works before replacing rotors or calipers?

Cbarison

Cbarison said: I want to make some upgrades to get about 50-60 horsepower more on the car, I figure I'd better start by improving braking performance (safety 1st). Also, when I drove the car hard around some curvey mountain roads, the front brakes were smoking, which did not seem normal to me, could be I'm wrong about that.

HP in and of itself makes no difference, it's how you drive it.  If it was mine I'd start with what you have and go through it to see what condition it is in before planning changes or upgrades.  If you weren't driving it hard and you had smoking brakes then I'd start by seeing if everything is releasing properly.  Next would be checking the condition of the pads and rotors.  Part depends on which or whether both brakes were smoking.  If both were, then I'd suspect either both aren't releasing or (more likely) you're pushing it very hard and using alot of brakes and likely don't have the right type pads/rotors for the style of driving you do.  I'd look at the condition of the pads and rotors before going too far.  If shot, then maybe replacing with something bigger may be your best option but that depends on what you find in checking them out.  If on the other hand the brakes are working properly and the rotors are in good shape, then maybe consider looking into something like ceramic pads and see how that works out.  If ceramics take care of your problems, it would definitely be less expensive and time consuming that replacing all the brake system along with getting new tires and rims to fit over bigger calipers.

 

Sorry but IMO you need to start working through your issues in a logical sequence.  If it turns out to be something like the ABS pump or brake lines plugged, changing out the calipers, rotors etc won't get you anything IMO, you'll still be having problems.

 

My opinion.  Good luck

Food for thought

Thanks for the help!

Celso