Vt brake upgrade into an early girl

[Wade]

She should have plenty of vacuum. It’s just an internally stock vt 5 litre motor running a stock 12p tune. I kept the knock sensor and turned that on via the tune and running a moates adaptor with a factory v8 knock board ect. It just feels like you need to apply too much brake pressure to pull it up

[Wade]

This is the brake fluid and coolant I put in it like 5-10yrs when ever it was. It literally got chucked in the garage and never driven in all that time. And everything was brand new. I’m currently running multiple bottles of injector cleaner and fuel filters through it, as the fuel smelt like varnish.

[vlad01]

I'd say very likely pads. I've tried so many brands over the years and most sucked and as you describe, it takes huge effort to stop.

Worst offenders I had were Ferrodo and Bendix. They were far worse than the factory Holden pads which weren't amazing.

Tried a bunch of generic lesser known brands, all sucked much the same.

Tried DBA, their street/performance spec since none of their higher models are made for our cars, not even in VT pads iirc.

The original EBC from 15-20 years ago were good, they went to shit years later. QFM was good but did chew rotors fast, they worked best on solid rotors and tended to get DTV very fast on slotted ones.

Maxistop was also excellent and very cheap! 40 bucks for a front set, they went bust a little before QFM did.

Before Brakes Direct (main seller of the QFM) went bust they switched to Forza and they topped all the pads I've used by far. Similar to the QFM in stopping power but can take way more abuse and they wear like a typical OEM pad, there was no green fade or need to re-bed them after flogging them, even after a 200k pull up, they can feel slightly faded after they cool down (very slight, a fraction of other pads I've tried) , but a few min of normal town braking they come back to normal every time, green fade is this but permanent or permanent until you perform the bed in procedure all over again (for the pads where this works), this didn't work on pads like DBA, once roasted they were dead and I had to toss them as they just never stopped safely again, not these though, they last ages too, which made them the only true dual purpose pad I've had the pleasure of using. I am hitting the end of life soon on my set that was installed in 2022 pretty sure. They have done maybe 60-70k? Hard use too.

They were lost from the Aus market when Brakes Direct closed, but the main/one of the main guys from there picked up the Forza line and sells out of ebay exclusively as of late, under Forza Australia . The FP3 compound is what I used.

[immortality]

DBA have a new range of performance pads out that suit our models. I've bought a set but not yet tried them but have heard good things from others who have.

[vlad01]

I might add that Forza FP3 are extremely good at cold temps below 10c, when negative they bite crazy good. Their worst point it around 40-50c I'd say, they feel a little weaker than normal here, but up to higher temps like town driving, a bit of hills or flogging the car around, it's all good all the way up. They rate them at 800c, but I don't think I've had them that hot, but I have gone beyond blue metal on my rotors, around 300-350c going by the tempered steel colour chart online, no fade at all to that point. The performance over a very wide temp is great on these pads with a notable but fairly insignificant dip at that 40-50 ish range at a guesstimate.

[vlad01]

Also, something I discovered the year before and it wasn't just the DBA pads, but on our style calipers, the anti vibration/squeal backing plates 100% creep and walk out towards the rotor hat due to caliper flex and movement inherent of the sliding type calipers. Also these backing pads are a large source of pedal sponginess. I toss them all now, on the DBA after a few weeks they were just about to touch the rotor hat! I checked my other cars and sure enough, even happened on the QFM pads on both the VR and red VP.

Pads before the mid 2010s seldom had these backing plates, now I find they cause way more issues than they solve on these older cars.

[Wade]

He’s probably getting up in the mid 50’s now. So I don’t think he’ll be driving it hard at all. Just need brakes that work when needed ect. I might try flushing and bleeding the system and see how that goes. I’d prefer that he at least wears these brakes out. And then when they need replacement, then go the vt route. What’s everyone’s thoughts on using the vt-vy v8 master? I think that was the only difference between the v6 and v8 models. Besides the upper spec hsv, ssv or harrop gear.

[vlad01]

I didn't know there was a v8 one on the new cars? I thought once they went to VR, they all were "V8"spec

[Wade]

Nah pretty sure the ls1 master was different. I think Gareth mentioned some brake pads years ago on here. Said all the taxi’s use em or something along those lines. But they were cheap and worked well. Can’t remember the brand now.

[vlad01]

Wasn't the maxistop that I mentioned? I recall they sold to fleet and taxi but I could be wrong. I think they were made in Melton?