77 TA replacement rotors and pads stock upgrade help
 

Soooo this is coming about because I had another fun track night with a couple 118-119 mph passes and through the finish line slowing down felt alittle tough. I had been running my stock rotors with entry level hawk street hawk pads for about the last 8 years and I’m thinking some new rotors and hawk pads would help slowing her down at the track and on the street as I do quite a few high speed passes there also….(shhh dont tell anyone)…without going full blown new big brake kit and prop valves and master cylinders and the whole deal.

Which Hawk pads would you recommend? The HPS, HP plus, the ceramic? I would prefer not to get a ton of brake dust and noise as this is mostly a street car but do go to the track a good bit. And if you have a link to buy that would be wonderful! Tired of google searching the wrong thing all the dam time..

Also….which stock replacement rotors can I use also with a link to buy maybe 0:)? Don’t care about the drilled or slotted deal just some new “better” replacements would be great!

Thank you guys! Google sucks! You’re so much better!

Power stop rotors. You can get them at RockAuto

Power stop rotors. You can get them at RockAuto

In terms of any type of brake pads are you bedding them in well ?
Every time new pads are installed and you go through the bed in process it needs to be done on new or fresh recut rotors and preferably with a non directional finish on them.

The strip is a great place to do this as slowing down from two passes can take the place 4 runs and hard stops on the street .

In terms of rotors do not buy cheap China cast iron ones as they seem to warp just by looking at them.

I'd go with the ACDelco Gold series "Black Hat" rotors. They aren't incredibly spendy, but are about double the price of the store brand stuff. It's a good rotor and it's black e coat keeps the hats looking good for many years.

I would recommend the Carbotech 1521 brake pad. It has excellent initial bite and carries a higher coefficient of friction that most similar performance street pads. It's low noise, low dust and doesn't tend to tear up rotors.

Part number should be CT52-1521 for the front calipers. You didn't mention if there were rear discs on this car. You might give them a call on those. (877) 899-5024

Thank you so much guys…..

Do you have a part number for those powerstop rotors 64?

JL Thank you for that info and the pads part number! Do you have one for the ACdelco rotors by chance?

Yes…I usually just follow the prescribed bedding procedure because I drive a good ways out to the track and would want them bedded first

Would you recommend those Carbotech1521’s over the Hawk pads?

Thank you so much again!

My 78 TA with stock rotors and just plain old organic Bendix pads stops fine form 125 at the track.
I have Hawk on the front 81 TA and not impressed yet. They do not stop well as the rear discs with organics and the rear prop valve turned all the way down!

I use the Hawk HPS pads on a 72 firebird that runs low 11s at 120-123mph, ive posted about them before but heres the jist of my experience with them-

I have the HPS pads on powerstop slotted rotors bought from summit and not much more expensive than OEM type rotors, I used cast iron engine paint on them to stop rust & look better, works great. I have stock drums in the rear, this car stops amazingly well for the combo, I can make the 1st turn off at the end of the track without too much effort on the pedal but usually go to the 2nd just to be easier on the brakes. Stops just as good on the street in all conditions, no heat up required and the pads have very little brake dust, just a very light tan haze after hard use that wipes off with a dry rag, on the street its almost non existent. Very happy with the pads & rotors.

I have 2 other 2nd gen cars, a 78 TA 4 speed with a mild 406, runs mid 13s at 103+mph, that car is all OEM type brakes but good brand like raybestos in new condition, even at 103 mph I have to push the pedal very hard to make the 2nd turn off but usually go to the 3rd. Other car is a 1981 turbo TA with 4 wheel disc but OEM pads/rotors, it runs mid 14's at 98-99mph, with firm pedal it will make the 1st turn off but usually go to the 2nd.

What I have found is the hawk pads make a huge difference in braking that will easily stop a 120+mph car by the 1st or 2nd turn off vs OEM type brakes on much slower cars taking a lot more effort to stop. I have 2 new sets of the Hawk pads so can get the part# if needed.

I don't have that part number off hand. The powerstop stuff listed before is also good, and if you want to spend a bit more I've heard very good things about the R1 concepts rotors.

I've had Hawk HP and HPS pads on various vehicles over the years and I always kick myself for not going back to the 1521's. I had those 1521's on a previous 1999 Cobra and they were just such a good performance street pad. The felt really great, didn't squeak and I wasn't polishing wheels all the time.

My experience with the HP and HPS pads is dusty and squeaky, especially the HPS. They stopped fine though.

just drive an old a-body with four wheel drums and your car car will seem like it stops like an indy car.

Guess each car/person has different experiences with parts, I am very happy with the HPS pads and they have zero squeak with very low brake dust...

I have had lots of different pads for these cars from OEM name brand to some performance stuff from an older company called performance friction, all other pads had heavy dust, usually dark or black from the performance friction that were a graphite hybred type pad or OEM semi metallic & organic type materials. None of that with the Hawk pads & definitely no noise.

EBC makes some good performance pads too that have got good reviews.

Great info and opinions guys thank you again! 78w72 do you have a link for our cars for the HPS’s? Google keeps only giving me the HP plus’s

JL thank you for that other option and experience on the 1521’s! I am going to look for some more reviews and comparison's…I like the no dust info

Will for sure order some of the power stop rotors

Yes, the part # I use is HB103f.590, they are available at many places but summit seems to have the best price... I didnt realize these were so expensive today, i got lucky when I bought mine some years ago when they were a lot cheaper, but I got mine when pep boys were discontinuing Hawk products, they were on clearance for... $22/pr! I bought 5 sets, sold 2 & kept 3 for my cars.

Have never had any noise issues, friend uses them on his 2nd gen & also has no complaints, they advertise virtually noise free & extremely low dust and get great reviews from users, but like I said each case is different, maybe a different combo of parts or installation caused the stated squeaking but I can say without a doubt that mine have never had any noise, squeaking or brake dust issues in any driving conditions for 10 years.

Summit should have the slotted powerstop rotors for the best prices too.

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/hwk-hb103f-590

Just put rear pads and rotors on my '15 camaro.. I went with AC delco black hat rotors . Selling point for me was the advertised .0004" run out spec. Used Brembo ceramic pads. They have the GG friction code. Very pleased so far. Got it from RockAuto. The pads were about 40% less than Summit.

I have Kore3 C5 Vette discs all the way around on my LeMans. HPS pads and AC Delco rotors. Rotors are great would recommend. The Hawk HPS pads stop well, but I think they kick out a lot of dust. I’m going to go with the Hawk ceramics next time, Tobin at Kore3 said the ceramics stopped better than the HPS.

Ken the Delco Professional pads I put on the 2015 Silverado were GG rated also. This truck has the best stopping and pedal feel of any vehicle I have ever driven, better than my wife's 2021. Rock Auto had GM brand rotors on sale for the truck too!.
The old Bendix organics are surprisingly FF.

Interesting the different opinions on the dust of the HPS pads….I guess that kind of thing is subjective. I spoke to hawk before making this post and they said the ceramic were fine for the street but not the best for the drag strip.

I was looking at those but that kind of made me think I needed more for my driving style

I've struggled to get my front brakes working well. I changed the pads to AC Delco Gold, then my car guy put some Hawk pads on it (don't know which ones), then I went to Wilwood calipers with new Wilwood braided steel lines and the Wilwood pads that came with the calipers. None of those combos stopped the car well at all. Couldn't even lock the front wheels with max effort. So my guy went through the whole system and couldn't find anything wrong. He said the stock rotors looked in great shape. So he just put some new EBC Yellow Stuff pads on it. EBC doesn't recommend a bedding procedure for those pads if used for street driving. They come with a coating that is supposed to auto-bed them in the first 100-200 miles of "normal driving". There is a bedding procedure that's recommended for track use. So I haven't done any bedding, just normal driving. Right now I have about 100 miles on them and so far they feel much better than anything previous. I haven't tried to lock the wheels or do a mock panic stop yet, but these feel like they're gonna do the trick. I hope.

Anybody have a Black Hat rotor part number for 1970 to 1981 F-body?

I wish there was some good reviews/comparisons for the pads for our cars on YouTube and such…if anyone has a link that would be awesome!

I guess old guys like us don’t post much on YouTube haha