I know we had a thread here a month or so ago about brakes and the best rotors ect.... I even thru in my opinion with parts I've used with good results.

Well the Avalanche needs brakes. Honestly even thou it's 4X4 (which means it has the locking rear with 2 piston rear calipers and bigger rear disk) I would like the brakes to be better.

I was going to go with the Power Slot rotors and Bendix Titanium pads - which is a combination I that know works great in harsh applications, however the cost was pretty high.

It sucks comming into the real world finally but with the new house, renovations and all the new furniture I have to buy - Not to mention the $450+ I just spent fixing the Corvette. I need to save some $$$ right now....

Then I stumbled on to Stainless Steel Brake Corps (SSBC) rotor and pad kit for my truck. Advertised as "Made In USA". Expensive but not too expensive IMO.

I know about SSBC. I installed one of their rotor kits on a C3 Corvette and an entire disk brake conversion of theirs on a 65 Mustang a number of years ago. Both installs went super smooth and never had any problems afterwards. Reviews on this rotor and pad kit were sparse but I felt confident buying SSBC parts for the Avalanche.

The parts cam in today. Front rotors are re-labled (not even re-boxed) CHINA made "Brake 1" rotors. I can't see anything on the rear rotor boxes about where they were made. Front and rear rotors have have nothing as to thier orgin cast into them. Around the outer edge they are lazer marked with the min thicknes (in mm) and they are electro pencil'd with the SSBC part number on the hub plate. The casting on the front rotors looks OK but not great down in the vanes. The rears look better. The slots are machined very nicely with no chatter marks or burs on the rotor braking surface. Braking surface is nice and smooth having been plane ground with the typical cross hatch pattern.

I'm honestly disappointed in the CHINA mfgr. However I understand you get what you pay for and I am going to intall the parts this afternoon and give them a honest chance...

I'll take some pics later.
Will

I would challenge them on this. It is illegal to sell products from other countries as "Made in the USA." For that matter, it is illegal to sell products from country "A" and market it is made in country "B".

Also, to be blunt, fancy rotor's won't do shit for braking at normal highway speeds on a street driven car. There simply isn't enough heat generated to gain any advantage. Just get the good pads and save yourself a ton of cash.

I'd be upset about a "Made in the USA" product from China. I'd email/call them and find out why. Other than that, if you use them give us a cost/quality analysis

Matthew

I'm sorry but in the move from house A to house B my camera got left off the charger and when my GF brought it over for me to take some pics Friday night the battery was dead. I was going to leave the truck on jack stands to to take a few pics in the morning but I ended up just putting the wheels/tires back on it. I knew in the morning we would have to use it to move more of our things over to the new house.

BTW this moving thing is a PITA. I knew there was a reason I never bought much of anything all those years I spent in the Marine Corps. I think I've I've accumulated more "litte shit" in the past 3yrs than in my entire previous life... and now one P/U truck and one Jeep and 4X8 trailer load at a time we are moving it 4 miles from House A to house B. To go back to the days when I could fit all my shit in a Sea Bag....

So this is the kit I bought.

[IMG]http://www.autoaccessoriesgarage.com/img/group/main/30/3074_1_lg.jpg[/IMG]

I already gave you guys all the info I can see about the rotors.

Looking closely at the pads I noticed that they are re-boxed HAWK LTS pads. So that's good.

As for the Made In USA thing. I noticed it's only listed as "Made In USA" at this web site....

http://www.autoaccessoriesgarage.com/ ... rt-Stop-Slotted-Rotor-Kit

No one else that sells this kit makes the claim. I have an email in to SSBC about it and we'll see how they respond.

The install went real smooth... right up until I broke my Torx T55 - What kind of ass hole puts red locktite on the front caliper slider bolts? At any rate after quick trip to the parts store to get a new Torx bit I was underway.

I was pleased to not find any signifigant runout on the rotors - The worst one was about .0035. Appears that the quality of machine work is pretty good and only time will tell how good the CHINA cast iron holds up.

Right now I'm still bedding the pads in. Only about 20miles around town and the rotors are already getting some material transfer, so they should be ready for my trip to GA and FLA for Thanksgiving at the end of the week.

I also changed the spark plugs and wires. 86,000 miles and the OEM AC Delco Platinum's and Packard wires still looked really good. Pass side rear plug is a little bit of a PITA becasue of the AC can and firewall but all in all the LSX is very easy. I used new NGK TR55G platinum plugs and Crane firewires. Of course the Crane wires are about 2" longer than they need to be... Considering the good condition of the OEM stuff I doubt I'll get much of an improvement on the trip but I'm hoping (considering the truck is unloaded this time around) with some easy driving to break 20MPG.
Will

Will, .0035 seems a tad much for new rotors to me.

The Hawks need to see some hard stops, 60 to almost 0 about 3 times with heavy pedal. Until you can smell them.

5.3 motor? I put some 55's in mine at 110k, didn't do the wires yet.

Quote:

They were made in CHINA... honestly that .0035 run out measurement is with me having to lift the dial indicator to clear the slot in the rotor face and we all know when you drop it back down it never goes back perfect - so it could be less.

I wanted to get at least some pad transfer on the rotors before I really tried to bed them in. The factory as well as the SSBC rotors are straight vane so I know I could over heat them in short order playing race car with this heavy truck.

Yep 5.3L. I guess Crane just wanted to give more "more" (wire) for my $46.00.
Will

Understand the dial thing.

Hawk says 3 stops 40 to 0(almost) with lite application to start the transfer and slowly warm up the rotors then 3 stops 60 to 0 with moderate, and 3 60 to 0 with heavy.

I like to go a bit more.

The HPS instructions are on the side of the box, so the "reboxers" didn't help. Hawk's racing pads come with instructions in the box.

I also like to move the car a couple of inches after bedding to move the rotors on the pads until they get close to ambient.

So Bob Warrington at SSBC emailed me right back. I mean in 10mins.

He applogized for the interwebz retialer I listed above misleading me as to the rotor mfgr origin. He also said that he was going to get with that distributor make sure that their advertising reflects the correct information.

He told me (something I already know of course) about US mfgring and foundry capability leaving for CHINA and how hard it is to find a USA made rotor....

He did say that the rotor face slotting was done at their facility in Buffalo NY and basically that they are committed to putting a quality product out.

He confirmed the pads are Hawk - but the HPS Series.

All I can do is drive the thing. Time will tell how it shakes out. So far everything looks good for the $$$.
Will

I think you'll be just fine.

And I'll bet you like the pads.