What makes one caliper better than the other?

[Yellow73SB]

I have 5 calipers right now, all 1.75/1.88 four piston calipers. Now I wouldn't be asking this if the alcon caliper I just bought was the same as I already had but it isn't, one is for 1.25" and the other is 1.375

I believe the older style wilwood set is for 1.375 rotors, I can find these rotors off ebay for pretty reasonable prices, usually front 12.625-12.9ish in diameter. I found some red devil chromoly ones that are coated that are supposed to weight 12 pounds less also. But I'm not worried about that

What exactly makes one caliper more desirable than the other, both appear to be forged, both are older style from a cup car such as a NASCAR or ARCA car. The alcon looks nicer. They should be just as rigid as each other, obviously don't have the more distributed load of a 6 piston caliper though

I was able to find a decent deal on a late model motor, and it is going to be making some pretty serious power compared to what I was originally planning.

My thought was to take the inserts from the alcon calipers, which I believe are titanium, and put them in the wilwood calipers. I'll measure the pistons first though to see if I can just put the alcon pistons in the wilwoods

The car is going to have 3, 3" ducts going to the brakes also, might add an inline blower on the top line also




Alcon caliper inserts

And the wilwood calipers, I had to take out the heat sheilds where the rotor goes to clear the rotor, heat shields from pads are still there

 

[Yellow73SB]

Pretty sure these calipers are from around 1999, they were running about the same times as current cars, which is promising

 

[73c34me]

Keep us posted, I am interested.

 

[68/70Vette]

What is an alcon caliper?

I have Stainless Steel Brake Corporation aluminum calipers on my cars. I think they are more expensive than the aluminum Wilwood calipers. Wilwoods seem pretty popular so if I was going to buy another caliper set, I'd consider Wilwoods.

 

[Twin_Turbo]

Alcon is a brand name. In the saMNe league as ap or stop tech ...etc. quality stuff.

 

[mrvette]

This maybe seem like a dumb question, but here goes.....

My '72 came with SS lined stock heavy calipers, SO, without spending a stone fortune, does anyone make an aluminum version?? maybe stainless lined also to keep wear in line, ?? I suppose I"d have to change brackets....

and for being a street driven car, would I notice any better performance, or would it be such a slight difference as to be a waste of money???

likely to note much ride quality difference over these RR track quality roads???


:ghost::suspicious:

 

[Twin_Turbo]

Wilwood d8-4 or d8-6. 4 & 6 pistons. Bolt p5n replacements

 

[Yellow73SB]

I was able to pick up another alcon caliper for 50 bucks, unfortunately it's for an 1.5" rotor.

I'm either going to put the alcon pistons in the wilwoods, or I've seen some alcon calipers that come with an 1/8" spacer from the factory.

What I'm leaning towards is since most likely It's going to be a while before I'm really pushing this car, or even drive it, I'm just going to get some good condition used rotors and new pads and rebuild the wilwoods and run them untill I can afford to get some of those fancy 6 piston calipers off ebay.

If the alcon pistons are the same size, which they are spec'd to be the same I'll swap them in, if they are off I'm not going to bother making them work

The engine I found should weighs about 380 pounds so they car should be very light

I haven't even been home in 2 months and won't have an engine till May or june