Hate to hear the issues you are having! I am wanting a C6 Z06 after I am done building my WS6, and I have been enjoying what you are doing with yours ! Keep up the good work dude!
I’m a very happy owner of a C6 Convertible, but sure , throwing stupid Money at it even a Toilet you can make it go! ( That is not meant to be derogative to Corvettes!) That said ( having owned a 930 years back when I was young), a Corvette is still a Corvette, I , personally would pony up and buy the GT3, much better quality Car overall. For pure performance , if you’re a ‘Vette Fan , go C6 ZR1.Seems more economical in the long run. Sounds like you wanna do some driving, have fun!
@yesh3279 no doubt Porsche is quality. Have you ever seen the bill of a GT3 after an oil change, brake fluid service, new rotors and pads, there’s a reason why 70% of GT3s only come out once a week during the summer. When it comes to tracking a car, buy quality parts once, do as much of the work you can yourself to save on labor, and in the longer run you’ll still come out ahead and have fun than the GT3 owner keeping that car in the garage because of how expensive she is to run.
I did the same upgrade last year to my 06 Z06, but bought the kit new from Essex. As you mentioned at the end, the caliper bracket looks to be a custom job, the bracket that came with the new kit is much smaller and anodized black. The second thing I noticed is brake rotor (iron disc) and hats are different than the standard J hook design that comes with new AP racing kits. I'm not sure if that was the standard on older kits. It may be beneficial to reach out to Essex parts and see if they can help narrow things down. I really enjoy the content because I've spent the past two years turning my Z06 into a track weapon. Keep up the good work and I hope you get this solved!
Hey Josh, I had wanted to comment about the Hawk brake pads. In general, I've used Hawks on a lot of my cars and I love them. That said I hate them on my Z06. They are still on the car but I'm about ready to toss 'em in the trash, and that's on a street car. I can't imagine them on a track. I feel like the stock pads were better. Love the content so far, keep it up!
Keep slugging away at it, man. I can't wait to see the video when you finally conquer the vibration and get a clean lap in!! Don't hit the ceiling too hard haha
Hey Josh. I feel your pain! I’ve been in similar situations in the past. It’s especially frustrating after spending so much time on the install and anticipating this awesome change to only get let down and perhaps feeling like you went backwards with the car’s build. Personally, I think the seller misrepresented what they sold you which isn’t cool. I think this video is great because it shows the more challenging sides of tracking a car. I love every minute I’m on the track, but I know I spend 3 times as long prepping and maintaining the car which can sometimes lead to frustrates just like this example. Hang in there! I’m sure you can figure out how to safety make it all work. I predict you’ll scrub 1-2seconds off your PB…and the times will stay consistent lap after lap. Good luck!
Thanks man! I really need to learn to be patient and think through each step when it comes to the shop stuff. Sometimes when I've already dug myself into a hole my instinct is to charge ahead and dig deeper rather than taking a minute to assess. Looking forward to getting the situation sorted out :)
Hope you work things out! I myself just worked on my C6Zs brakes and just did pads and fluid since BBKs are hella expensive. Also got the Carbotechs XP12 for the front and XP10s for the rear, and I hope you like them because I really like them. Gave me confidence around the track as the padlets I had were shot. May we both reach our goal of beating GT3s!
I had a C5Z a couple years back and ran XP10/XP8 on that and was happy with how they performed. Carbotech seems to be the go-to pads for a lot of people. Watch out GT3s!
It's funny, I just remembered that I just received a book from Amazon 2 days ago called "Overthinking!" And I'm pretty sure that the first 2 or 3 of the C6Z06's had a weight of 3,132 pounds. It will be in the Corvette Black Book...
I'm with you on the big brakes. Something special about them. One of the most function over form mods in a way, but also oh so much form. I love shitboxes with real nice brakes. Not that your car is a shitbox at all, but I'm saying it elevates a tuner car for me. One of my favorite performance parts. Not exactly sure why. Bummer about the fitment issues. Seems that bracket was custom made to save money and possibly some other spacer was supposed to be used. Weird.
Yeah you get where I’m coming from for sure. The seller told me the brackets that came with the kit he originally bought didn’t work (he didn’t tell me details and he had a shop do the install) so his shop fabricated new brackets. Why those new brackets didn’t fit, not sure. But my last contact with him he mentioned that the shop had modified the knuckles on his car to make it work. No mention of that in the classified ad 🙄
Hi Josh, I have been enjoying your channel and I am a similar boat as you. Just bought a c6 z06 for lapping days. In my case I have to wait a few months before the snow clears. I didn’t even get it on the track last year as it snowed the day I got it and track closed for the season that same weekend. Anyhow, I just installed a used Wilwood bbk on my car and you may want to check out their instructions for the Aero6 calipers. They come with spacers/shims to move the caliper outboard. I bought my kit from a c5 guy (made for both) but I found I needed to buy extra shims because I was too close on the inside. In my case everything cleared, but the caliper was not cantered on the rotor when tightened down. I had my engineer brother do some thermo calcs and I was not happy with only 0.8mm clearance. With additional shim I now have 1.8MM on one side and a bit over 2 mm on the other side. I would shoot for a min of 1-1.5 mm clearance to everything. Rotors grow with heat more than you may think. Because your rotor is rubbing on the suspension, you may also need to shim the hats (I also didn’t know that was a thing and I did not have this problem). So to be clear, you may have two areas to shim. One on the hats (that I didn’t do) and then if you move that out, now you need to check your rotor is centered on the caliper (look at the Wilwood instructions, you will see what I mean). You can get shims from Wilwood pretty cheap. It’s best to use their shims (or something sold as a shim, not just a plain washer) as they are very accurate (I.e. all the same) and you won’t introduce any runout. Note: if you add shims behind the hat, please watch out for the length of your studs to ensure you have adequate threads for your wheel nuts. I wouldn’t think you’d need more than a couple mm though, so should be ok. P.s. I also saw that set on CF. Too much for me though!
Hey Rod, thanks so much for this! I'm hoping I didn't compromise the strength of the control arms by shaving material off of them. I'll take some measurements and see where I stand.
No worries. One more thing I just thought of. You may want to look at how the previous owner installed the hats and make sure he didn’t add shims between the hats and rotors. If he did, that would also add to your problem and you may need to remove them in that case.
Can’t help but wonder if flipping the caliper bracket and mounting it to the backside of the caliper mounting lugs would have addressed both the bracket interference and caliper offset problem. Taking a little material off the LCA for disc clearance is not unheard of either.
I'd say the only thing to do would be buy rotors from Essex. They are super knowledgeable about Corvettes so they might be able to diagnose your vibration issue.
you are going to need brake ducts to the center of rings to beat the gt3 and probably a bbk will help. race cars usually have way more rear bias than street cars so I doubt the c6 has more than it needs but could be idk. that can be also in conjunction with aero setup, so if you use a big wing then the bias then I expect you need at least the stock bias
@@JoshVanVeld I am really looking forward to you getting on the suspension work to see what you do. There are coilovers and there are coilovers. Given your choice of brakes, you'll probably pick a winner.
@@JoshVanVeld Even against a built 8.2L, the suspension is what really stands out on my car. I spent about a decade racing MX and offroad motorcycles. I have an understanding and appreciation of suspension technology that is uncommon in the 4-wheel world. Some years back, my wife bought me a 25 lap "drive a retired NASCAR" package at TMS. What blew me away about those cars was not the motor, but the suspension. It was so composed over undulations and big bumps while being BMW-like supple over imperfections. The ride quality was better than the passenger van they did the track tour in. It turns out, their race shocks use multi-speed valving lifted from MX. The valve stacks look practically identical to what goes in an MX fork, just bigger. My coilovers are built on Bilstein AS2 cartridges. I can take rough RR tracks at the same speed as my wife's Subaru without punishment. And body control is better than ever. The drive experience is just like that NASCAR. It is so locked in and yet supple, at once. Delrin bushing made a big change too, and they are surprisingly quiet. Best money I've spent so far.
You can remove pads from teh factory caliper by un-doing those three hex or allen bolts on the face of the caliper and the pads slide out from the side. However this only works if you use 3 padlets vs 1 pad.
15:48 really resonates with me lol. We've all been there with maintenance/mods/upgrades. I replaced the brakes on my daily last month, all OEM stuff, should've been easy...but no. How do you like your pressure bleeder? I bought a vacuum bleeder, and its pretty worthless so far.
Murphy's law I suppose! I like the Motive bleeder a lot. I also really like the little bleed bottle they sell. The wire hanger and the long flexible tubing make it easy to bleed without making any mess.
You know you could apply that buy once cry once philosophy, to your turbo if it's not sold via consignment yet. 👀😋 some Jhooks on a turbo would be sooooo good.
Always provide a virgin surface for new pads. The burnishing procedure can not be achieved without new surfaces. Been there done that. The mounting mating surfaces between rotor hat and hub needs to be power wire brushed to insure no foreign matter and flatness upon torque. You have a good base to brake jobs however modifications are wrought with unknowns.
That sounds really strange but it’s hard to make a guess without knowing more. I would post details on corvetteforum.com , you’ll probably get more expert responses.
Question. Why not just go with the Willwood or Brembo GT Brake systems, or even the ZR1 Brake system (Carbon Ceramic or Steel) over spending all that for a brake kit that doesn't work as intended. Save your $$$$ and spend it on a better coil over LG suspension for Goldie. Then you'll start to see a performance difference at the track. Great content otherwise bud, keep'em coming.
Now the solution might possibly be one of Dirty Harry's best comments, ever! " A good man always knows his limitations!" Get a professional brake guy. It might even keep your air bag from exploding in your face when you unexpectedly hit something, due to brake failure?!
Off topic, but I remember you complaining about the pedals for heel toeing your car. Have you considered something like Auto Blip? It's only around $400 new. They have install instructions for your car. Here's a video of it on another C6 Z06: th-cam.com/video/6Jl9vahllHI/w-d-xo.html
"buy once, cry once" Does not apply to overpaying for used parts especially when they aren't even what you need or expected. BtW, You don't need to spend more than 2-3k for brakes especially considering you are a newb who probably won't use them to their fullest extent anyway.
You have blessed us all with a saying to deploy on our significant others when we overspend on toys. “But once cry once, sweetie! It’s just math!” 😂
Just don’t let them see this video and find out how I then proceeded to utterly waste more money. 😂😅😢
@@JoshVanVeld Hahaha! I'll keep this one out of the playlists...
Good luck with getting your brakes worked out. I went with Wilwood F/R kit for my c6z06. Boltup was perfect and pad changes quick.
Hate to hear the issues you are having! I am wanting a C6 Z06 after I am done building my WS6, and I have been enjoying what you are doing with yours ! Keep up the good work dude!
Thanks! I still remember the TV commercial for the WS6 💪
I’m a very happy owner of a C6 Convertible, but sure , throwing stupid Money at it even a Toilet you can make it go! ( That is not meant to be derogative to Corvettes!)
That said ( having owned a 930 years back when I was young), a Corvette is still a Corvette,
I , personally would pony up and buy the GT3, much better quality Car overall.
For pure performance , if you’re a ‘Vette Fan , go C6 ZR1.Seems more economical in the long run.
Sounds like you wanna do some driving, have fun!
@yesh3279 no doubt Porsche is quality. Have you ever seen the bill of a GT3 after an oil change, brake fluid service, new rotors and pads, there’s a reason why 70% of GT3s only come out once a week during the summer. When it comes to tracking a car, buy quality parts once, do as much of the work you can yourself to save on labor, and in the longer run you’ll still come out ahead and have fun than the GT3 owner keeping that car in the garage because of how expensive she is to run.
I did the same upgrade last year to my 06 Z06, but bought the kit new from Essex. As you mentioned at the end, the caliper bracket looks to be a custom job, the bracket that came with the new kit is much smaller and anodized black. The second thing I noticed is brake rotor (iron disc) and hats are different than the standard J hook design that comes with new AP racing kits. I'm not sure if that was the standard on older kits. It may be beneficial to reach out to Essex parts and see if they can help narrow things down. I really enjoy the content because I've spent the past two years turning my Z06 into a track weapon. Keep up the good work and I hope you get this solved!
Thanks for sharing! I was thinking of reaching out to Essex to see if they offer the hats and brackets separately.
@@JoshVanVeld ive also got the front and rear kit from essex on mine.. works perfectly.
Hey Josh, I had wanted to comment about the Hawk brake pads. In general, I've used Hawks on a lot of my cars and I love them. That said I hate them on my Z06. They are still on the car but I'm about ready to toss 'em in the trash, and that's on a street car. I can't imagine them on a track. I feel like the stock pads were better. Love the content so far, keep it up!
Keep slugging away at it, man. I can't wait to see the video when you finally conquer the vibration and get a clean lap in!! Don't hit the ceiling too hard haha
Thanks! We'll get it sorted out eventually I'm sure.
Hey Josh. I feel your pain! I’ve been in similar situations in the past. It’s especially frustrating after spending so much time on the install and anticipating this awesome change to only get let down and perhaps feeling like you went backwards with the car’s build. Personally, I think the seller misrepresented what they sold you which isn’t cool.
I think this video is great because it shows the more challenging sides of tracking a car. I love every minute I’m on the track, but I know I spend 3 times as long prepping and maintaining the car which can sometimes lead to frustrates just like this example.
Hang in there! I’m sure you can figure out how to safety make it all work. I predict you’ll scrub 1-2seconds off your PB…and the times will stay consistent lap after lap. Good luck!
Thanks man! I really need to learn to be patient and think through each step when it comes to the shop stuff. Sometimes when I've already dug myself into a hole my instinct is to charge ahead and dig deeper rather than taking a minute to assess.
Looking forward to getting the situation sorted out :)
APRacing is top tier, I’m a budget enthusiast on my Z06 and so far I’m just using KNS slotted upgrade on my 2006 car.
Sorry you’re having troubles! You’ll win the battle eventually. 👍 I can’t imagine how frustrated you must be. Hang in there!
Thanks! Learned a few lessons and ready to jump back on the horse 😀
Hope you work things out! I myself just worked on my C6Zs brakes and just did pads and fluid since BBKs are hella expensive. Also got the Carbotechs XP12 for the front and XP10s for the rear, and I hope you like them because I really like them. Gave me confidence around the track as the padlets I had were shot. May we both reach our goal of beating GT3s!
I had a C5Z a couple years back and ran XP10/XP8 on that and was happy with how they performed. Carbotech seems to be the go-to pads for a lot of people. Watch out GT3s!
It's funny, I just remembered that I just received a book from Amazon 2 days ago called "Overthinking!" And I'm pretty sure that the first 2 or 3 of the C6Z06's had a weight of 3,132 pounds. It will be in the Corvette Black Book...
4:02 That squinty eyed head shake said it all.
I'm with you on the big brakes. Something special about them. One of the most function over form mods in a way, but also oh so much form. I love shitboxes with real nice brakes. Not that your car is a shitbox at all, but I'm saying it elevates a tuner car for me. One of my favorite performance parts. Not exactly sure why. Bummer about the fitment issues. Seems that bracket was custom made to save money and possibly some other spacer was supposed to be used. Weird.
Yeah you get where I’m coming from for sure. The seller told me the brackets that came with the kit he originally bought didn’t work (he didn’t tell me details and he had a shop do the install) so his shop fabricated new brackets.
Why those new brackets didn’t fit, not sure. But my last contact with him he mentioned that the shop had modified the knuckles on his car to make it work. No mention of that in the classified ad 🙄
@@JoshVanVeld Hahaha oh jeez the rabbit hole of previous mods. Makes more sense at least.
Hi Josh, I have been enjoying your channel and I am a similar boat as you. Just bought a c6 z06 for lapping days. In my case I have to wait a few months before the snow clears. I didn’t even get it on the track last year as it snowed the day I got it and track closed for the season that same weekend.
Anyhow, I just installed a used Wilwood bbk on my car and you may want to check out their instructions for the Aero6 calipers. They come with spacers/shims to move the caliper outboard. I bought my kit from a c5 guy (made for both) but I found I needed to buy extra shims because I was too close on the inside. In my case everything cleared, but the caliper was not cantered on the rotor when tightened down. I had my engineer brother do some thermo calcs and I was not happy with only 0.8mm clearance. With additional shim I now have 1.8MM on one side and a bit over 2 mm on the other side.
I would shoot for a min of 1-1.5 mm clearance to everything. Rotors grow with heat more than you may think.
Because your rotor is rubbing on the suspension, you may also need to shim the hats (I also didn’t know that was a thing and I did not have this problem). So to be clear, you may have two areas to shim. One on the hats (that I didn’t do) and then if you move that out, now you need to check your rotor is centered on the caliper (look at the Wilwood instructions, you will see what I mean).
You can get shims from Wilwood pretty cheap. It’s best to use their shims (or something sold as a shim, not just a plain washer) as they are very accurate (I.e. all the same) and you won’t introduce any runout.
Note: if you add shims behind the hat, please watch out for the length of your studs to ensure you have adequate threads for your wheel nuts. I wouldn’t think you’d need more than a couple mm though, so should be ok.
P.s. I also saw that set on CF. Too much for me though!
Hey Rod, thanks so much for this! I'm hoping I didn't compromise the strength of the control arms by shaving material off of them.
I'll take some measurements and see where I stand.
No worries. One more thing I just thought of. You may want to look at how the previous owner installed the hats and make sure he didn’t add shims between the hats and rotors. If he did, that would also add to your problem and you may need to remove them in that case.
Can’t help but wonder if flipping the caliper bracket and mounting it to the backside of the caliper mounting lugs would have addressed both the bracket interference and caliper offset problem. Taking a little material off the LCA for disc clearance is not unheard of either.
That’s entirely possible. If you watch the subsequent videos the eventual outcome was better than I was expecting.
I'd say the only thing to do would be buy rotors from Essex. They are super knowledgeable about Corvettes so they might be able to diagnose your vibration issue.
you are going to need brake ducts to the center of rings to beat the gt3 and probably a bbk will help.
race cars usually have way more rear bias than street cars so I doubt the c6 has more than it needs but could be idk. that can be also in conjunction with aero setup, so if you use a big wing then the bias then I expect you need at least the stock bias
That wasn't the update I was looking for...
That makes two of us!
Seriously
@@JoshVanVeld I am really looking forward to you getting on the suspension work to see what you do.
There are coilovers and there are coilovers. Given your choice of brakes, you'll probably pick a winner.
@@yzScott Yeah I'm excited about suspension too. Not 100% sure yet but I've been shopping. Definitely going to buy new this time 😆
@@JoshVanVeld Even against a built 8.2L, the suspension is what really stands out on my car.
I spent about a decade racing MX and offroad motorcycles. I have an understanding and appreciation of suspension technology that is uncommon in the 4-wheel world. Some years back, my wife bought me a 25 lap "drive a retired NASCAR" package at TMS. What blew me away about those cars was not the motor, but the suspension. It was so composed over undulations and big bumps while being BMW-like supple over imperfections. The ride quality was better than the passenger van they did the track tour in. It turns out, their race shocks use multi-speed valving lifted from MX. The valve stacks look practically identical to what goes in an MX fork, just bigger.
My coilovers are built on Bilstein AS2 cartridges. I can take rough RR tracks at the same speed as my wife's Subaru without punishment. And body control is better than ever. The drive experience is just like that NASCAR. It is so locked in and yet supple, at once. Delrin bushing made a big change too, and they are surprisingly quiet.
Best money I've spent so far.
You can remove pads from teh factory caliper by un-doing those three hex or allen bolts on the face of the caliper and the pads slide out from the side. However this only works if you use 3 padlets vs 1 pad.
Where can I c6 6 piston calipers
15:48 really resonates with me lol. We've all been there with maintenance/mods/upgrades. I replaced the brakes on my daily last month, all OEM stuff, should've been easy...but no. How do you like your pressure bleeder? I bought a vacuum bleeder, and its pretty worthless so far.
Murphy's law I suppose! I like the Motive bleeder a lot. I also really like the little bleed bottle they sell. The wire hanger and the long flexible tubing make it easy to bleed without making any mess.
4:7 lucky guy.
You know you could apply that buy once cry once philosophy, to your turbo if it's not sold via consignment yet. 👀😋 some Jhooks on a turbo would be sooooo good.
The most expensive upgrade 😂😂 spoke a little to soon.
Lol that one hurts.
I feel your frustration
Thanks. There's fun learning and there's un-fun learning. The lessons you learn the un-fun way tend to stick, so I've got that going for me.
Always provide a virgin surface for new pads. The burnishing procedure can not be achieved without new surfaces. Been there done that. The mounting mating surfaces between rotor hat and hub needs to be power wire brushed to insure no foreign matter and flatness upon torque. You have a good base to brake jobs however modifications are wrought with unknowns.
check your A arm bushings
This video made me so sad for you... Ive been following this build and cant wait to see your car beat a GT3 on the track.
Thanks! I'm feeling a lot better - I'm not much of a mechanic so I'll be learning a lot along the way. I appreciate the support.
Stop! You need a spacer under the hat. That's it! Probably 1 to 5 mm thickness
Makes total sense, I had no idea that spacers behind the hat were a thing.
🤫i put modified spacer back rotor and change caliper bolts
I have 2009 corvette change pads and brakes locked up I have no fluid in rears baffled and ideas
That sounds really strange but it’s hard to make a guess without knowing more. I would post details on corvetteforum.com , you’ll probably get more expert responses.
This car is abusive. You just want to love it and its fighting you.
Haha! WHY WON’T YOU LET ME LOVE YOU?!!
@@JoshVanVeld Exactly!
Question. Why not just go with the Willwood or Brembo GT Brake systems, or even the ZR1 Brake system (Carbon Ceramic or Steel) over spending all that for a brake kit that doesn't work as intended. Save your $$$$ and spend it on a better coil over LG suspension for Goldie. Then you'll start to see a performance difference at the track. Great content otherwise bud, keep'em coming.
Hindsight is 20-20 😁Suspension upgrade is definitely on the list.
Now the solution might possibly be one of Dirty Harry's best comments, ever! " A good man always knows his limitations!" Get a professional brake guy. It might even keep your air bag from exploding in your face when you unexpectedly hit something, due to brake failure?!
Can’t argue with your logic, but where’s the fun in that? 😅
Off topic, but I remember you complaining about the pedals for heel toeing your car. Have you considered something like Auto Blip? It's only around $400 new. They have install instructions for your car. Here's a video of it on another C6 Z06:
th-cam.com/video/6Jl9vahllHI/w-d-xo.html
Henry Ford also said "I am not wealthy enough to buy cheap" = Buy Once, Cry once LOL
I’m willing to bet Henry Ford never bought used car parts on the internet 😆
Aftermarket crap. I suppose if you want to race, this is the kind of thing you will deal with.
kinda like the opposite of Miata always being the answer, HP+ is never the answer
WTF IS THIS CAR CONTENT?!?
BRING BACK THE CULLING!!!!
Bro you've been posting car videos instead of fixing the culling?!?!
😂😂😂
Car are pain
True.
"buy once, cry once" Does not apply to overpaying for used parts especially when they aren't even what you need or expected.
BtW, You don't need to spend more than 2-3k for brakes especially considering you are a newb who probably won't use them to their fullest extent anyway.