Front caliper/rotor upgrades for 2WD Trucks?

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wiscomick

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Anything out there for front caliper upgrades on the 2WD trucks? Seems like the 4WD trucks can upgrade to GMT900 or newer stuff, but the 2WD trucks don't have as much info. Looking for something better than what's there as I'm replacing absolutely everything up front on my truck and don't want to waste money on OEM stuff if there's better out there at a similar cost.
 

Schurkey

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What brake code do you have now? JB5? JB6?

Beware of making the front brakes way more powerful than the rears--and that's really easy when the rears are the horrible 254mm (10") leading-trailing drums.

IF (big IF) you have the 254mm drums, you should be upgrading the rear brakes before you dick with the fronts. The 11.x Duo-Servo drums are a huge improvement.
 

wiscomick

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It's a 97 with the bigger rotors. Truck has a 14SF in the rear that I plan on doing the disc conversion on. She's a bit of a collection of things.

We're at the brakes and suspension install phase, truck will be running a 5.3/4L80E combo with the 14SF.
 

wiscomick

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My plan was to do the GMT900 master cylinder swap and eliminate the entire ABS system already. Not sure I want to go hydroboost. Moreso just looking for a plug and play caliper upgrade if there's such a thing.
 

Supercharged111

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Hydroboost is bolt in and go, nothing else will compare to the force you get with it. I did the 800 master and at best it was less bad. But you have low drag calipers (I do not) so not appropriate to use a newer master with that.
 

Schurkey

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What brake code do you have now? JB5? JB6?

It's a 97 with the bigger rotors.
WHICH "bigger rotors"? You have 13" rotors on that? There's only two sizes of 11" rotors, and GM quit using the smaller ones in the early '90s. JB5 and JB6 use the same front rotors, calipers, master and booster. The rear brakes are different--254mm leading/trailing drums vs. 11.x Duo-Servo drums.

Truck has a 14SF in the rear that I plan on doing the disc conversion on.
Don't use a cheap-crap conversion kit. Make sure the discs you install are better than the drums you remove--and balanced with the fronts you install. If you have the 11.x Duo-Servo drums, you probably don't need to upgrade them. Just make sure they work like they're supposed to.

Beware of the piston sizes on the "GMT900" master cylinder swap. The master cylinder needs to be balanced with the caliper piston size. There's also the consideration of quick-takeup calipers which your truck probably has now; but may/may not have after you upgrade. Quick Takeup calipers require a special master cylinder design.
 

wiscomick

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I'll get more info off my RPO sticker and report back. Obviously there's more to this than I knew up front. Thanks guys.
 

wiscomick

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Here's a look at the RPO sticker in the truck.

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Also, I suppose it'd be pertinent to say - This is the current status of the build on this truck:

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It's a FULL rebuild. Truck was a light-duty C2500 RCLB with the 6-lug wheels and 14 semi-float rear end. Frame reached the end of it's useful life due to Wisconsin winters but the rest of the truck was in great shape. My plan was to shore up the frame at the cab-to-bed transition, shorten the frame, and put a shortbox on it. Sadly the frame was just too far gone and I ended up finding a 20K-mile 1991 RCSB frame in Michigan that I had blasted, epoxy primed, and urethane coated. Nothing rusty is going back on this truck.

As you can kind of see, everything is getting replaced. I just want to install the best choices going forward. The C2500 had 165K on it and ran fantastic, but... it also had 165K on it and it just makes little sense to reinstall old parts.
All that said, I just want to do this right the first time and not have regrets after the fact. If I need to go hydroboost, I will. If there's a good caliper upgrade that doesn't cost a grand, I'll do it. Just looking to buy the right parts once.

Appreciate you guys helping me through it.
 
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