Most of the time Ogre gives facts about various options. With brakes, he's almost fanatical, probably rightly so. That said, he's also not entirely correct on several issues.
First, DOT rating on SS brake lines. Earls has offered DOT approved lines for quite a while. Earl's
As far as having some "single strand of the braid can break and punch the liner", I've never heard of that happening on any street car before. If it did happen, you'd see a pinhole of fluid leakage and replace the line, it wouldn't be a catastrophic failure. I use braided hoses all day, every day, and the only catastrophic failures I've ever seen are if the ends get blown off, and that's pretty darn rare. I have seen catastrophic failures of rubber brake lines in apparently good condition at the time where they ruptured and blew out the side.
Ogre, have you actually SEEN a failure of the type you describe or are you going by what you've been told? The idea of how this could happen, given the weave pattern and how the system is made, is really not registering with me. I've cut too many apart and replaced too many ends on hydraulic hose (which is really the same thing with a rubber cover over the metal) to see how it's even possible.
Stainless lines have advantages of abrasion resistance and, for the DOT approved lines, teflon liners which make them quite impervious to air. They also won't break down from exposure to oil and grease nearly as fast as regular rubber lines.
I do agree that you're not going to see any improvement between NEW rubber, conventional lines and NEW SS lines. Both will work fine. But that doesn't make using SS lines bad, illegal, or a waste of money if you shop properly and pay attention to details.
As far as the rotors and calipers, we have a virtually stock system on the Finale. For normal street driving they work just fine. One problem I see is that automatic cars never get the parking brake used and without using the parking brake, the rears won't stay in adjustment for very long. You need to remember to use the parking brake from time to time, even with an automatic if you expect your brakes to work.
Our system is non-stock only in the issue of Master Cylinder. We do have the Blazer MC on our Finale because it greatly reduces pedal travel and the only ones that drive it are Chris and myself so we have no problems with a slight increase in pedal force. We used it because with the increased force it's easier to modulate pressure in panic stops and the shorter stroke. There is nothing "unsafe" about this modification IF you are aware of the changes it's made.
Now we've been autocrossing the Finale lately and I can tell you for a fact that you will find the brakes aren't adequate for that. I've seen someone that had cryogenic treated rotors that supposedly are much more resistant to warpage, but I haven't used them myself so I'll reserve judgement. I do know that after 2 or three fast autocross runs, a stock, well serviced Fiero braking system with CarboMet pads is going to fade and fade badly.
But that isn't street use.
The autocross specific car I'm working on right now has Grand Am brakes all around specifically to address the fade issue. We'll see if it makes any difference. If it does, I'm going to go further and replace the calipers with lightweight aluminum ones when I find them and get back some of the weight I gained by using the Grand Am Calipers. Time will tell.
John Stricker
PS: The autocross car has an off-road title and is not legal, or driven, on the street so save the comments about how it's no longer legal to drive it.
