Re: Lone Star Caliper and MC SS sleeving
I have a 70 LT-1 with the original unsleeved calipers that have been preserved by Silicon fluid since 1975. I worked for an NHTSA auto safety lab that was experimenting with silicon brake fluid before it was given the DOT-5 designation and approved for use in new vehicles. The fluid was made by Dow and was clear. One experiment was to see if it could be used by just bleeding the old fluid out and the silicon in. After about a year we disassembled the calipers and the fluid in them was a gooey rusty mess. We found that was not the correct was to use silicon. Next we honed the calipers, which were still usable, flushed the lines with alcohol, cleaned all the fluid out of the master cylinder and puy the silicon fluid in the dry system. After another six months or so, we opened up a caliper and it was absolutely clean and rust free.
In 2007, after 32 years of not touching the brake system, the car began to pull to one side because of some leakage onto the pads. When I dissassembled the caliper, it was still perfectly clean and rust free, and the rubber parts still looked good. It was hard to see why it leaked, but I think the lips of the piston seals had simply lost their resiliency. After three years of storage the other front caliper began to leak and I just replaced its seals too.
Silicon brake fluid is very benign stuff that does not hurt the GM brake seals even after 35 years of exposure, and keeps cast iron rust free if used correctly. There is no way it could harm stainless steel sleeves.
I have a 70 LT-1 with the original unsleeved calipers that have been preserved by Silicon fluid since 1975. I worked for an NHTSA auto safety lab that was experimenting with silicon brake fluid before it was given the DOT-5 designation and approved for use in new vehicles. The fluid was made by Dow and was clear. One experiment was to see if it could be used by just bleeding the old fluid out and the silicon in. After about a year we disassembled the calipers and the fluid in them was a gooey rusty mess. We found that was not the correct was to use silicon. Next we honed the calipers, which were still usable, flushed the lines with alcohol, cleaned all the fluid out of the master cylinder and puy the silicon fluid in the dry system. After another six months or so, we opened up a caliper and it was absolutely clean and rust free.
In 2007, after 32 years of not touching the brake system, the car began to pull to one side because of some leakage onto the pads. When I dissassembled the caliper, it was still perfectly clean and rust free, and the rubber parts still looked good. It was hard to see why it leaked, but I think the lips of the piston seals had simply lost their resiliency. After three years of storage the other front caliper began to leak and I just replaced its seals too.
Silicon brake fluid is very benign stuff that does not hurt the GM brake seals even after 35 years of exposure, and keeps cast iron rust free if used correctly. There is no way it could harm stainless steel sleeves.
I think I would use one of the aerosol "brake clean" products from the FLAPS if I were to do it again even though I have no regrets. I did blow out the system with shop air following the alcohol.
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