Next up, braking improvements. Last year I installed new pads and shoes, but overall I wasn't impressed with the braking. Granted I was still able to lock up the fronts, but the peddle felt like a brick and the rears didn't seem to be doing much. So I decided to do new rotors, pads, drums, shoes, and also remove the proportioning valve. Slightly annoyed with myself that I didn't just do all this last year but at least it gives me a chance to regrease the bearings and inspect everything.
I started on the fronts, pressed out the studs and installed the new rotors. I wanted to go with Hawk Performance pads but I somehow ordered ones for a K20 (which don't fit) and then realized Hawk doesn't seem to make pads for the K30. So now I've ordered EBC Yellow's and will get those on once they arrive. Pricing is a little crazy so I hope they work well.
For the rear, so far I finished the passenger side and have the driver's apart. Last year when I had it apart I measured the drums and they were roughly max spec size, but with the new shoes it ended up so that I only had contact on 1/3-1/2 of the shoe on the drum. Just from working the e-brake and setting adjustment it feels much better already with the new drums.
One thing on the driver's side, for whatever reason my e-brake cable seems to be too short and it is pulling the lever inside the drum even fully retracted. I've added pictures of drivers (pic a/c) vs passenger (pic b) to illustrate. I'm not sure how big of a deal it is (as the brake adjustment will be set from the current position), but I figured it would be worth changing the e-brake cable while it's apart. There doesn't seem to be any adjustment I can do to the driver's side that i could tell. Rockauto has 2 different cables for the left rear, a 51 5/8" and a 55 1/2" so I ordered both and will see which works best.