Hydroboosting Your Brakes

Hydroboosting Your Brakes Pbs Hydroboost Installation System

Hydroboosting Your Brakes Vacuum Brake Pump

01. Since our gasoline V-8 engine had a lopey camshaft in it, it didn’t produce adequate vacuum to power a vacuum brake booster. A hydroboost system uses the power steering pump to enhance brake power, so as long as you have a good power steering pump, a hydroboost system will work to its full potential.

01. Since our gasoline V-8 engine had a lopey camshaft in it, it didn’t produce adequate

Do you want better brakes? That sounds like one of those stupid questions that you hear on TV commercials that should be filed with “Do you want to live longer?” and “Do you like orphans?” Who the heck is going to say no? Certainly not me. Of course we want to live longer while liking orphans and having better brakes. And while we’re no experts in longevity or child care, we can tell you a bit about getting better brakes, now that we’ve learned a little more from Power Brake Service (PBS).

Since we think you can figure out for yourself why you’d want better brakes, we’re just going to dip right into how easy it is for most gasoline-burning vehicles to improve them.

Most gasoline-powered vehicles use a vacuum-assisted brake booster to generate more force (increasing pressure) in the power brake system. If you’ve ever driven a vehicle without power brakes, you know how much of an improvement a power-assisted brake system is. The vacuum brake booster is adequate for most vehicles, but for heavy-duty trucks and vehicles that don’t create enough vacuum for the brake booster, hydroboost brakes are often the choice for vehicle manufacturers.

Hydroboost power brakes work using hydraulic fluid pressure (fed from the power steering pump) to “boost” the force on the master cylinder’s brake fluid and therefore apply more force to the brake calipers (and subsequently more force on the rotors with the brake pads).

Hydroboosting Your Brakes Remove Old Master Cylinder

02. We started the install by first removing the old master cylinder and vacuum brake booster.

02. We started the install by first removing the old master cylinder and vacuum brake bo

Both hydroboost and vacuum assist are power brake systems that multiply the force you can put on the brakes with your brake pedal, but hydroboost can create more force than a vacuum-assisted system—and without using an engine’s vacuum.

For us, we really had no choice but to step up to hydroboost brakes after installing a lopey camshaft on a V-8 engine. The amount of vacuum the engine made at idle was not enough to properly supply the vacuum brake booster, and the brakes in the truck got worse. After talking with PBS, we realized that all our problems could be solved by swapping on a hydroboost brake system in place of the original vacuum-assisted system that came stock on this particular truck.

Hydroboosting Your Brakes Results Of Installation

How Does the Truck Brake Now?

The difference of the new PBS hydroboost system was immediately noticeable—and huge. The truck stopped much more quickly than before, and with more control. On top of that, the truck now holds itself on severely steep declines when off-road. The braking improvement of the truck is enormous.

The one downside we see? With a hydroboost system, you’re now scavenging off the power steering pump for power assist, inline of the power steering pump and the power steering box. A hydroboost system relies solely on the power steering pump to power both the steering box and the brakes. Theoretically, it should always work with no problem, but if you have a poorly working power steering pump then you should definitely upgrade that before adding a hydroboost system. If you’re thinking about adding a high-output aftermarket power steering pump, that couldn’t hurt either.

03. The hydroboost system replaces the vacuum booster on the firewall. Power Brake Service (PBS) has been in the business of converting vacuum assist brake to hydroboost brakes for more than 50 years. They added a nice touch of stainless steel braided hydraulic lines to the system instead of high-pressure rubber lines.
03. The hydroboost system replaces the vacuum booster on the firewall. Power Brake Servic
04. After the old master cylinder and vacuum brake booster were removed, we were able to add the new booster to the firewall. PBS has kits for most common trucks and 4x4s to convert your brake system to a hydroboost.
04. After the old master cylinder and vacuum brake booster were removed, we were able to
05. The PBS hydroboost booster bolts onto the firewall of whatever truck or 4x4 you’re working with, just like a stock vacuum brake booster would. A master cylinder is supplied with the PBS system and works exactly like your old master cylinder does.
05. The PBS hydroboost booster bolts onto the firewall of whatever truck or 4x4 you’re wo

06. On the side of the booster, there is a small reservoir. PBS tells us that this reservoir will store enough energy (in the form of pressure) to give you three pumps of your brake pedal after a power supply (in this case, a power steering pump) totally fails. This is a failsafe safety precaution to allow you to get your truck stopped should there ever be a line rupture or pump failure.
06. On the side of the booster, there is a small reservoir. PBS tells us that this reser
07. PBS supplied a new master cylinder, and we got one matched to our truck’s four disc brakes. It originally had front discs and rear drums, and didn’t see a big improvement when we converted over to rear disc some years ago because we were still using a master cylinder meant for rear drum brakes. Disc brakes take more fluid volume than drums do. To properly supply a rear disc brake conversion, you need to swap in a master cylinder meant for disc brakes.
07. PBS supplied a new master cylinder, and we got one matched to our truck’s four disc b