You callin me overweight? kidding. Im not very familiar with the torque wrench and its purpose. I assume it is so you can make sure they are as tight as they are "supposed to be". Where can I find what they should be (saw the techinfo torque article only goes to 99)? And when you say cheapie wrench, how cheap?

Thanks.

All good info folks....

I'm going to bring the stress crack issue to my mechanic'* attention.
He said slotted & drilled should be the best since that'* what they use on F1 cars (or something like that). But I guess what we need to remember is those brakes are changed every race. Not realy good for daily drivers.

There is an important distinction to be made between drilled rotors. The ones you'll find on Feraris, Lamborginis and 'race cars is that the holes are CAST into the rotor and not drilled. This has a huge impact on the stress, or more accurately the stress relieving, around the holes.

Also bear in mind those holes reduce the surface area of the disk.

For street use, slotted is best - the manufactures offer drilled rotors because that'* what many people want...not what'* necessarily best.

Cheers,

Thats a good point Foghorn, F1 cars also have itty bitty steering wheels so I guess thats good for us too? No, the car is set up so all parts work together and the drilled and slotted rotors they use should not be confused with the many weak aftermarket ones available.
Mike, a Torque wrench is used to measure the torque applied to a bolt or nut. They can be set to a specific value and some indication when this occurs. The better ones click' when this value is reached or have a meter attached to measure torque angle. A cheap one will have a deflection pin and stencil gauge...$20.
For our car (2k+) its 100 lb ft for proper wheel torque.

What'* the proper torque for my 97?

and if you know off the top of your head... 91?
hehe

Thanks again for all the info guys...

I am pretty sure they are all 100 ft/lbs.

Heck even my malibu is 100 ft/lbs. The lowest any vehicle I have owned was 92 ft/lbs.

And the rims on the malibu are Alum just in case you were wondering.

FYI guys.... I've decided to go ahead and order those slotted and driller rotors as well as ceramic pads.

I'd like to thank you all for your input, and I do understand what you are saying, but my mechanic assures me there will never be any issues with them. He said that if they crack/fail for any reason he'll replace anything that gets damaged or broken. I've known this man for a long time and he'* nothing but honest.

Consider my 97 an experiment with them. They won't be in for 2 weeks. All I'll keep you guys posted if I have ANY issues with them. At which point should I have problems I will gladly accept all the "I told you so'*" and "you dumbass" comments in the world... and bend over like a man.

Well we tried to tell you. But like the guys at RSM racing told me NO street car will ever have the need for drilled rotors ( not even you Will, hehe). Slotted yes but not drilled, and I also mentioned before that they have an auto cross race car that only uses the slotted as they don't even have the need for drilled. I hope you are getting a good price on them.
You will have to pull the tires and inspect them regularly, then again most of the cracks you won't see for a while. I think that slotted alone would have sufficed.

if my rotors end up warping again I might go this route. How easy is it to install them? Can an idiot like me do it?

Well the ones on the Malibu were pretty simple. If you know how to remove your front calipers you can change the rotors.

Remove tire
Remove front calipers and pads
remove old rotors
clean it all ( make sure there is no rust where the rotor sits on the hub, wire brush or something)

put new rotors on
replace pads and calipers making sure to grease what needs to be greased
replace tire
torque nuts to specified torque
break in new rotors for specified mileage
then enjoy.