Cleveland vs Matco brake masters

I ordered my 6A kit in stages and the first set of master cylinders are Cleveland, the other set that I got later on are Matco.

Is there any performance difference between the brands that would influence which ones to install on the pilot side?

The ACS price for the Cleveland 10-30 is $520 and for the Matco (not certain of part number) is $120 so I guess that tells me the Cleveland should go on the pilot side, and the co-pilot gets to admire the gold ones...??

Thanks, Paul.

I have Cleveland on both sides of my RV-6.

I have flown RVs that have used both Matco and Clevelands. They both work the same. I have a neighbor with RV-6A that has Cleveland on one side and Matco on the other. Having overhauled (replaced seals) both Cleveland and Matco master cylinders, I would rather work on the Cleveland. Cleveland can be rebuilt with off the shelf inexpensive Mil-Spec O-Rings. The Matco has ONE special seal that requires one to buy the Matco rebuild kit. A few dollars of parts can rebuild the Cleveland but it takes a $15 Matco kit to do them.

Not sure when but at some point in the past Van's Aircraft appears to have switch from Cleveland to Matco. The Matco appears to cost a lot less to procure and there is not a lot of difference in weight.

I am about ready to order fuselage kit for RV-8. I am debating about eliminating the Matco master cylinders and using something else. The Beringer appears to be the BEST and lightest but they are more money than any other on the market. I also like the Grove option but again that costs more than Matco.

The Matco master cylinders appears to be the low cost choice.

If your RV-6 is that old that you have a set of Cleveland master cylinders, you may want to replace the seals before installation. I have only been getting about 5-years or 1,000 flight hours between seal replacements. The O-Rings do age causing them to end up with square edges, mico-cracks, and get hard with age.

In my opinion, it does not matter which set goes on which side. Early RV-6(A) kits came with Cleveland and they were typically installed for the left seat. Many have been upgraded with dual brakes and the others set got placed for use from the right seat.

I replaced a set of Cleveland master cylinders with Matcos when the cost of the Matcos was less than the replacement parts for the Cleveland cylinders. The rebuild kits for the Clevelands were expensive, and then I needed a few metal parts, too, so I bought the Matcos. The bores in the Matco cylinders were a bit bigger and we do notice that we need to stand on the brakes noticeably harder to hold our RV-6 on runup, and holding for a full throttle test takes all the pressure I can muster. I kept the Clevelands and one o? these days I?ll get around to popping for those big $ parts and put them back. BTW, our RV-6 still has the prehistoric floor mounted rudder pedals.

Thanks

Thank you Gary and Jerry for your insightful replies and shared experience, I really appreciate it.

I will go ahead and fit the masters to my old 6A kit/project. I hadn't considered that the seals would have deteriorated, that makes sense, so I will order some spares for each brand. And also the wheel cylinders.

Now this has got me thinking about the tires and tubes, which are also over 20 years old, but not yet installed!

RV6_flyer said:

If your RV-6 is that old that you have a set of Cleveland master cylinders, you may want to replace the seals before installation. I have only been getting about 5-years or 1,000 flight hours between seal replacements. The O-Rings do age causing them to end up with square edges, mico-cracks, and get hard with age.

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+1

My 10 kit was shipped in '06. I was getting air upstream of the matco cylinders during phase I this year and had to replace the seals. The seals are definately limited by time, not just usage. They had spent all that time dry. Don't assume a new cyl has fresh seals if it is old.

Larry