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1978 Turbo 1.8 Brat


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I am new to this board, and am looking for other people who are interested in the subarus as i am. I own a 1978 Subaru Brat that i a freind and i have built, it is a combination of two subarus, to make one hell of a brat.

 

the car looks stock, seems stock, until you hit the gas, hit your head on the glass behind you and all you can do is look behind you and laugh at the mustangs or ricers trying to keep up.

 

We took a 1991 Subaru GL-10 Wagon, 4x4 turbo motor, tranny, rear end , electronics, and of course the turbo. and strategically placed them in the brat, after a 3 day fight with the wiring from the wagon i got it down to just the motor and computer wiring and it all checked out and now the beast is running and tearing up the pavement.

 

If you are interested in this car, or a project like this, i will say cutting torch and welders are a must. and the know how ow willingness to learn as you go is a must.

 

I just took pictures of the brat as of two days ago. You can email me and i will send you some pictures. and yes the stock spare tire still fits under the hood. :banana:

 

Well sorry for the long post, but i will tell you this is alot shorter then the year it took to build the beast.

 

thanks

John Cabot

Shoquest2002@yahoo.com

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WooHoo!!

 

Someone else in North texas!!

 

You're right up the street from me!

 

I'm in McKinney near 121 and Lake Forest

 

on a side note.. there is no 91 GL-10.. last one was in 89..but the Loyale came in a turbo model in 90 and maybe 91.. but who cares.. an EA82T Brat! Cool!

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For those of you wondering, the car was built, it wasnt really a swap. like most would think of a swap. this was more like a pulling, fighting, welding , cutting,cussing match with the car to get the EA82T motor ,tranny, and rear end in the car. although the car remains stock in its frame and body. the car has three wiring harnesses, three fuse boxes, and of course the computer and turbo. looking to find a top mount IC for the turbo, but that will be after the car is dissasembled and get the body work and paint done. remind you that this car was found sitting in a feild , the only thing we knew about the car was that the owner was doing a tune up on it after he had bought the car, and never got to complete it, he passed away 17 years ago. he had owned the car for about 2 to 3 years. so that means it was at least sitting for the last 19 to 20 years.

The car was given to us by the guys daughter with the title, and keys. wow . ok of course getting it out from behind that barn was another story, Dodge truck wouldnt pull it out. took a farm tractor to get it to move. and a wench to get it on the hauler . then taken to my local shop where i worked on my project cars. other types of crazy builds for instance a 1987 Chrysler Conquest with a 302. but was to be origionally a Ford taurus SHO motor in it, but i sold the car and now he is going to put a 302 in it.

Anyways back to the brat, i will get some pics of it tomorrow, and will let all of you see them. just remember the car does need its body work, and paint done, and the interior done, but it is drivable as it is. just doesnt appeal very well. rust isnt an object with the car, and not really any dents except for the front spoiler pan, and the left bottom of the passenger fender. will be replaced.

For those of you in here wanting to talk to me abou the car, just call me at 214-387-0337 and i wll usually be here working on one car or another as i have a 1971 Firebird getting ready to go on the road tomorrow.

or you can email me at shoquest2002@yahoo.com

 

thanks again for the great board and hopefully we can all learn something from one another.

later guys and gals....

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Ok i know thre is only three of them, but the rest got lost due to a hard drive crash, and so all i had is what was left on a floppy, so this is what you get for now, i will be in garland later today around 2, so when i back keep an eye out for more on page 3 of the USMB photo album. album name 78 Turbo Brat.

:clap: :clap: :banana: :banana: :clap: :clap:

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so what did you do about putting the ea82t between the framerails. i have put ea82's in ea81 bodies, but was told that they dont fit in ea71 bodies.

i am going to help attempt a turbo swap into an spfi 4x4 wagon this weekend. i believe there is a lot of the wiring harness that has to be separated from the rest........

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the wiring gave me a headache for three days, i took all of the wiring out of the as i stand corrected by the other owner of the brat, a 89 GL-10 wagon. not 91 AS I THOUGHT PREVIOUSLY. hooked the computer up, and layed it all out on the floor in the shop, started to untape all the wiring and proceded to pull the wiring apart to get only what i needed. got rid of the lights, horn, wipers, windows, and anything else i wasnt going to need.just made sure what i was pulling apart didnt go back to a sensor on the motor or to the computer. when i was finnished i ended up with plenty of spare wire for anything else i wanted to do with for other things, like the panel that shows the doors are open, brake is on, or if it is in 4wd or not. pretty simple to hook up, just had run the wires and hook it all up. then once the wiring was done, i fed it through the hole in the body where the origional brat harness came through, and installed the computerso that it would go behind the glove box, keeping the greeen and brown connectors for timing and codes available. taking those i hooked them to a switch on each, so that i could just flip a switch and get codes, and check the timing. much easier then having to pull the glove box and dash out to gain accsess to them. the 4wd and 2wd are selected by a switch also, using a vacuum pump to change it into either. sounds like alot of switches there huh, well not really only one is visible for the fog lights, one for the 4wd 2wd mode. in a location on the dash that is made for switches using stock switches that go in a subaru. so it doesnt look gawdy or like it has been riged up by just a plain ole joe. alot of thought went into this car, alot of sweat in a shop with no ac in the summer time.i still have to take the harness out for the motor and clean it up some more, and tape it up, and put some fiber sheilding around it and so on, a guy at the local subaru dealer asked me what type of crack i was on when i thought this up, said good luck it cant be done. well i was out just for the fun of it, and to make a hell of a car that i could have fun in and laugh at all the other people who think they have a fast car liek the hondas and toyotas in our area, not to mention the mustangs, dont get me wrong i haved owned many cars, probably over 150 different ones of all makes and models, including my favorite a 85 MR2 supercharged, had to sell it, wasnt married to it. and was offered too much to hold on to it. to me cars come and go, but this brat is for life, it is too much fun to play with. if someone else wanted to build one i would be willing to help them out as much as i can, but im not going to do it for them, they have to get into it just as much as i do. the motor doesnt fit between the frame rails, it sits a little above them, and down enough to close the hood. teh wiring for the brats lights horn and so on are all on the brats harness, and just hooked together behind the alternator. to give power to both the brat and the motor harness. hope this clears up some info for you guys and gals.

but i will tell you if you do decide to do something like this get ready for the biggest headache in your life cause you will be constantly :banghead: but after a few :drunk: you will begin to see the sunshine and open raods ahead, it took a year fro us to get the car out of the shop just owrking on it during weekends, and the ocasional all nighter.

 

enjoy the feel of the boost, just take plenty of vicodin, that rear window is closer than previously thought. and it doesnt move it hurts.

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there can never be enough switches in a soob! so far i have pulled a hrness from a 78 brat, the harness from an 87 carbbed wagon, and a turbo harness from an 87 gl-10. i got a good idea of what you have done.

 

we put an ea82 carbbed motor into an 81 GLF hardtop. the motor fit without mods, and we drilled out the 2wd 5spd flywheel to mate with the ea82. some of the wiring we will have to figure out, switching to a distributor without the external wiring, and an internal regulator alternator. but some of the existing wiring so far includes house wiring with a plug in as a connector and a wall switch! fun little things like that to make the car interesting as it works.

 

one thing that still strikes my curiosity is the ea82 fitting between the (gen1)78 Brat framerail. my buddy wanted to put an ea82 in his 78 brat, and another guy said it wont fit in there without mods. so what was involved to actually shoehorn the motor in there?

 

and what are you running for suspensions. if i read right you are using ea82 ssupension pieces? i got ea82 parts in my 83 wagon, with some mods. i am interested in your design to compare!

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So do you still have the GL-10 carcass?

 

And where did you find a Turbo car down here? I have seen very few of them here.. and the 4 that I know of (mine included) all came from out of state

 

I would love to have a look at your Brat. You going to be around this weekend?

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Well i can only say in so many words is that the motor sits on top of the farme, not inside it, that is why you see the motor tilted at a slight angle. when i go to garland later today as in like 15 minutes or so, i will get more pics of it and post them in the album.

as for the wiring situation, we wanted to make this happen using nothing but the parts we had from both cars, and the steel we came up with to make it happen, so it was using what we had, and making it strong, and durable. of course now that the motor mounts are made up of other peices, i will take them and make some out of some steel and maybe a hydraulic type mount used on nissans, or as they call them liquid filled. so the car wont have much drivetrain vibration as it has some now. from the almost solid mounts.

 

the wiring was used only cause i saw no purpose in spending money on something i had that i could make work, even if i used the whole harnnes and just hooked up all the lights and so on that way, but thought it would be better to not hurt the brat harness or frame and body to get this done, so that is why it is like a bolt in tied in situation, never know, someone may say i will give you a million dollars for that brat one day if i was to make it back to origional state, and i would just unbolt the motor tranny and rear pumpkin, and drop in the ea71 motor stuff, and hook it all back up and be done with it, noth that i will get that lucky.... but still. i wanted to be able to upgrade later, change, things, modify things, if i had to , and be able to do what i wanted to do.

 

so there it is in a nutshell. oh and my garage isnt empty, i have 2 -302 motors, two SHO motors, 99 350 vortec motor, hoist, engine stand, and a massive MAC Tools Macsimizer II tool box, top bottom, and side boxees, in my one car garage. toolbox stands 6 1/2 feet tall, 14 feet wide, and 3 1/2 feet deep. and full of goodys. backyard has a 95 lincoln geting a SHO motor, 87 Conquest getting a 302 bored .030 over, and some more goodies, and a 95 Pontiac Grand Prix, and a 1965 mustang coupe coming this weekend. going to get the other 302. no use for the 350 yet, how about in a brat.

 

oh yeah someone said suspension, its all brat suspension, and handles well, the only thing on the suspension i used from the wagon, was the hub on one front wheel direct fit, no mods there. the brats was stripped.

 

and CABLEBZ just call me, i will be around this weekend or during the week if you have time, and we can go let you check it out. :banana: im sure you wont be dissapointed....

 

 

later guys going to get more pics for you, i seem to have found a new drug, and you are all getting addicted to it. LOL

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