The Beast I Drive

Well, I didnt get around to rebuilding the carb today, but I got it running better but who knows how long THAT will last... I adjusted the valves, which did help a little, and I put in a second fuel filter on the pre-pump side, but then I decided to play with my carb some more and turns out I was running the idle jet just 1/2 turn too lean... Before I would get this really bad dead spot if I tried to push the throttle just past idle, like the accelerator pump was flooding out the motor or something, but now I dont have that... Distributer gonna have to be replace, starting to get a little bit of shaft play :-\ so Ill have to build me another one... It runs much better, but its still a little rough, but it creeps a lot better now still getting a lot of rust sediment in the filters... it builds up FAST As for the gas tank, I could pull it, clean it, and coat it, and I think it definitely needs it. I'll prolly pull a tank off one of my other Brats that dont run so i have less downtime, and get me some of that stuff Connie has tried... Would be cool to have a bladder made for it but again thats big bucks that would be well spent on something else... We take care of the Coyote problem out here too, my buddy's uncle owns a large portion of the rattlesnake hills as a ranch and he told us to get rid of any coyotes. Even gave my buddy a brand new Savage .223 with a glass bedded stock and adjustable trigger (and a crappy scope :-\) Yeeha -Bill

Is this for an EA81 or EA82? I build lifts, and I have a pair of 4" strut lift blocks for an EA82 built and sitting, guy traded them cuz he wanted 5" in the front instead of 4". $40 plus shipping if they are what you need. -Bill

I have no love for new cars... Period. Id love to have a police intercepror, and I almost did, but some B**** at the auction bought ALL 12 OF THEM!!!!! and they were all '03-04 models :mad: Other than a Police cruiser I really dont have any desire to own anything newer than 1987... I cant really say I was hard on Rusty before this stupid carb/running like crap problem started, now Ive been flogging it hard trying to make something happen... Not sure what, but I just want some kind of results... Even if its a rod sticking out of the block. I drove that Brat like an old lady until this. Yeah I beat the snot outa all my other cars... Offroaders cant be babied... Im just really annoyed with this Brat, its doing the same thing now as it was last night before I pulled the carb. I just filled up on new gas too. I think I might run up to Triangle auto and get me a rebuild kit, in the meantime Ill swap the Weber from the Beast onto it and see what happens And before ANYONE suggests it, there is no chance ever of this being EJ swapped or converted to FI of any kind. For 1, the EA71 is 1" narrower than an EA81, so SPFI manifold wont fit. EJ swap wont happen cuz its not worth it in this car and I dont want to notch the frame. I understand carbs, they are simple to me, and I have 4 or 5 webers here to mix and match. I can do that for almost nothing, except for my time. Im just irritated that nothing I do has gotten results. Hopefully adjusting the valves will help, Im letting the engine cool off and then its off to do that -Bill

Oh I know exactly whats up with the tank... Its got rusty silt in it BAD. I replaced your filter with a clear OEM replacement... 2 days ago, and it was full of rust tonight. So I replaced it with another one tonight. I got a bunch of NOS stuff from Robbie, so i have some extra filters... The fuel pump works fine, but It could be the alternator going bad, now that i think of it... had the same symptoms in other rigs when that happened... Oh well 100 amp swap is emminent... -Bill

And dont get me wrong, I love to work on my cars,its what I live to do, but when i have done the same thing 3 times in 4 days, and fry my brain to solve a legitimate problem, and then it "magically" goes away after everything I try fails, its really frustrating.... On a side note, we did find a hog tonight, so that was pretty fun... -Bill

Its a straight up love/hate relationship, with all my subies. Love the cars, hate the hell that they put me through trying to keep them alive and well The Beast- my first sube, first lift, first wheeler, so Ive had all kinds of Bull**** happen with that one... It never ends The RX... Yeah. We all know how that one turned out... My black Brat... I guess for a car that was once in a junkyard its in remarkably good shape... Doesnt burn oil but I get to replace lots of abused parts :-\ This Brat (rusty)- Got a flat on my trailor on the way home with it, for starters. Its been a money pit since then, I have over 350 buck just into the brakes!!!! the front calipers were 100 bucks each and so far Ive had to re-tune/diagnose the engine every other day this week, this would be the 3rd time so far... But I love it, it really reminds me that I do live on the reservation, I only really get the indian radio station in town and overall I love the car. But it loved to make me hate it :-\ My hatch was cool, till it made noises, so I... made it into another ongoing project Then theres my American cars The lincoln- Balls to the wall, when the trans doesnt slip... also has a strange electrical fault in the column... keeps the 4 ways kinda on all the time... Blew a 350 in my 73 pick up... rod is hangin out the oil pan... I also really liked that truck... My 63 chevy pick up runs great, has an awesome sound system, but the gas tank leaks and the brakes... need work, to say the least... My F-250 turned expensive real fast... eirgo it aint done yet... I could go on, but you get the idea... -Bill

Seriously, almost every car I own loves to play mind games with me and mess with my head. So I got my '80 Brat running good yesterday, nice and smooth, good power, ran good at all rpms, everything was perfect. Today, it ran great all day, until about 7:30 or 8. I was up driving the hills searchin for some wild hogs and it would not run for ************ at just off idle, so when i tried to creep it just sputtered and lurched (really annoying). So when I got home, I started checking it out. No vacuum leaks anywhere, I sprayed the whole manifold with carb cleaner. Timing is set at 8 BTD like it should be. So I liberally applied carb cleaner to the carb, like I did last night, which worked that time. This time it only seemed to make it worse. So I changed the fuel filter again, I just changed it last night, but it was already full of sediment... Nothing. So I pull the Weber and tear it down, clean it up real good, and re-assemble it... Ran worse than before. At this point Im seriously screaming WTF at the top of my lungs, wondering why this car wont cooperate with me, Ive done nothing wrong to this car (yet) and I like it alot. So I figure what the hell, Ill take it for a test drive. I try to creep out my driveway, and its doin the same thing it did before I started working on it tonight, so I decide to punch it and see what happens... OMG it somehow grew balls because it could give Turbone's RX a challenge Im like WTF did I do, it all of a sudden got REALLY quick... It loves WOT, and after a couple passes, it idles perfect again, and runs amazing it still doesnt like to creep very well, but it is a million times better now than it was this evening. I have no clue what I did that made the difference, its like punching the gas and redline shifting it a few times seems to have auto-tuned it into a race car... I just dont understand how something so simple can make things so difficult sometimes... Tomorrow I plan to adjust the valves, they are a bit noisy... So we will see what happens after that... Maybe I should just leave it alone and maybe it will be good to me Sorry for the rant, but I just had to get it out, this car has been mentally terrorizing me since the day I got it. I love it to death though, it must just be cranky old man syndrome on the part of the car -Bill

Just registered, signed up to bring my newest brat, but I might change my mind... We will see... -Bill

The way I see it, if youre taking the trans apart to weld the front diff, thats cool as long as its never going to be street driven, I could see possible issues with that... But if it could be a multi purpose vehicle, then a good quality LSD would be the thing to swap in, although they are not cheap, I think i read the cheapest one was over 400 bucks which is why I will probably just run welded rear diffs and open fronts, until I build the subframe for my Brat, and run a T case, then I can have a rear LSD in the front and a welded rear -Bill

Ya know, there is a thread on here somewhere about front LSDs... the Legacy/impreza LSDs that you can buy aftermarket (clutch type, viscous type) are available and will fit in the EA gearbox... Apparently the EJ 5mts and EA5mts have the same front diff... -Bill

One of the first things I do is go down to Schwabs and get me a new set of tires, every rig, every time, unless I have a decent set of used ones layin around already. And I always carry a spare and some kind of jack and lugwrench Ive been there, thats why I do what i do -Bill P.S. thank you for not trashing those rims, I still want those if you ever decide to part with them

Prolly they were some kind of JDM speed parts company's product, and they prolly stopped making them back in the early 90's (like everything else that was cool) so good luck finding those, they would be sweet to have! -Bill

For the record All EA82 models with factory AC had the fan on the water pump as well as an electric fan from the factory. The secondary fan would come on at a certain temp or if the AC was on. all the EA82 motors Ive ever seen (including non-AC) had the waterpump fan, but the non-AC units did not have the electric fan. No EA81s that I know of had a mechanical fan of any kind. Nor did the EA71s AFAIK. EA81s that came with factory AC were equiped with dual electric fans, the secondary would come on when the AC was engaged only. This is about as much as I know about the subject, other than if you had dealer installed AC there could be some differences, each dealer had the discretion to do their own thing as long as it worked right. My '80 Brat had dealer AC and only 1 fan :-\ -Bill

Everything I built for this lift is lifted the same amount, so its 6" on the struts, 6" on all the crossmembers, 6" at the diff, etc... It will settle, it just doesnt have any weight on it yet... -Bill

You are in luck, I have the flywheel, pressure plate, and clutch from that 1400 trans I dont think Ill be needing it, Im hooking my motor to an RX trans -Bill

The camber will be about stock when he gets the motor in it and rolls it out, my strut blocks are camber corrected -Bill

Does the 1100 bellhousing bolt up to the 1400 tranny I sold you? Im just curious... -Bill

Looks good man, now just need some meaty tires on it! Glad you like the lift, another satisfied customer -Bill

Actually I used the new disty I built for the Beast, so I have to make a new one for it before I can get it to move on its own power... The coil is brand spankin new though, as are the plugs, wires, cap and rotor. I think Im gonna have to install some relays, Ive noticed that on all the Gen 1 Brats I have here, the lower plug on the back of the fuse panel is always melted to some extent. I replaced the plug on this one with a less-melted one, but I think something more permanent needs to be done... -Bill

My assumption would be to make up for cylinder wear, there isnt enough meat in the block to bore them out to a diameter that would gain you condsiderable cubes, or power for that matter... -Bill

I dont know, but I have 2 motors with those pistons, ones a post 80 and ones a pre 80, and Id be willing to bet I have a couple other motors that have those pistons, and I have 2 more of those pistons but oversized still new in the box... They are all EA71s, Ive seen both the flat smooth ones and the ones with the raised center and dimples... On a side note, my 1400 has flat-tops as well... -Bill

I dont really know what would be best piston wise, maybe RAM engines can help a little with that info, they seem to be the leaders in hi-po small cube Boxers for the eviation comunity... At a premium price :-\ -Bill

Well I didnt get around to workin on the roll bar, but I did accomplish a few other things Got a handle installed and working on the tailgate Got a sliding rear window installed Threw in a spare tire after I tuned it and adjusted the clutch Replaced the stock battery cables with ones i made out of ultra heavy-duty 220V welder ground cables Pulled most of the carpet out of the bed, exposing the rust :-\ and hosed it out. This is the bung i plugged, I had a hose on it before for the HVAC, but I had it hooked up to the fuel return line instead and i was too lazy to hook it up right. My heater core is bad anyway, waiting for the replacement to come, and its summer, so HVAC operation is not important to me right now Unfortunately, I discovered the reason I was smelling burning brakes every time I stopped is because my passenger front calliper is seized and it will not let loose at all. Ill have to see if I can get some new calipers in the morning, as well as new rotors. Once I have the brakes fixed, then I can start using it as a daily driver. -Bill

Ok, finally got my laptop fixed and uploaded pics a couple days ago, so here is some more in-depth pics and details. All the pics can be found here http://s130.photobucket.com/albums/p241/87monster/ Here's a 1600 head on the left with a 1400 dual port head on the right This is the 1400 dual port head mounted on a Post-'80 1600 block. Note how small the head is compared to the mounting surface This is the 1600 headgasket on top of the 1400 headgasket. You can see how much smaller the bores of the 1400 are compared to the 1600. You can also see the coolant passages arent quite lining up Here's the 1600 headgasket on the 1400 Dual Port head. Again, you can see the difference in the coolant ports. Here's my EA71 Dual Carb manifold with stock carbs. Im going to go to single barrel Webers when I get it built, brand new they are less than 150 each and I might be able to get a wicked discount if I play my cards right Here is the stock 1400 manifold, I polished this up a bit and put it on my Brat with a Weber 32/36. This is before I did that The bar code from the Fat Case bellhousing The fat case bellhousing itself the 1400 headgasket on a 1600 head I have a full set of these, but I guess they arent JDM, all the motors I have heads off of have these pistons in them... And here's the 1400 manifold polished up a bit and installed in my Brat with the Weber -Bill

you will have to have some custom machine work done to use a 1400 flywheel on a 1600 crank, the 1400 has symetrical bolt holes, while the 1600 has the only-fits-1-way bolt pattern like the EA81s and EA82s. I do wonder if the 1400 crank would fit in the 1600... Oh I also finally got all my pics uploaded as well. Heres a link to all of them, Ill post a few here with some details. http://s130.photobucket.com/albums/p241/87monster/ -Bill