The Beast I Drive

Na, I was driving a '85 with a straight axle and black wheels, small lift and a roll bar. I flipped the peace sign -Bill

the EA81 and D/R 4 speed werent available until '81, and the '81-82 4 speed D/R have lower 3rd and 4th gears than the 83-89 4 speeds. Whoever swapped the D/R and EA81 into your Brat must have used one from an 81 or an 82. -Bill

Hey man, I passed you in town on Thursday, I was in the blue Toyota on my way to Mt. Vernon. Your rig's lookin pretty good. -Bill

Hatchbacks are lighter than Brats to begin with, have a shorter wheelbase, and are a lot more common and can be had for cheap almost anywhere. Brats have the worst departure angle of any Gen 2, and have some collector value building, and just wouldnt be the best thing to destroy on the trails Scott would be using it on. -Bill

Lower the weight, yes. Lose tires size, nay. You've seen it yourself, the bigger tires really make all the difference in some situations. I found even the most amazingly aggressive 37" ATV tires to be just too small to be effective in a lot of situations. For the best weight and departure angle, you'd want a gutted EA81 Hatch body. Shave as much sheetmetal as you like, replace sections of the floor with aluminum, cut out the whole center of the roof and use a canvas center like a Model A, and holesaw speedholes anywhere that wont affect the structural integrity of the chassis. 8" lift, modified/reinforced EA82 front suspension, modified stock rear torsion bar assembly (widened to EA82 specs to use EA82 axles) and all the other goodies outlined in my first post. Driving style and experience makes all the difference in most cases..... -Bill

I just noticed the hood vents seem to have some kind of trim on them that Ive never seen on a Gen 1 hood before, you wouldnt happen to have close up pics of those would you? -Bill

IIRC, the CR with RX gears, 1.59 low range and 4.444 gears was like 23.something:1, or real close to stock Toyota gearing. With 31" tires, which is stock on most newer Toyotas, thats a huge improvement over stock Subaru numbers, and enough to go almost anywhere. Or at least anywhere a stock Toyota with a 3" lift could go... -Bill

EA82 chassis 4.444 JDM Forester D/R case, tailsection, ring and pinion shafts EA82 D/R 1.59:1 reduction gears RX drive gears 1-5 clutch LSD front diff welded 4.444 rear 8" lift 31" tires EJ22 or hi-po EA81 reinforced stock control arms 6-lug swap Best you can do with Subaru parts, with a body that is common enough no one cares how trashed it gets. -Bill

I believe what he is trying to do is use EA81 axle shafts with EA82T inner DOJ's, and EJ or XT6 Outer CV's. -Bill

Try to keep it that way, eh? -Bill

If you get an itch to tear down the tranny again, I would swap in the low range gears from a regular 3.9 D/R trans, so you have the low reduction and the shorter RX gearing:banana: I was wondering when the first 3.9 RX/XT6 trans would be put together... Now I just need to put together my 4.11 AWD D/R, and get a custom pinion made for my 4.444 project -Bill

Thats a pretty nice looking car, any mods planned for it besides de-tinting it? -Bill

That is a pretty good looking Brat, are you gonna keep it that same shade of craptastic green? And yes, I do lifts for these, in 4", 6", or 8" flavors -Bill

Use a small triangle file and file the threads on the end until you can get the nut to thread on, use the edges of the file to get down into the threads. Shouldnt take too long, I do this to fix buggered up threads on axles. -Bill

its not just a personalized plate, its an antique/collector vehicle plate, meaning that Brat is exempt from practically everything. -Bill

Awesome *free* towmotor forklift with a blown HG. Still gets the job done, its big enough to pick up a fully loaded EA82 wagon. -Bill

Reminds me of my favorite inspirational quote: "Lambo doors- so overplayed even Lambos don't have them" -Bill

Did you get those shift boot rings I sent to Ben? -Bill

Yeah I have a Hi-flow electric pusher fan in front of the radiator on the side the stock electric fan once was. This car did have A/C and a clutch fan at one time, but all that was removed. Right now the electric fan runs full time, but Im gonna rig up another that comes on with a thermoswitch as well, just for security on those hot summer days. I dont want this motor to blow, but if it does, I have an EJ22 sitting in the shop that needs a home..... -Bill

Ive had the filter on and off, and when i drive it, it runs kinda lethargic until I hit the secondary, then it stumbles a little and takes off like a rocket... So Im pretty sure its the jets... I do plan od putting a tall filter on later though, but the shorty is what came with the Weber kit. -Bill

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyKZksQrilo All I have for exhaust in this vid is the stock Y-pipe with a gutted cat I think these cams would work fine in a SPFI motor, but IIRC FI and Carb have different grinds, so you'd have to order them for SPFI. I ordered mine for carb. Also, if you have bigger tires, I would get the Torque grind, as the HP grind is more for high RPM power (2000-4800RPM IIRC). My mom doesnt use this off-road at all, so the HP cams were the best choice. But if I convince her to let me lift it, Torque cams will be swapped in -Bill

Full size spare is on the to-do list, after the wheels get powdercoated BTW this car looks Really good after she washes it, it still has all the clearcoat and it all shines like new and the interior is flawless -Bill

Well, nothing special, just got done re-sealing and installing another EA82 into my mom's 86 GL wagon. I also Weberized it, cleaned up the manifold, and added Delta Camshaft Horsepower grind cams. It runs great, but I need to re-jet the Weber, with the new cams the motor starves for fuel when I want it to go, and there is a noticible hesitation between the primary and the secondary. Cruise still works The Car: Old engine: New engine Actually swapping the old motor out and the new one in took less than half a day, I drove it in in the morning and drove it out that night I have a video uploading now that I will have on here shortly. What I still need to do is finish the exhaust, re-jet the Weber, re-tune it, and then it will be ready to go -Bill

Unfortunately it will not work with A/C, so if you want to keep AC you will need an EA81 PS setup. -Bill

holesaw a pair of holes somewhere on the passenger side firewal near the floor, and get some rubber grommets to fit, then run your pipes through there and along the driveshaft hump to the radiator. Or with a lift, you can run them under tha car in the transmission/driveshaft tunnel, then make the holes to come in under where the back seat bottom is. -Bill