Crabman

Was waiting patiently for your response We're going to have to try the camping thing again now that your Brat is squared away.

4X4Brat, that winch isn't original is it? I'm having the hardest time imagining how that might mount. As far as I can tell, the original winch, just mounted to two holes on the winch bumper.

Yeah, as expected the superwinch "LT2000" is not a perfect match in terms of looks. Although, I suppose if you painted it yellow, it would be close enough. Thanks for the pic McBrat. LOL! Famous last words. I hope I'm never in that position either but you never know. I definitely want to do a little off-roading. But really I need the winch because whenever I go camping with S'ko, I always have to pull him out and sometimes tow him back to the highway Anyone know what kind of rating the original winch had, was it 2000lb? Thanks for the help everyone.

Hey All, I've been absent from the board for a while. Hope everyone is doing well. Had a really turbulent holiday season. Was laid off, then had another baby, then found work. Not much time for subaru stuff. But now that I am working again, I bought myself a present. I'm getting a high roll bar for my '79 brat. I already have the winch bumper, so all I need to complete the winch accessory package is the winch itself. Now I know that I'll probably never find an original winch, though I am trying to keep my brat as orignal as possible. I have been told that 'Superwinch' still makes the same winch that was used on the brats, its their '2000 lb ATV' winch. Can anyone confirm that this is correct?? Not only do I want it to look original, but I'd love it to be useful too. The Superwinch website says that your winch should be able to pull 1.5 times the weight of your car, so what would that be, 3750 lbs or something? Well if anyone has any info out there, like specs on the original winch, nice pictures of the original winch, actually has an original winch on their gen 1, or just any general advice and recommendations, I'd love to hear them. Nice to be back, Crabman

Nothing I can think of, but lets see what the other members have to say. Might be a good opportunity to replace vacuum hoses and what not, but I can't think of anything in the carb you'd need that's not going to be in the kit.

Heck its easy, well within the scope of an amateur mechanic. The kits even come with instructions. One thing that the kts don't tell you is that some of the gsaket surfaces warp, especially the ones by the fiber spacer. Sometimes they need to be resurfaced, but this is easy and can be accomplished with a nice long file. Trust me. Your problem sounds soo identical to what I just went through. And I wound up troubleshooting and inspecting everything else before I addressed the carb. And now its a whole new machine. Its never run better.

Hate to be redundant. Mine was missing to till I rebuilt the carb. The plugs were also showing that it was running very lean.

Wow what a great score! Interior looks really decent. All the dashes are cracked at this point, but that one not so bad. Is that an fabbed up roll bar? I have a low one in my brat, it looks different somehow. Can't believe it has the tailgate trim.

Had similar problem just a little while ago in my 79 brat. Rebuilt the carb and that fixed that! Now she just purrs. And I think it may actually pass emissions too. Had trouble finding the rebuild kit at first. But they actually had it at Kragen.

Mike, thanks for the explanation. Only thing is that those fat case heads I have with the one "AI" port, actually have the EGR port on the back side of the head too. So I'm pretty sure that's not what the topside port is for. As for now, I think my only option is to plug that top port, get her tuned up real well, keep my fingers crossed, and hope she passes smog. If she doesn't, it'll have to be Plan B, which hasn't really formed yet.

Wow, thanks GLCraigGT, I couldn't ask for better info. Best, Crabman

Hey All, I normally post in the historic forum, but I'm guessing the knowledge for this question is over here. I have an NOS Hitachi Carb (DCP306-3) that was standard equipment on the 1980 wagon with automatic transmission. I want to stick it on my '79 brat, because its current Hitachi carb seems to be in bad shape. In comparing the two carbs tonight, there's a couple of nipples that are in different locations, and I'm just trying to figure out what they connect to. So anybody out there with this carb or similar, can you take a look at the pictures and run out to your car to let me know where these lines hook up? I am hoping that they both hook up to the big triangular thing on the front of the manifold. But I gotta know for sure. The first nipple (first picture) is directly above the idle screw. What's it connect to? The second nipple is in the rear of the carb (second pic). It is righ next to those three servo diaphrams and seems to be the only other line connection back there. Does anyone know where this one goes? Any help, diagrams, pics, copies of manual pages, whatever would be greatly appreciated. Thank much, Crabman

So I've got the engine out of my '79 brat and now I can't stop myself from going over every nook and cranny. I've started cleaning up the intake manifold and so tonight I was disconnecting and labelling vacuum lines. Now I'm not sure if this is normal or not, but twice when I was trying to pull a vacuum line off the carburetor, I wound up pulling the nipple out of the carb as well. Just kind of seemed like that shouldn't happen, but I am not sure? The nipples don't look damaged or anything, they just came out after a little pull. Do I just stick 'em back in, or does this indicate something bad about my carb? Thanks much, Crabman

I just wanted to stick a couple of pics up, since I got it looking so good! Turned into much more than replacing heads. Cleaned it up, little paint here and there. Stuck a new oil pump, water pump, and alternator on. Wish I had time to go over the whole car like this.

Hey Mike, I was assuming that the one AI port was because they were JDM. Since JDM stuff normally has less emission stuff, this just made since to me (1 is less than 4). So for clarification let me get this straight: 1. EA81 engines only have one AI port. 2. And this AI port is connected to the the intake manifold? Or the air filter? My original AIS connects to the air filter. I searched the forums and have gotten some conflicting info on how important an AIS is for passing emissions. As of right now, my plan is to plug the port and give it a try. I found a cheap and decent oil plug that has the right thread pitch at rock auto. It should work perfectly with the right crush washer. If anyone wants the part number, just let me know. If I can't get her to pass smog, I'll have to rethink my whole strategy. Mike - I sent you a PM about the heads. My plan has always been to have one EA71 to pass smog, and one that has been modified, so that I can keep up with Los Angeles traffic . As of right now, I am weighing my options between building two different engines. One would be a modified EA71 with a hot cam and a weber. I would need heads for those. The other would be to rebuild this EA71/EA63 hybrid that I picked up in the desert. Only probelm with the latter is that the EA63 heads have been modified to accept dual weber 48 IDAs, which would be completely bad-rump roast, but I can't find them used for less than $800 a set. Other than that, engine should go in this weekend. Thanks for your help everyone. Cheers, Crabman.

Hey Mike, Thanks for the info. Those heads actually are from a JDM fatcase, but they have mated perfectly with my EA71 thin case. Only difference I am worried about is the air injection system, which is part of emission control. On my original EA71, the heads were tapped at each intake valve for the air injection system. On my JDM heads only the right side cylinder no. 3 has the air injection port. I am just planning on plugging that hole before I run it. But if anyone has the JDM, or 1-port air injection set up, I'd love to buy it off you. Undoubtedly it would help with smog. BTW Mike. Everyone who said to take the engine out was right. Those studs were so crudded up with gunk, there was no way those heads were going to come off any other way. I'm so glad I took it out. S'ko and I got her cleaned up real good, I am going to update the thread with pictures of it before I put it back in. Hey and one more thing, have you got any decent EA71 heads that you don't need? I've been going through my inventory, I have everything I need to put together a 'spare' EA71, except a decent set of heads. Thanks all, Tony

Thanks Todd. What is the tool usually called on ebay?

Thanks for the tip. I'll look for some of that pentex 1B. I think I totally get what you are saying about the rocker rail posts, and I have some spares sitting around. That's a great idea. I never would have thought of that. THANKS EVERYONE!! I let you know how it goes!

Well without the special socket what would the best practice be? I guess my plan is to torque up all the head nuts first, then put the rocker arm assemblies on and torque those up? Will this work OK? Thanks for the help and advice everyone.

First off let me say that everyone who said to pull the engine out was absolutely correct. There was no way those heads were going to come off any other way. They were completley held up on a couple of studs, that were loaded up with gunk. Let me tell you, that was a serious PITA, even with the engine out of the car. Thanks to S'KO BTW, for bringing over his bag of tricks. Anyway, I've got another set of heads, back from the machine shop, I'm reading through the book and I got a couple of questions. 1. The book says since my head gaskets aren't sticky, I'm supposed to use "head gasket sealer". Does anyone have any recommendations? 2. Do you just torque up all the heads bolts first, then put the rocker arms on and torque those nuts? The book says something about a special 17mm subaru socket, but its not clear to me if I really need that or not. Thanks much in advance everyone. Cheers, Crabman.

Hey welcome to the board. Your brat sounds sweet! I can't seem to find the pics with the new format of the message board?

Thought it'd be appropriate to chime in here. I picked up an engine that sounds similar to this set up. The heads are very modified 1400 3 port. They are set up to accept dual Weber 48 IDAs as far as I can tell. When I tore it down, I found major damage to the block. Turns out whoever built the thing had the wrong cam in there. Not to mention the engine had held water at one point. I've attached some pics. I have two things to say: 1. Does anyone have an early 1400 cam for sale? One that came out of an engine that had the 3 port heads (dual exhaust port heads)? 2. If not, anyone out there interested in making an offer for the heads? Cheers, Crabman

Thanks for all the advice. I bet you fellas would appreciate a little bit of background info. You may understand my situation better. Its actually really humorous. But this all started out with a bad water pump. Whch I had a spare for. So I go to replace it, and the top two bolts break off into the water pipe on top of the engine. Tried to extract them, but they were so corroded and brittle, it was impossibe. This bums me out for a little while, before I realize I have a spare water pipe too. And I realize to replace that, I just have to take the intake manifold off in order to get to it. Out of the six bolts, that hold on the intake manifold, three break off into the heads. I've extracted bolts before. I know how to do it. I tried with the patience and skill of a surgeon. These damn bolts are fused in the heads, rendering them useless. But I've got spare heads too, from a JDM EA71. I just dropped them off at the machine shop tonight. Only thing I am worried about is the JDM heads have only one inlet for the air suction system, where as my original set of heads have four. I just plan to plug that one hole and see how she runs. You know, she's my daily driver, and I just want to get her back on the road. I have pulled the engine before, I just replaced the clutch, rear seal, and pressure plate a little while ago. I don't have a hoist, though I could borrow one. I have a wife and very young children that consume a lot of my time. If I can do it quicker without removing the engine, I have to go that route. But I do appreciate all of the advice. I'll let everyone know how it goes:D

Thanks Frank. I'm going to look for those holes tonight.

Hey all, Glad the board is back up and running. Good work to everyone involved! I have to do some work on the heads of my '79 Brat, and I'm looking to save a little time and cut some corners. I'm wondering, does anyone know: Is it possible to pull these heads off and on without removing the engine from the bay? Looks like it might be doable, but I want to find out first, before I commit to a certain strategy. All advice and suggestions are welcome. Thanks Much, Crabman