Twitch de la Brat

My mechanic got the rear bearing done, rear brakes still sound awful and the engine decided to shred something inside. 308k and its gone from nickel and dime to all out dollar ripping. But there's too much into the car to let it die now. Twitch

Thankfully they ended up having insurance. But the insurance adjuster doesn't know what its like to pour your life into a vehicle. So I had to go to a lawyer :-\ I'll keep y'all updated. Twitch

I stared at it. I swept some snow off of it. I cried a little bit inside. Twitch

I believe there is a thread in the offroad section that covers your question. Twitch

This is one of those heavily asked questions. A little searching and a little reading will take you far. As for this one, I'll toss you a freebie. Only other manufacturer that used the 4x140 bolt pattern was Pugeot, specifically on the 504 and 505 models. Good luck hunting some of those down with proper fitting lugnuts (yes, you need the factory Pugeot Lugnuts to make most of the wheels work, and yes, luckily enough the thread size and pitch is the same). Anyway, welcome to the forum, take care of your new baby. I'll be ressurecting my 85 in the future. Twitch

A quick discourse on Subaru Drivetrains. All EA stuff (Loyale, GL, XT, RX) from 1981 to 1994 (last year of the loyale) is swappable. You just need to match turbo vs non-turbo. There may be a few oddballs here and there, but they're very rare to come across. As long as its EA81/82 it'll cross over. The first gen Legacy stuff is a little different, but most of the diff stuff is the same, or similar enough it can be made to work with little effort. So, as for your question of will this diff fit here and that diff fit there, as long as you match turbo with non-turbo and keep track of your diff ratios and generations, you'll be fine. A little searching goes a long way, plus there are several FAQ's located through the forum that deserve some reading. Twitch

Don't forget to cinch it down tighter than a rubber belt. They don't grab quite as well and will need extra tension to keep everything working as it should. Twitch

If you snag an agricultural belt that's the right length, it might last longer. They tolerate off kilter applications much better than a regular rubber belt. And not to sounds like a broken record, but your local farm and feed store should have LED marker lights that are quite easy to plunk in. The reflector portion adds a bit of safety too. I'll pop a picture up of my BRAT's setup if I can find one. Twitch

Mine isn't capabable of being straightened out. The subframe behind the cab buckled and the cab is so tweaked the doors will probably never open again. But by no means am I giving up on it. It will totally different than everyone remembers when I'm done though. Twitch

He was driving without a license, without proof of insurance and without sobriety And idk if I'll find another. It was my baby. I've poured my soul into it over the last 4 years. And a side note, if you look you can see an outline of a toolbox sitting in the back seat on the driver's side. That box had been sitting right in front of the tailgate before the accident. Had I not had my seats in I probably would have taken a fully loaded toolbox to the back of the head. My baby did its job and saved me. Had I been in anything smaller or worse designed I may not have been walking away from that accident. Twitch

Good idea. The guy that hit me didn't have a license or proof of insurance. I may have to use my uninsured driver insurance to cover my medical bills and and to get me another car. And if all else fails I'm going to a lawyer. Twitch

Got rear ended in my baby I fear she may never be drivable again. I'm dealing with some back pain and a sore head from hitting it when I got hit, but otherwise I'm ok. Twitch

Same problem only I've already rebuilt/reinforced my pedal box. I really don't want to snap my new clutch cable (3rd one from having a collapsing pedal box) and I'm getting sick of grinding every gear. Continuing to adjust but I'm running out of cable. I've run all the standard diagnostic stuff to see if I can kill it but it just comes back after every adjustment. My setup is a tad different than stock though, I'm rolling with an 85 5sp d/r, EA82 flywheel machined to XT6 specs with an XT6 clutch. I've noticed some odd seepage of goop around the bellhousing seams, so it makes me wonder if my clutch is coming apart :-/ Any thoughts? Twitch

They're not that tough to deal with And with that info, this could be interesting. Hmmmm... Twitch

Good points. I forgot about the A-arms. I bet they probably had a beam axle in those Dolphins. Handling wasn't as big of a concern as weight hauling. If it does have a beam axle, that would be a lot easier to deal with than IFS. I wonder how much space you'd have to work with if you had to lift the transmission up to meet the engine. Those tranny tunnels can't be that big :-/ And custom fabbing something in may be more difficult if not impossible because of it being a motorhome (extra lines and wires and such). Where is the clutch fork located on those? Is it aimed downward, upward or sideways? And shifter linkage can't be different from a Subaru.. Twitch

And with a 2WD that space is pretty much empty up front, unless it has a beam across the front for stability purposes. I've so far been unable to study the dolphin chassis. Notching the frame shouldn't be too difficult nor too structurally dangerous as long as the gaps are filled and everything is shored back up. And if its a little scary you can always add reinforcing plates/beams. Any other thoughts from the Yota guys? Brian? Zap? If I can find a cheap Dolphin (they're pretty prevalent around here) I'll be looking at a motor swap for that poor underpowered 22R... Twitch

So now that we have Bill's epic bellhousing adapter, I was thinking. People like to put 4.3 vortec's into Toyota pickups. A Toyota Dolphin uses their pickup chassis. A 3.3H6 makes more power than a 4.3V6 and probably gets better mileage. We have a bellhousing adapter to bolt a 3.3 to a Toyota W series transmission. The Dolphins often came with the W series 5 speed. Can you fit a 3.3 between the frame rails on a Toyota? And if not, is it that difficult to cut out the notches and weld in fresh steel? So, in all that rambling, do you think it'd be reasonably possible to shoehorn a 3.3, or any Subaru motor for that matter, into a Toyota Dolphin (motorhome)? Twitch

Well, this motor has at least 270,000 miles on it and its been rather abused (extended periods at 4k or above) and for some reason since the mudpit at WCSS, I've been losing bolts left and right :-/ And they all have been baffling. Lost a tranny detent bolt and now my valve cover bolts. I'm going to go through and tighten everything. Next thing I'll lose will be a headbolt :-/ Twitch

So far only angry lifters. No real carnage to report unless I lose a rod bearing or a main. The angry lifters have settled down so far and no major issues aside from an ongoing cooling issue (bad radiator cap). I have newfound respect for the EA81. Twitch

That Did that to itself while driving. I was wondering what all that clatter was under the hood. I'll have any carnage pictures in the morning, I'm so done right now I don't want to even look at it. Twitch

@Subynut Oh come on, you didn't want your car to sound like the BRAT I don't blame you. I'm probably going deaf from the thing anyway. Haven't done much aside from drive it, look at it, spray it with a hose and abuse it :-/ Twitch

I read your build thread and was most impressed by it. Very valuable info and I may link to it for another variety of a frankenmotor. The reason I'm not going the route you did is because I have an EJ22E in my car from the factory, not an EJ25D. Swapping out the heads and the intake and the exhaust would be more hassle than to just swap the block, plus the lower hp number. And in my case with fresh heads and a shot block, I'm not going to keep the crap and toss the good, if you know what I mean Thank you for replying and you may see your info pop up in this thread. Twitch

The only reason why I was thinking a hone was because of some crud that has found its way into the cylinders (open block, no heads, not the best storage conditions) so a basic hone would be more than enough to clean the crud out and take any surface rust off. But I guess Brillo pads will do the same with less work Anyway, it didn't need bearings when I received the block and sitting around probably didn't kill them, so I think I'll just clean up the block and put it together. Any recommended cleaners for oil passages and coolant passages? Twitch

Now that I have this thread up, I'm going to post my question. I have a block with 140k on it (unknown history but still in good shape visually, no known specs on the tolerances yet) and recently rebuilt heads (15k or so) for my frankenmotor. Now, it was recommended to me to replace the rings, rod bearings and main bearings before I do the swap, because he claims that there is a good likelihood that I'll be replacing them in a year or so anyway because of the upped compression. It was running when pulled, although it may have been overheated once. The cylinders do need to be honed, but I may be able to do that without cracking the case on the engine. So, would you say to pull it apart and rebuild it? Even for a backyard mechanic like myself or should I just hone it and throw it together? Twitch

Figured we could use a frankenmotor thread in the NA performance forum Now, for general information to those who don't know what a frankenmotor is, its (typically) an EJ25D (96-99 Legacy/OB 2.5L) short block with EJ22E (90-97 Legacy 2.2L) heads and EJ22E intake and exhaust. There are variations upon this basic setup (reversal of the block and heads for example) but this is generally what people refer to when they say "frankenmotor" in the EJ section. Now, here comes the why. Why would somebody take the time to do this? Well, most of the time its because somebody either needs to rebuild an EJ22E and they want more power or because they simply want more power without a turbo. Because its a high compression motor and builds more power (typically) than a standard EJ22E and is less complicated than swapping in the rare (but impressive) EJ22T or the EJ25D (which is headgasket prone). Some estimates put it at 170hp and 180ft lbs of torque, making it one of the most potent NA 4 cylinder engines you can put into a Subaru, not to mention there have been (unofficial) reports of improvement in fuel economy (as long as you can keep your foot out of the throttle ). Let the discussion begin! Twitch