Kostamojen

-The rear fender wells were changed: The pugs were not so much of an issue as the 205/55 tires were. With 195/45's they wont stick out from the side of a 6" wide wheel so they will be pretty much "flush" with the rear fender. And with the modified rear fenders, the suspension will bottom out before the tires hit the fender. The problem with the 15's with the offset that the pugs have (~+25) is the front: Notice how far those wheels stick out even if the fat tires were not on there. However, I could pull the front fenders out, thats not too difficult to do... Now that wouldn't be an issue if I went with the custom steelie approach, since I could have the offset put exactly how I need it. Here is another photo of 14's, specifically the Enkei's on an FF-1. Notice how small they look, and the tires I would be using are even smaller than those: Right now, i'm leaning towards the 15's with custom steelies...

Alright, im at a critical juncture here... I absolutely need to decide on what tire size to run! I'm still 50/50 on going with 15" or 14" wheels, more specifically I either want to run 195/45/14"s or 195/45/15"s. Yes, I already have the 14" Enkeis, however they still need restoring (which costs money) and I'd have to have spacers made for the rear (which is an issue due to the studs). But the more I see 15" small profile tires, the more I like them. And I havent seen 15"s on any FF-1's. So basically, i've figured that each size has its positive and negative attributes: 195/45/14 tires (with either the Enkei wheels, or custom steelies) Positives - Plenty of clearance to fit them, will allow me to lower the car even more (over 1" of extra lowering due to tire diameter), will accelerate faster due to smaller diameter and lighter weight. Negatives - Will lower gearing ratio and screw up the speedometer a bit, also they look quite small on a car from the photos i've seen. 195/45/15 tires (with the Australian Superlights, or custom steelies) Positives - will fill out the wheel wells nicely, will probably look better on the car, won't screw up the speedo/gearing much. Negatives - more weight, won't lower the car any, with the Superlights they might not clear the front inner fender when turning. So basically, the 15"s (which I know will clear the fenders if I did custom wheels, they are not that large for 15" tires since they have the 45 series sidewall) might be better for driving the car in rough conditions and at higher speeds and the car and might look more porportional, but the 14's would let me lower the car more which might look better too... Either way, I still can't decide Basically, no matter which route I go, I still need to spend wheel money, and I can sell the Enkeis ASAP for cash which will go straight into any of the other wheel options... Thoughts/Opinions?

Power loss to the drivetrain reduces wheel HP which will effect top speed, but I didn't mean Top Speed as much as high-speed. All things equal, a RWD car will accelerate faster at higher speeds while an AWD car will accelerate faster from a start. Since this car doesn't have that much power, it won't take much to keep the traction from a launch, so RWD will just make it faster all around.

I posted that over in the ebay/craigslist section... I only need a couple parts, and a couple of those i'll have repaired. The driver side glass and the vent covers are all I really need, and i'm contemplating having someone fabricate custom vent covers.

Well the drums I ordered didn't pan out... They are totally different The hub mounts differently, the height is different, everything is different... Has any other year FWD Subaru had Aluminum rear drums??? Anyway, I did get another suggestion that might help with the wheels. I'll look into that and report back later...

Alright, well, I still need to figure out IF I can even use the gauges before I go ahead and do a whole harness and new gauges... I did more searching, and found a couple threads about the "senders" included with the gauges. Aparently some people use adapters for the Water temp gauge sender, since its a BPT and the Subaru one is a NPT or something like that. What exactly are the two threads and whats needed to adapt it? And regarding the oil temp sender, it just needs a re-thread right? So any machine shop can do it? I'm still not certain about the fuel level gauge or the speedo with the mechanical wire yet... I need more information about those.

Ooh, I think I found something: http://www.painlessperformance.com/webcatalog/largeview.php?SearchField=30301 Its a universal gauge wiring harness! Basically, all the wiring for the gauges if I were to use them Pretty cool. Even does the turn signal indicator lights! I'd just need the fuse box to go with that I guess.

Just a heads up... The winter 2009 issue of Drive Magazine (by Subaru) has a good article about the Reagan Brat and its restoration Its not up on the website yet, but it says there will be "more pictures" online in the article, so hopefully it will be up soon. Here is a link to the drive magazine website: http://www.drive.subaru.com/

When that happened to mine, I took the heads to a machine shop and had them re-threaded. You can try and do it while its still on whatever its on, but you have to be careful not to drill to much and get into one of the coolant channels.

I don't know how to figure out how many circuits i'm using...

Well it looks like there are a TON of painless kits... which one specifically should I be looking at?

I did see the "painless" fuse blocks on summit. But I didn't see custom wiring harnesses either... And I'm not sure how i'd do that, I don't even know what lengths to put down for anything.

They have a 3-bolt mounting pattern, which is different. It might be do-able, but the bearings might mount differently too, which would be a more difficult issue. I'd need to see them to be sure though...

I'm starting a separate thread about this from my FF-1 thread since some of this applies to anyone with a 70's Subaru... Anyway, i'm trying to decide exactly what I want to do with my FF-1 in terms of Gauges and other electrical components. I'm working on mounting locations and such, so I need an idea of what i'm going to do. Price of all this is not a concern, I'm more worried about if it will actually work... Right now, I've got two options: 1) Keep the stock combo meter (gauge cluster) and add at least a tachometer, and modify the stock wiring harness to include the MSD ignition and replace the original (crappy and worn out) fuse box. 2) Replace the stock combo meter with all new gauges; Speedometer, Tachometer, Voltmeter, Water temperature, Oil Pressure, Fuel meter... And replace the original wiring harness with all new wiring along with a new fuse box setup as well. Now, If I were to actually go and replace all the gauges, I have some questions about the specific gauges and how to set them up with an early EA Subaru... Speedometer: For a mechanical gauge, do I need to run a different speedo cable, or do I have to find a different one or modify the original one? Tachometer: No questions here actually, i've done one before, no big deal, and my MSD ignition has a tachometer spot to plug into. Voltmeter: Short sweep or Full sweep? Water Tempurature: This gauge gets its information from the sensor on the intake manifold, correct? Does the OEM sensor work OK for aftermarket gauges? What tempurature range should I look for? 100-250, 140-280, etc. Oil Pressure: Now this is one of the ones i'm concerned about... Should I do mechanical or electrical? I'd rather not have to run an extra oil line to under the dash, but whats involved with either setup and has anyone done it with the early EA motor? I've talked to some people and read that you do need to replace the sensor on the oil pump in order to use an Oil Pressure gauge (since its just a switch and not a temp sensor). What exactly would I need to do in order to do this? Do I need to modifiy the oil pump in order to run the appropriate sensor? Fuel Level: This is the other complicated one... There are SEVERAL types of fuel gauges out there from what I see, and I mean just the electrical specifications. Some say 0 ohms empty, 90 ohms full. 240 ohms empty, 33 full. And several other iterations... How do I find out what the output range is for my fuel level sensor in the fuel tank? Is it listed in the service manuals that I have, or do I need to do something to figure it out? Would I even have to go so far as to replace the fuel level sensor itself??? Alright, those were my questions about gauges... Now lets move on to fuse boxes and wiring in general. My FF-1 is a simple car in terms of wiring, about as simple as it could be. And i'm actually going to make it a bit more simple by not using a couple accessories originally with the car (interior dome light, door buzzer, radio/speaker) and even simplify the engine wiring by using a alternator with a built-in regulator. I will be adding a MSD ignition as mentioned earlier. Anyway, the original factory fuse box was mounted in the engine bay. It was quite small, only had ~5 or 6 fuses in it. I'd like to move it under the dash and use an upgrade unit and keep everything more centralized, any suggestions on what I should use for that? I have found some "fuse blocks" on summit racing and other sites, but since i'm a wiring n00b and probably will need help to do this since I know squat about wiring... Which kind of fuse box should I be looking for? Anyway... Thanks for any help that anyone can provide in advance. I hope this thread does eventually help other people as well about these subjects

Alright, I found some later model brake drums on ebay. I'll find out if they are compatible with the backing plates/etc. when they get here... Hopefully they work, so I can use the longer studs and keep these wheels!

Has anyone here ever setup an aftermarket Oil Pressure gauge or Fuel Meter gauge on an early EA car? I'm trying to figure out whats required.

I've had zero luck finding any gen 1 bodywork in inventory. Its usually small stuff like bolts/nuts or engine parts that are availible. All of the unique body parts are long gone.

No photos, and the auction has ended???

I found a couple 1/64th scale Subaru's on Ebay that I HAD to have... They just arrived today All 3 are rather accurate for their size.... But I wish I could get a larger model with opening doors and such

So is anyone interested in the Enkeis or the 13"s with tires that I was using for transporting the car? (the owner of them doesnt want those wheels/tires back, cause he has no where to put them ) The Enkei's i'd have to sell for $300, and the 13's with tires i'm just giving away to anyone who wants to pick them up.

Did some more "mock up" today to figure out if I needed any more bolt/screw holes and such, and to figure out what exactly I need to do for interior panels. I thought maybe I might be able to re-use some of the press-board pieces, but it looks like thats not a possibility. I can use them as a template though. The rear panel actually needs to be wider and also shorter so it fits its space better. I don't plan on running a rear seat, so i'll need to cover some areas there that aren't currently covered. I'll also have to extend the rear under-window area a bit to cover some of those holes. I'll probably make that out of cardboard next weekend if i'm not busy. As you can see, i'm trying to figure out what I want to do about gauges. Since I wanted to run a tach and oil temp/water temp gauge, I figure I might as well do a whole custom dash... I went over which items I'll need to operate the heater/vents, but I figure I can trim off a bit of that lower dash piece since I won't be running a stereo. I can also put some power-plug sockets in the holes on the dash on either side (I have some extra ones from a forester dual-plug kit). I'm not sure what to do about turn signal bulbs... I havent found anywhere that sells them yet. Other than that, I have a good idea of what size gauges I want to run now. I plan on doing a mechanical speedo, 8000rpm tach, oil temp gauge, water temp gauge, voltmeter and fuel gauge. I'm not sure which fuel gauge to get, I need to figure out what the sensor range is for the stock fuel level sensor. I'm also not 100% sure about mechanical speedos and using the stock speedo wire, so I need to look into that. But ya, I do plan on keeping the dash like that, except powder coat it black... Maybe do a red vinyl stripe to cover up the holes above where the gauges will go. The "wood-look" surface is completely non-usable, and ugly anyway Oh, and I still havent decided on a spot to mount the MSD ignition... But there are several options I can see now. Here are the pics from today:

If I can't get any EA63 heads, I can rebuild the EA61... But I was trying to avoid rebuilding the wet-sleeved block, so I could use the EA63 4-port heads with a used EA71 shortblock that I could rebuild easily (a couple guys at work want to help rebuild it). Are those shims the copper ships for the wet sleeves, or something else? Ya, actually about the wheels you are correct, thats how Stockton wheel makes custom steel wheels... They cut out the inside of a used wheel and mat it up to a blank wheel size (like a 14"x6" blank) and weld it to whatever offset you need. And then powder coat it of course

The best part is showing the factory while they are manufacturing EA61's

I'm going to use one of the early 80's alternators on mine, but I bought a Bosch unit brand new. It might require swapping out the pulley, but other than that, its the same as any other internally-regulated alternator upgrade.

Fender clearance isn't an issue with the tire size ill be using. Its all about suspension clearance... Right now, due to the complications with wheel studs and spacers, i'm about to give up on these wheels and go back to my original plan of having custom steel wheels made. Other than that, i've had to go out and buy a space heater to heat the garage so I can work and i've been spending most of my spare time lately dealing with holiday stuff so I haven't been working on the car too much. I did manage to order a bunch of OEM nuts/bolts for re-assembling the front and rear suspension, along with the steering rack couplings which I was AMAZED they were still availible! I'm also mocking up the dash and other interior components to make sure i've got all the holes correct and such. I'm still not sure what i'm going to do about paint/bodywork... Its too cold to do bondo work, and its expensive to have someone else do it. So i'm basically on hold with that until I save up more money or until it warms up. Also, I don't currently have an engine The single port engine I have won't work as I've mentioned before, and so far every attempt to find a 4-port EA63 has failed... My single port EA63 is up for sale if anyone is interested.