dustinsdad

K.. I can only comment on my experience,, I bought and installed a motor from CCR into my 84 BRAT... 1.8L EA81 with cam and piston upgrades.. when I got it everything was complete and nice.. called them on phone to make sure I was following every instruction correctly.. they answered all my questions completely and clearly.. I have had it for several months and have had no issues with it.. granted it only has maybe 1000 miles if that on it, but that has been my experience up to now.

Oil pressure sending unit on the way.. temp gun i could use at work is good idea.. might borrow that.. put wheels on it and drove up and down the road abit. Besides the fact that milk baskets are over rated as seats go, it does stumble abit under load while cold but seemed to get better as it warmed up. 2 wheel drive and the 4 wheel drive seemed good after some clutch cable adjustment. So gonna wait for some parts, look into fixing timing light, and start painting and replacing interior parts and pieces. Later!

K.. been awhile since I have posted anything on my Brat. Took off time for thanksgiving, xmas and the sort, and decided I better get back to it. When I last worked with it, had finished putting motor in and filled everything with oil, water, etc.. so last few days finished with intake manifold, Weber, exhaust pipe, new fuel pump, distributor, coil, plug wires. pcv routing, all the stuff needed to fire it up... and drum roll... turned over fine but no fire... poored a little fuel down weber throat.. still nothing... oil pressure came up while cranking so that was good... but would not fire. SO spent all day yesterday checking connections, coil even though its new, anything and everything that I could find suggested on this forum in relation to no fire in brat searches... everything seemed fine and yet nothing... so this morning got up and decided that I would start by putting some old parts in place of new parts and see what happens. 1st off was old coil in new coil out.. nothing. 2nd was new coil back in, old distributor in, new distributor out, and yeeaaah.. we have liftoff... it lives!!!! So currently taking a break before I experienced death by exhaust inhalation, seriously, my shop isn't big. but really wasn't expecting that. But the Brat ran for 20 mins or so while I played with it, the weber seemed to behave as advertised, set the idle, do currently have the disty advanced as far as I can go without pulling it out and trying to jump a tooth, timing light is not working so don't know exactly what the setting is. But it idled good, seemed to respond good when revving a bit with no backfires or stumbling. Just a couple things I noticed before I shut it down that I am going to deal with: 1. Oil pressure was good about, about 40lbs or so by my dash gauge at idle when I fired it up. But as it warmed up it dropped to below 15 or so. No oil pressure light but got pretty low, when I revved motor it would come up, but gonna keep an eye on it, maybe put new oil pressure sending unit in. 2. Water temp came up, but don't think thermostat opened and radiator fan did not come on. This made me nervous as motor is brand new from Colorado Component rebuilders and don't even want to go anywhere near overheating it, so shut it down. 3. In this project replaced 4spd d/r with 5spd d/r, seems to be fine initially. The brat is still upon blocks, but it shifted with no obvious noises. The Lo range light on the dash stays lit, but it wasn't in 4 wheel drive, so will have to keep an eye on that. So now think I am gonna remove thermostat, and run without it initially just to make sure fluid is moving, then put some wheels on it and move it outside, see if any other issues poke there heads up. hopefully will be putting all the carpet, new seats and whatnot back in and also go back and check my motor break in instructions just to make sure on that. Anyhow will keep up to date as I proceed, will check back to see if there are any suggestions or questions. I am taking pictures on my phone, and a video. Once I figure out how to post I will try to do that. All for now... Later! Kevin

Hey Skylar! Thx for the bolts! 90's escort for the seats? will have to check that one out!

K... got the 5 spd d/r installed... thank you Jerry... went easier than I expected.. at this point I would add pics but not as easy as installing the actual tranny so far.. Currently have the front end apart as waiting on parts to redo tie rod ends, ball joints , bearings, brake parts etc... Engine is a week or so out... so in the meantime I am lining up flywheel.pp, driveline stuff and have a couple questions. 1. Which flywheel /PP combo is best? I have my 84 ea81 flywheel/PP and I also have an EA82 flywheel/PP...or is this merely case of personal taste? 2. Should I wait to get driveline built after motor is installed? in other words even though tranny is in, will setting motor and connecting it to tranny materially affect the measurements from the output shaft to rear connection point. 3.. in reading as many posts as I can, I have seen occasional references to clutch cable issues.. should I change this out or not worry about a problem that may not exist? 4... need new seats for Brat.. mine are shot... easiest retrofit is? comments are appreciated... ideas are valued.. Kevin

Hey everyone? Gathering all the parts for my Brat... going thru boxes of parts etc. I have not been able to find in my mess the bolts that attach the flywheel to the crank.. So i went to Vancouver Bolt and they do not have any .. say it is an odd size... the bolt size they gave me was M9 x 125 30 mm length... this apparently not an easily attainable bolt size.. Went to local subaru dealer and no good there.. online gets you to some Chinese places that want you to order 100,000 of them.. uhh no thanks...Can anyone verify for me that this bolt size is correct.. and if so.. where i may be able to source them... otherwise i guess i can try wrecking yard approach.. but i really would like to put new bolts in ..

Yeah.. I repleied to the last post mattgl has on the for sale forum... don't kow if there is an easier way to get ahold of him... Will have to look for the other one thx

I am in Clatskanie.. just across the bridge from Longview , wa... Dustin is involved.. when he is not fishing.. football ...basketball.. baseball... hanging out with his girlfriend.. etc.. and pretty much in that order... I just now in fact went ahead and ordered the motor from CCR.. but once i get it and the tranny stuff back from Jerry.. i am gonna order the weber kit also.. I will have Dustin take pics.. and will put something on here to share.. also now kicking around lug swap... would like to improve on wheel selection... searching that issue on here now!

Hey thanks for the time on this... great community here.. gotta say the comments that are hitting home all revolve around keeping a 16 year old safe on the road plus .. keeping the Brat as close to original as i can.. so that pretty much gets it... EA81 it is.. now the hard part.. which is parting with a bunch of money for a motor... i guess i am leaning towards Colorado components... i am not gonna rebuild one... i feel pretty good about bolting stuff on .. changing things out with some guidance.. but i don't feel qualified to rebuild a motor.. so unless someone knows of someone around here.. i will making a call on monday to colorado..

Hello everyone! First a little history.. i acquired my Brat from my sister who was the original owner about 5+ or so years ago.. I drove it for a couple years then the clutch went out ... and a lot of things and hands got involved at that point.. my older boys..other ideas..etc... long story short.. it has sat in pieces in my shop for 3 years or better.. till now.. nothing gets ya moving like a deadline.. cuz i kinda promised my ten year old that i would have it for him when he turns 16.. well he is 15 now and will be 16 next Feb. So where am i at... i have recently acquired not 1 but 2 DR 5spd transmissions..if 1 is no good.. i have another.. i am funny that way... I have acquired all the appropriate pieces in a box and am sending them off to Jerry on Monday to do his magic and then i will install the 5spd that says it only has 60K miles on it.. and put the other one on a shelf next to my original 4spd.. i have bought all new axles and bearings as well as brake parts .. figure might as well replace while i am there. So the crossroad... Jerry is quite the source of info.. he is fun to talk to.. and on all 3 occasions that i have spoken to him to make sure that i am getting the right stuff for this job, he has made it clear that i can put an EJ22 right into my Brat without any trouble at all.. My plan was to stick with the original EA81.. mine unfortunately is in about a million pieces in several boxes.. mixed together with pieces from an EA82 that my older boys found. So finally the question.. I can order a rebuilt EA81 from Colorado Components.. figure about 2500 by the time i buy it..install it and other accessories.. Or go EJ route.. can i get an EJ22 installed with the wiring harness .. ready to roll for about the same or less $.. and have a long lasting trustworthy investment? Thanks for your time: Kevin

i would like 2 pair of these as well!

Yup, got it! Just talked to him... Think this might be fun!

Thanks all for the info... I will see if I can locate this mysterious GD or General Disorder?

K i got this 1984 Brat from my sister about 2 years ago, with all the intentions of figuring out how to redo it for my kid. All I have accomplished in that time is to tear out motor, and various parts. All of that occured in about the first month that I owned it. So I am in the Longvieww, Wa area and am interested in finding or getting recommendations of people to do the necessary work that i will need to get this back on the road. I would like to get it back to daily driver status. I would also like to see about getting it switched to 5 spd d/r from the current 4 spd, and see if someone can rebuild motor and get some extra hp out of it without going to the whole motor swap route. Now i suppose someone will try and convince me that dollars and cents wise it makes sense to do so, okay convince me and i will think about it! I have a decent budget, not unlimited, ( I have a wife limiter) so I need names and ideas and see what we can do. Kevin

WOO HOOO! that is exactly what I am doing, thank god for experienced answers. I tell ya i have been looking over and over trying to see if I was doin somethin wrong, but i could come up with nuthin. It never occured to me that turning by hand with a wrench would be an issue. thanks again and I will keep you apprised of my progress, slow as it may be.

Have the motor out of my 84 brat on the table. Doin the SPFI change per the instruction by GD, also just doin a general overall cleaning and replacing gaskets etc. While looking at everything I decided to check the compression. and i got the 30 then 60 then 90 climbing compression on all 4 cylinders. In my book it says that equates to ring issues, I am hoping that someone here will tell me that having no oil and the fact that it has been siitting out cold and dry will some how affect this. It ran okay when I shut it down, but if I have to pursue further work I guess best to do it now. Just wondering if a more experienced member may have some other advice. PS wasn't burning any oil that i know of, sprak plugs were a little sooty but not black and oily.

Well, like so many others i am new and thiis sight is cool! But here is my deal have recently acqiured a 1990 loyale that is in good condition but the motor seized up tight on the previous owner while driving. Upon inspection .. no oil... and motor absouletly will not budge. So I drug it home for the great price of nothing just get it out of his drive way. Car is in my shop about to pull the motor out. I would like to fix this in the most cost effective manner possible. I am willing to spend money that is well spent, so I am feeling that the motor in it is probably beyond repair. Question should I find an old motor, upgrade to a bigger motor, have this one rebuilt if possible. I want to fix this right so that I can use it as a work car. After this is fixed an running then i am going to move onto a 1984 brat that is my avatar, and fix that up for my 12 year old. One question is could I take the engine out of the BRAT and put it in the loyale,(it runs good has only 90,000 original miles) and then save the brat for the lift, Ej, 5spd D/r etc. etc that i have been reading so much about on here. Your comments are greatly appreciated!

HEY! new member have a 1984 Brat with 90.000 miles. Been reading all the info an gettin some ideas, this place is awesome. Oh by the way Clatskanie, OR.