el_freddo

Time to get an aftermarket temp gauge that actually give a number reading for the engine temp. These gauges that point into a no man’s land tell us nothing useful. The gauge won’t move but I bet anything the engine temp is constantly fluctuating depending on the situation - and sometimes this will go much higher than you think before that needle moves north! Even better is to get an engine watch dog - you can set alarms and there’s a model that comes with two sensors, many options here - coolant (first one and quite obvious), second one could be engine oil temp/gearbox oil temp/hub temp on one corner/fuel temp etc. pick one and go from there. Cheers Bennie

The MAF is required to run the engine. The “MAP” sensor as you call it is the ignitor, also needed to run the engine. The sensor in the throttle body is the TPS. They can get dirty contacts. It’s worth opening them up and cleaning the tracks that the fingers follow. Once replacing it make sure you’re following the procedure to have it properly installed. The MAF could need cleaning (VERY carefully!) or replacing. Also look at the knock sensor, back of engine near the bell housing on the LHS, got a 10mm bolt head holding it in place. It’s black and probably cracked by now. This won’t usually throw a code if it’s got an issue until it’s really proper dead. If you’ve pulled plugs off items when the engine is running you’ll have to reset the ECU if you want to accurately read codes. The 30min “battery dance” will clear the ECU memory of new and old codes. Start the engine again and let it idle up to temp. The idle speed will fluctuate - this is the ECU setting the idle etc. DO NOT touch the throttle once the engine is started until it’s up to temp. Drive it like you stole it and see if the issue persists. The issue will return, then check codes and start with the sensor the codes point to. I hope this helps. EFI systems are nothing to be scared of if you’re coming from the dark ages of carbs and dizzys. They will generally give you a starting point with a code or two Cheers Bennie

To fix that block, have that cylinder sleeved then bored to match the other bores. Best way to do it would be to sleeve all bores and have each cylinder bored out to match the piston being fitted into that bore. But $$$$ needed as it’s a full bottom end rebuild going this way. Have you tried cleaning up the bore when the piston is back down the cylinder? You might be surprised as to how it comes up and could possibly save you the hassle of a rebuild. The EJ22 must be hard to come by over there. They’re becoming harder to find these days across the ditch from you. Cheers Bennie

Me too! That’s a pretty impressive space. Does it cost you anything to park up there for the winter or is it a group arrangement that looks after each other? Either way, it’s a sweet storage area for your BRAT! Cheers Bennie

Geez that’s an interesting project you got into there. And welcome to the forum Cheers Bennie

Aftermarket KYB struts are gas filled. OEM KYB struts are oil filled. Something to keep in mind there. We put superpro or Nolthane poly bushes in my sister’s Gen3 RX Liberty (Legacy) a number of years ago. It drives beautifully now! I can’t vouch for the product in that link. It’s each to their own with the type of bush to use. Personally I like the Nolthane, many consider these too harsh etc. I’ve not had that experience in my off-roader L series, or my sister’s RX Liberty; I think they’re a great product. Stiffer springs will generally mean better handling, the trade off might be a firmer ride. For a road going vehicle that’s not a bad thing as the stock springs are a compromise between handling and ride comfort for the general consumer. An uprated spring goes a long way for better handling/performance. Cheers Bennie

If your springs are worn get some upgraded aftermarket units. Kings springs if available over in the states would be a good start. A new set of struts could help improve the handling/driving feel too. But as I said earlier, new suspension bushes all round will go a long way to restoring the driving experience your vehicle originally gave, if not making it better again. How far has your Subi travelled? Cheers Bennie

Gen 2 and Gen 3 Liberty/Outback platforms are completely different in the rear end. To swap in a Gen 2 rear suspension you’ll be welding some strut towers into the back of the Gen3 to accommodate the MacPherson style struts. Not worth it in my book. You’d be better off replacing all of your bushes in the suspension, front and rear. This will refresh the handling and a new set of springs and shocks will further complement the ride quality. Well worth the effort. All the best with it! Cheers Bennie

That’s an awesome write up Tod! It took me three goes to read the whole thing and take in the pics etc. life is hectic! Your trips are epic and that one looked like you had a month off! 3900 miles is HUGE! I’m jealous. Thanks for sharing all the pics soo g with the write up of your big adventure! That tyre change didn’t look too difficult in photo form, I know how they compress slopes and grades etc, so that would be a nerve wracking event! Glad the vehicles went well for you! I’m sure you could knock up some “drop tanks” WWII style to slip in some small cavity under the vehicles! While you’re there, knock up some scrub bars that also protect those now contoured sill panels Keep up the good work, and the trips! Epic country! Cheers Bennie

Just remove it and wire/cable tie it so it can’t be activated - the spring should stop this from occurring anyway but best to be precautious. Cheers Bennie

So Awesome that you came back and updated this thread after three years - and admitting you only just fixed the issue! Cheers Bennie

G’day Stephen, I checked out those pics, thanks for the permission to view them! I can’t work out what it is on the backing plate that fouls on the swing arm - as this is the reason for this whole effort isn’t it? Time to learn Mandarin? Or get one of those fancy translator apps? Cheers Bennie

Get the GL, pull the EA82 and fit the EJ22. Laughing. That’ll solve 99% of the GL’s issues from factory Otherwise keep the EA82 and My 10c Cheers Bennie

Old engine probably just needs new valve stem seals. And yes, you can use your multi meter to read the oil pressure. You just need to know the values of the voltage/amps/ohms you’re seeing on your multimeter. An original workshop manual should have those values recorded somewhere - or a member from here might be able to record their values to what’s seen on their pressure gauge. Not exactly accurate but a good indication for you. As for noisy drivetrain, the lifters probably need more time to properly pump up, that or they’ll always be noisy. Cheers Bennie

Looking at the cam belt off to the right in that photo, third tooth, the cam belt looks to have a decent crack in it. I’d be concerned about that! Definitely get in there and sort it out with that new cam belt you’re talking about Cheers Bennie

Ok, finally! Here are the rest of the build pics - in collage! ^ L series interior light “mod” - it’s a HUGE upgrade over the stock unit (mine didn’t want to work but when it did, it wasn’t worth the effort!); now I can see stuff in the cab - and I haven’t installed an LED unit in there yet either! The L series interior light is also responsible for holding up the new roof mounted UHF radio. I’m very stoked how this turned out! No new holes or screws added to the brumby for this one. Inspired by my roof mounted UHF radio setup in Ruby Scoo. Everything is reversible back to stock quite easily. The other two pics are a before and after of some wiring tidy up under the dashboard. I forgot to photograph the front brake transformation so I did it with the rear instead - where I also forgot to take a pic of the drum fitted, anyway, you get the idea! Much better setup over the drums. Also new braided lines fitted everywhere. Brakes are AMAZING now! Scorpions fitted with their sticker, completing the look they’re known for (and this owner was seriously missing the little black sticker!). Top pics - the faded decals. Bottom pics - painted up decals using a set of paint pens from office works. I’m not set on the red colour that the pen came out with but it looks far better than what it was before anything was done to the mud flaps. The front ones were painted in white over the Subaru logo. They look mint too! No pics of those though… With the bullbar paint up, fitted and the front mounted chopped sticker refitted; side badges and mud flaps painted up, Redback Brumby is looking awesome. It’s amazing what a couple of small details can do to distract from other bodywork “features”! And we were finally off, second stop (after a servo) was the Deniliquin Ute on a Pole. We made it to Barmedman to camp the night near their mineral springs pool. Neat little spot. Got rained on during the night, we were mostly dry, but got 95% of our stuff fully dried out before we left. Then it was continuing on our way. Parked up brumby in Cowra, a couple of laps of Bathurst/Mt Panorama - worth the effort, I’ve got a new found respect for the race and the drivers (Australian Touring Car Championship)! And a Bunnings (hardware store chain over here - also the inspiration for Hammerbarn in Bluey) that’s retrofitted into an old building in Lithgow - something I didn’t know they did, I found it interesting! We had to swing by Shield’s Orchard this time since we had time to find it! At this time of year they’re closed because it’s not Apple season, but we snapped a pic out the front of their place with their main sign. Then on to camp at Mt Wilson, pretty good camp ground, but felt like we could’ve been anywhere really - we were hoping for a real vibe of being in the Blue Mountains - really we could’ve been camping on Mt Macedon (Central Vic, same elevation). Next day we were off to Boxer Beauty to pick up some stickers - particularly the scorpion rim stickers to finish them off. Then off to cut a lap over the Sydney Harbour Bridge - aka our nation’s big coat hanger. Following this we buzzed around the Sydney CBD followed by parking at the harbour to snap a few pics like this one from earlier in the thread: Ripper! Then the big day. I won’t flood this thread with pics from the day, I’ll drop the link to that later. I will share these poser pics though! On the Sunday we legged it home from the hotel same as last year. We headed up over the mountains and took a longer than anticipated detour to Evan’s Lookout. Well worth the effort! We changed a bit of our route and went through Young and Urana rather than Grenfell and Narrandera. Good drive and possibly less hills but unsure about this. Bottom corner pic below is one of the pubs in Young. I can’t get over how big the pubs are in NSW! We spied a brumby in Deni so grabbed some pics with that on our way past, then continued home. We arrived a bit after 9pm. My navigator held on but lost out 40mins before we made it home. I’ve roughly worked out we did 2300km in the five days we took to do the trip! Awesome trip! Brumby ran mint the whole time. Issues we had: - driving light wiring at the cab switch came off the back of the switch, sorted that by pulling the wiring and joining them together. - pencil beam driving light, blown globe. Was working prior to paint work done on the rear covers. - rear wheel nuts on the right decided they’d try to take a holiday on our way down the Sydney side of the Blue Mountains. I thought it was a rear wheel bearing issue. Easy fix, not an issue since (and I checked all nuts). - no other issues I can remember, the brumby just ran like clockwork! The plan now is to get the EJ turbo conversion sorted for next year’s Subinats25 That’s it for now! Cheers Bennie

We’re back already! Redback Brumby took it all in her stride. I haven’t tallied it up yet, my estimate is we did about 2200km in five days. After crusing over our infamous coat hanger we managed to pull up on the harbour and snap a few pics. This is the best one: Subinats was awesome! Met many other brumby and MY sedan owners which was awesome. More to come on that later. I’m waiting on a phone to return from being repaired as I busted the screen the day we were leaving - it’s got all the build pics on it! More on that later, the work list is quite extensive once I list it out - which will come in the build post later Cheers Bennie

And that would be your issue. Clean it up, reseal and go again. This can happen with EJ TPS units too. Once cleaned they work a treat again! Cheers Bennie

Finally, after LOADS of work then tidy up and packing we’re off to Subinats in Sydney on Saturday. Left earlier to do some other stuff while up here but left almost two days later than planned. If you ever come to Australia and want to experience a wild time, come in October and do the Deni Ute Muster! It’s a loose weekend that’s for sure. This is one of the landmarks of the host town of Deniliquin - the ute on a pole (because why not?): Redback Brumby is loving the cruise so far. I’m sure she’ll keep the same attitude all the way home too. Cheers Bennie

Big update. My Brumby sits like this at the moment and was like this for more than the last two weeks: It’s late Friday night as I write this, and I intend to leave for Skidney on Monday after work - and Redback Brumby still sits how you see her in the pic above. It’s getting close and I’m cutting it fine. One of the reasons for the above Jack stand action was this (as previously mentioned) - and they look mint in person with tyres mounted: The last week and a half was hectic prepping items for painting between work commitments. As usual for freshly painted things they look awesome but I wonder about their longevity. The biggest item was the bullbar that got a full scrub back, rust treatment, rubbed back again and then primed and painted from there. Here’s a much quicker picture summary of what was done: After the “final” spray of the bullbar had cured I found four sections I missed so had to get another can to finish it off. I think this extra can of paint got a great texture finish and a much more even coverage. I believe it’s still fully curing as it dulls easily when gently rubbed with your hands. Looks great though! The brakes and hubs got some paint too. It all took time but it came together well I think: Now to get it all back together this weekend - including replacing a split CV boot up front (outer too!), wiring in the stez (now mounted!), central locking, UHF radio (ceiling mounted - finished the console for it today so can’t wait to see if fitted) then put the interior back together! And I need to replace the rocker cover gaskets too, the current ones are a bit leaky… All in two days. We’ll see how we go. Cheers Bennie

If you’re spacing out the backing plate you’ll need to space out the hub to line up the disc. No chance of modifying the backing place to avoid the swing arm? Got pics? Cheers Bennie

This is all I can find at the moment: https://ausubaru.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=10858&p=106517#p106517 From what I remember he had a WRX drivetrain and brakes fitted. I can’t find any pics of it now though as all the photo links are broken ;(

I don’t know mate, I don’t have a gen1 to play with and they’re quite scarce around this part of the world. It would be a cheap way to find out if the 5 stud conversion would fit - you’d need to ensure the rear stub axles fit the gen2’s drum brakes as the fabricated rear hubs adapt the EA81 stub axle to the EJ 5 stud pattern - if this works that’s a major hurdle over come. If not maybe the EA81 rear swing/trailing arm can be swapped in. Big maybe though. Once the rear is sorted the next thing is to ensure the front control arms can be reamed out to accept the larger EJ ball joint. From there it’s working out the master cylinder situation as you’d definitely want to upgrade that to EJ spec! Lastly and probably the most frustrating bit is sorting the front CV shafts. It’s probably best to go custom here for ease of just getting it done. There are ppl who have fitted EJ brakes to the Gen1 brat. I believe over here in Oz a fella had an emerald green one that had the brakes and an EJ fitted, I just can’t remember if it was EJ turbo. I’ll see what I can find. How’d you come up with the designs? You must be good with cad! Something I’d like to learn more about with complex components. Cheers Bennie

If you can fit Gen2 BRAT brakes you can fit the Subarino 5 stud brake kit 😉 There may be some slight differences with the hand brake cable etc.

I forgot about this system, we only got it in the early series 1 models. You might have to get under it and manually manipulate the lever on the side of the gearbox. From memory the cable end of the lever needs to be as far back as possible - but I could be wrong as it’s years since I looked at how these work. Jack up a wheel to do this to make it easier/possible. I don’t share the same sentiments as Numbchux about towing on the rear wheels in 2wd. Cheers Bennie