LostWater

I put an aluminum 1 row EA-82 rad in my ea-81 hatch and it works(cools) much better than stock. Aluminum conducts and dissipates the heat to the air much better than the stock copper. you have to bend the mounting bosses out of the bottom of the ea-82 rad, and use a metal strap of some sort to make a fix for the bottom of the rad so it doesn't swing. I found an extra hole down there and use a self tapping screw and the bottom mounted just fine. You can likely get a ea-82 rad from the boneyard pretty cheap. Regards,

I believe my Amigo was considered a throttle body injection. It looked like a carb and had the same air filter a carb would have. What is a throttle body injection engine anyways? Mark

Hey Brian, Before u buy another subie alt, definitely consider the chevy conversion. I just got my hi-amp (105amps) kit in from Jc Whitney and I plan on doing it this week. It includes all the replaceable parts for the alt, so, conceivably, u could get a free toasted chevy alt at the yard and for $34 (thats what the kit costs) you do the rebuild yourself and get higher amps. I plan on taking pics as I install the hi-amp kit as well as my rig for installing the alt in my hatch including the part number for the longer belt. If you want higher amps, for cheap, u may want to consider the chevy. Hopefully by the end of the week, I will have my write up ready. Regards, Mark

What about the computer and wiring in the ea82. Doesn't it have many sensors, etc.? The ea-81, slap a weber on to get rid of all that vacuum mess and you have a quick portable swap ready. Not much tinkering other than carb adjustments. MD

Two nights motel stay via priceline, in the DC or Baltimore area is around $35 a night on the weekend, I have stayed in the Ramada Inner Harbor for $35, Holiday Inn, Inner Harbor for $30, Best Western Fairfax for $20, Homestead suites all over the dc metro for $25 many times; so you see, two nights is not unreasonable for a free delivery(not charging time, just expense). With approximately $70 in fuel, you are probably out ~$140-$160 total for the delivery, not bad considering the rental would likely cost you half that and then you still have to do the ~5 hrs of driving each way. Anyways, To save you time and Money, I could bring it up to the Northern Shenandoah valley with me this weekend and you could meet me there and pick it up. That would shave about 3 hrs off of a one way trip (Woodstock, VA) The biggest issue preventing its being driven appears to be at grade it sometimes cut out. That is likely fuel filters and I honestly haven't been under there to check it out. Also, the battery appears no good. Otherwise, when I was at the height of my BRAT Passion, I thought this BRAT was an ok deal for $500 I paid for it, but, alas, passions change, now I like my hatch and 360's.

What a can of worms you have opened up!!. The ea-82's put out over 10 hp more, but, with that additional power, comes additional complexity. The ea-81's can easily make up the 10 hp difference with a $300 weber carb and hotter ignition, thicker wires. No timing belts on the ea-81 make it hands down the easist to work on. they rarely warp heads, and rarely overheat. The ea-81s are uglier, however, and not as nice in the amenities dept. Me, I like the character of them.

Meeky Moose, the reason the alternative in the GM alt is that it is cheap, easily done, and widely available. In all my travels in Boneyards out here in Southwest VA, I have only seen one XT6 and one RX. Both models are very rare indeed. Good luck for most of us finding that alternator (XT6). The GM alt on the other hand is so rediculously available and cheap! There was a guy in my 360 group who converted the 360 engine from a generator to run on this alt. I have seen this alt in lots of applications. I ordered the 105 amp kit form JC Whitney and will put those details in my write up as well. I also got a new belt that was the same one that the P.O. had on (needs to be longer than stock). I will be certain to include those details too. Later,

The part number for the alternator to use is: 7127, it is a delco-Remey that fits 71-85 Chevy trucks. Very common, 10 bux in a boneyard, sometimes free. If you get a bad one, take it to autozone where you can get a rebuilt one fer $29.99 w/ a $15 core. The stock amps are 63, but with this kit from Jc Whitney you can get 105 amps and the kit is only $34.99 and u can do it yourself. Higher amp Kit listings Again, I will follow with mounting details. Mark

My dud hada 2002 Chevy 3/4 ton with that new Duramax diesel in it. That thing was quiet, had oodles of torque and was just a pleasure to drive. Much better than those diesel dogs that chevy used to do. This turbo diesel has more hp than my 7.3 turbo diesel in the F250 with .9 less liters! GM did a good thing in getting a proven, reliable product instead of turningf out crap like they always have. I would love to slap one of those vw 1.9 tdi in my van, but, they are way expensive and likely will be for a long time. Mark

The P.O. had the alt mounted tight in the engine bay, but it was kind of clunky. I plan on getting some 3/8 all thread and double nutting two 4" pieces to make the mounting work. I won't go into detail, because when I get the pics done, it will describe the process much better. Again, I will take pics, measurements and part numbers, and I will write up a short submission about this. This is definitely the schiznitz and requires no modification to the alt (no grinding the ear like what was needed with the xt6) Will probably be a quicker install, and definitely a cheaper one. I will be sure to keep everyone posted. Mark

I went to the back of the farm where I have my mini Subaru Junkyard (2 ea81 wagons, 4wd, 2 ea81 brats, 2 ea81 hatchs 4wd, 1 ea82 wagon fwd) and guess what I found??? in one of the ea-81's someone had made up a bracket to fit a regular old chevy delco-remey alt in. Basically the just drilled a couple of holes in a 1/4 " thick x 3/4 " wide x 2 " long piece of steel. Used two logs bolts for that side with nuts all over the bolts to hold it steady, and another longer bolt. I am going to get the alt tested tomorrow and take the belt so I can get a new one, and get a piece of all thread so I can tighten it up better. I will take pics and do the exact measurements and I will write up a submission to the USMB repair manual if it is all successful. When I bought this parts wagon, I drove it home, so obviously the alt setup worked then! Woohoo, now, we can get 130 amp alts for $40!!! Will report more tomorrow and over the weekend. Mark

Chevettes had a 1.8 l diesel for a while, I belive that was an Isuzu, but Slow. I had a Diesel escort, 1984 with what I remember as a Mazda diesel 2.0L. That sucker could fly and get 40-45 mph, but anything less than 2/5 of a tank of fuel and the dam preheater shut off clogging the passages. Put more fuel in it and the preheater magically came back on. I cooked the stinking thing, overheated and warped the head. We hired my mom's cousin to put another escort diesel in there, and sure enuf, my sis fried that one too. The rangers and bronco II's came with a 2.7L V6 diesel for a while. Now that would be an engine I would like to try in my van. Kennedy makes an adaptor for the escort engine and the ranger engine, so that leads me to believe they would allow use of the diesel counterparts too. The diesel vw's (golf, rabbit, vanagon) were great in the cars, but at 15deg in the vanagon, they sukked. On my conversion groups, people convert their diesel vanagons (and the ****ty wasserboxer) to Subaru ej22 2.2. In fact, Kennedy has it CARB certified! Anyways, someone give me a 2.7 mazda diesel and I will try it in my 78 auto bus. BTW, I have a 99 Turbo diesel 7.3 F 250, and the booger NEVER gets over 17 mpg, and only 14 when towing the horse trailer. Jack, u sure about yer buddy's claims? Well, thats better than 10-12 mpg when empty gas engine (6-9mpg) towing. Regards,

Autozone says that the early legacy alts were only 70 amp, only 15 more than stock ea-81. Dam, still have to fing an xt6 for a real improvement. I already called a rebuilder and they said they could not make an ea-81 alt with higher output. Anybody have an XT6 alt they wanna part with? Thanks, Mark

But, this is a brick wall as well. Late 80's Mitsubishi 4wd trucks used a 50 amp alt! Anybody tried those one bolt chevy alts by making a bracket or something??? Thanks, Mark

Nissan Sentra 1983-84 seem to have been in the same casted body, but a search at autozone shows that they are only 50 amp alts. So far, early legacy seems to be the easiest available (cheapest too) higher amp alternative. Any other ideas??? Mark

I read in an earlier post that McBrat said that early legacy alts are in the same casted body as the xt6 and should fit with the same mod that people do the the xt6. I will prolly go searching for an early legacy alt and do the mod and stick it in. I will also keep me eye out for similarly size/casted alts while I am in the boneyard. Regards, Mark

Lookie here: Autozone alt details It appears that they are only 50-60 amps anyways. Any datsun truck alternators that could work? Thanks a bunch, Mark

well my alt seems totally dead. Ran out while driving to work, then hatch ran off battery, till that was dead. I did some looking through old posts and I saw several times a reference to a datsun alternator that can be swapped into our EA series cars without any modification. Does anybody care to pipe in a let us know what they found out? Thanks, Mark

I tried it on my BRAT after sandblasting and cleaning the bed with solvent and the stuff still peels off. And it is in no way tough enough for a high impact area like a truck bed. It looks like hell within a month. Definitely go with a roll on like herculiner, gorilla liner, or that Rust oleum stuff. Regards, Mark

as soon as the feds find that you have tried to get it street legal, they will impound it and crush it. All vehicles in the us have to pass US FEDERAL safety and emission tests specific to their year, UNLESS they are older than 25 years. This is domain of the Federal Govt., not the states. Go over to the VW Bus listserv (type2.com) and do a search about this. You will see all kinds of stuff about it can't be done, as the old style bus was produced until 2002 in Brazil and Mexico and people have been trying to get them in for years Also, everyone on my microcar message board comments about this often as they all want to bring in the Smart. (microcar.org) I would like this 550 cc watercooled powerplant for my Subaru 360 Sambar Vans and trucks. I emailed the seller, hoping he can help me out as he says in that auction that he can sell the engine, tranny, clutch, etc. We'll see. Regards,

Of course a bigger amp alternator wouldn't fix a short elsewhere. But in case it is an internal short in the alternator and I have to replace the alternator, why not go bigger? Thanks for the comment however, Mark

Likely you will never get that nasty smell nor those disgusting stains out of it. The best story I have is when I fixed computers and some came in reeking of tobacco. Of course, the power supplies sucked all that nastiness in and with that nastiness, dust and all other postively charge crap came in the computers. After time, the computer woould short out somewhere, go figure. I told the people (this happened many times, many peeople) after fixing the power supplies that smoking was the cause, and they were so concerned about it and said that they would never smoke around their computer again, because of the monetary cost in fixing them. Many times, these are the same numnuts who smoke around their children and wonder why they had low birthweight, lower IQ than normal, constantly have upper repiratory infections, and a host of other problems. They didn't care about the cost to their children's health or future, but a monetary cost of a computer repair worried them! Some people! Mark

Hey all, My alternator may be on the fritz as my battery is discharging overnight or after several hours being parked. I reset the ground to the body thinking that may be the problem, and I unhooked the 8 guage power wire going to the back for amps and such. I am hoping it is something easy that causes the discharge. Does anybody have any ideas on what to look at next? Could the voltage regulator in the alt not be working right, or a short in the alt draining the battery? The hatch will run no problem after I jump it and it will start a few times after it is fully charged. If I need a new alt, I remember talk of using one from an xt6 or something. It supposedly is like 125 amp vs. our 85 in the ea-81. Someone care to verify those values? Also, someone care to comment on wether it is just a straight drop in, or does it need some modification (new belt etc)? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks, Mark

Jay, Thanks for the offer of emailing pics to anybody. You could also have them linked here if you had a place to host them. If you send them my way, I will do that. Jack, I am about 5 hours from you and I am down your way often as my family and twin bro live in Chumpton Roads; only mentioning that if you wanted this tan BRAT of mine. Jay, the offer on borrowing my tandem axle carhauler is still there if you want to go pick up that RX in Fredricksburg. Dennis, I could work out a way to bring it to you if you wanted it (I like your area alot). Kindest Regards, Mark

I wouldn't be too authoratative about that detail. I have an 84 DL BRAT that is single range, no t-tops, no sliders, no ac, no tach. It seems to be equipped just like the DL wagons and hatches were. BTW, first $500 gets it (it runs)(rust in bed and along bottom of doors) Mark