GeneralDisorder

Pretty sure I wasn't given the wrong one. The "lip" is just the way it was constructed - it fits in there just fine, has the right temp rating, and has the jiggle pin. Even came with the correct gasket, so I must conclude that it was indeed intended for my application. It's just crappily designed, and made as cheap as possible. Like I said - it worked, but not as well as I wanted it to. GD

Stock tires here for a Brat is 185/70r13 Only DL 4WD's and 2WD's got the 175's Could you take a picture of the rear end of your Brat? I know in Austrailia they don't really have rear bumpers, but instead have two "bumperlets" on each end. It's kinda interesting. How are prices in the Junk Yards over there? Especially if no one wants them, and you have lots of parts If you had the body work done professionally, I don't see how they would know that it didn't come with the halo-twin roof... GD

Try a 25/75 mix. Not good to run straight water. It has too low of a boiling point, and doesn't contain any of the suplements (such as zinc!) that prevent corrosion and deterioration of your cooling system. Straight water will destroy your system in short order. Also - use distilled water if you have problems with minerals clogging up the system. GD

A VERY tight engine could pull numbers like that. Either way, looks like you'll have to pull the head. Could be gaskets - did you use OEM or aftermarket? Some of the aftermarket stuff is junk. Felpro gaskets have always been good for me... GD

Lots of stuff can make the engine warmer - bad EGR for example will increase combustion temps. Low oil pressure will cause the oil to not remove as much heat. Incorrect coolant mixture will reduce cooling ability (no - you should NOT run 50/50 in CA). Clogged passages in the block and heads. Cracks in the heads that allow combustion gasses into the coolant (small cracks might not be noticed, but can cause overheating and a slow loss of coolant). Any small leak into the cooling system that causes it to not fully pressureize. Another big one is aftermarket parts that aren't up to snuff. Water pumps with stamped impellers instead of forged impellers like the stock ones. Crappy small thermostats.... etc, etc. Also the guages are not known to be totally accurate, and the sending units go on the blink now and again. A full system check with independant sensors is in order. GD

It's a 1" lift, but only if you use tires of the same size ie: 185/70r15's. (15-13)/2=1 GD

The reason I'm still sitting in the drivers seat is because I was seriously afraid that the car would tip over without my weight there. The picture doesn't actually do it justice. That is certainly the highest I've ever had one wheel.... And the reason I'm gunning it so hard in the 3rd video is cause I had already broken one rear axle at that point, so was running 3WD. A few seconds after that video cut off, the other one broke trying to get up that hill.... GD

You should be able to run a 205/75r14 (26.5" or so) with no cutting at all, and just a little beating on the inside of the front fender wells. You can run up to a 215/75r15 (28") with a little fender trimming, and a whole lot of beating. The swamper is a great tire, but please put them on some steels. You can run 14 or 15 pug steels, but finding replacments when you bend one can be a pain. I personally run drilled US Wheel 70 series chevy 6 lugs as they are VERY thick and strong, and are easy to get brand NEW for $25 each. The aggressive offset helps by giving me a wider footprint and looks cool at the same time. Also makes not having a sway bar a little less noticeable. Always nice to start with new rims, as they balance perfectly and look pretty too. GD

If your turbo runs hot, then your turbo needs fixin, not a band-aid like lower temp thermostats, and double row radiators. Ask yourself this: "did it overheat when it was driven off the showroom floor?". My guess - probably not. Besides that, the OEM 195 if it's anything like the EA81's you see above probably flows better than an aftermarket 180. But if you are going to do it, at least look at ALL the aftermarket ones you can find and pick the best. Maybe find out who OEM's the subaru ones, and see if they make other temps in the same size. But if I were you, I would be looking to figure out what is causeing you to need more and more cooling system as the engine ages. Band-aids like that will only result in cracked heads, and blown headgaskets if left unchecked. GD

We have seen them many, many times, but the price is simply too high. At about $2000 a set, not including carbs, manifolds or anything else. You really need the whole package anyway - a whole engine with all the aircraft parts working in conjunction. But that's like $10,000 for a complete drop in engine. GD

Check out the differences between these thermostat's. The one on the left came from the dealership, and came with a cool rubberized metal gasket, the one of the right came from Autozone I think. They are both rated at 192 degrees.... The one of the dealer is obviously going to flow quite a bit better, and the construction quality difference is just amazing. The dealership one cost me ~ $12. Can't remember what the Autozone one cost, but even if it was $1, I would still go to the dealer for this one.... After replacement, the temp is much more stable. Still about the same on the low end, but the OEM one keeps the needle in the same spot no matter what. I can be idleing or cruising at 80, and it's still in the same spot on the guage. With the aftermarket one (which is not that old, and certainly not bad), the guage would fluctuate quite a bit between idleing or cruising. Cruise was fine, but idle would heat up a little much for my liking - especially with summer comming very shortly. GD

I think he's wanting to know how badly they rust over there, and just how easy it would be to get used body panels from junk yards, etc.... Also - what is the availibility of replacement parts from the dealerships there? Subaru of America can no longer get some of the Brat parts because Subaru of Japan refuses to ship them over due to little demand, and high costs of shipping. From what I understand talking to my local dealership, the parts almost certainly exist somewhere since the Brat was produced for other countries till at least 94, but getting them to the states is basically impossible if you go through Subaru. If you could find a source of parts in isreal for us, I'm sure that some of us would gladly pay to have you ship them to us. Things like rear bumpers, and the rubber ends for them, rear mud flaps, and some other Brat specific bits that we are in need of here..... GD

Find another block if you need to bore it. The blocks aren't too expensive, and as has been pointed out, no one knows how to do it, and mostly the results are bad when people try. Just put in some SPFI pistons, or EA71 pistons, and call it good. Bore failure on EA81's is almost unheard of anyway - the bottom end's get sloppy, or you throw a rod (usually out the top of the block!) LONG before the rings fail. GD

Yeah - Qman has a couple EA81's that are built up. Lots of folk have changed out the cam's in them and what not. Even CCR will put in high compressions pistons for you if you like (EA71 pistons fit, and will raise the compression). EA82 SPFI pistons should works as well for this. I wouldn't go to the expense of having custom pistons made. Decking the heads to match the reground cam profile will further raise the compression, but don't go over .020, as the intake won't line up anymore if you do. Make sure the heads you got are the big valve heads that came on the hydro lifter engines like you have..... Delta cam up in WA does good cams for lots of board members - I think it's around $80 for a cam for the EA81, and they have several profiles availible. GD

Alloys are a no-no for off-road. Rather than bend, they tend to crack when they encounter a rock or other hard object. Generally this is catostrophic, breaking the bead on the tire, and making you very angry. Difficult to replace if you break it, and just doesn't stand up to the punishment. Steels are $25 each brand new, and you have your choice of size and width. This is a no brainer for a lifted rig that will see rock, mud, and tree roots. When you off-road, it's not a matter of IF you break/bend a rim, it's a matter of when. On Sun night, Nicky Nighteyes bent a rim and slashed up the sidewall of his wildcat off-roading with us..... GD

Too bad about the trans. If I had one, you could have it since I can't stand those things anyway. You could always convert to a manual 5 speed 2WD. Should be pretty easy, you just need the tranny, flywheel and clutch, pedal box, and associated cables and linkages. You can pull off the top of the carb, and blow out the jet passages in the bottom of the float bowl. That might help a bit. Adjusting the choke is a good idea as well. You have to drill out the two rivets on the housing, and replace them with bolts or self tapping screws. Inside the housing there is a brass pin that you need to remove on the outer edge to allow you to adjust the choke. Also knock the pin out (if it has one) that covers the idle mixture adjustment screw on the bottom of the carb, and remove the needle. Try blowing that passage out with air as well, and making sure the needle and it's seat are clean. You can do all this with the carb on the car, and while it might help, there's no guarantee that you're problems won't be just as bad or worse aftewards. These are the most common problem areas that I have found anyway. Look for vacuum leaks too - I bet you have a couple. Use spray carb cleaner to locted them with the engine running. GD

You got it. Takes about 30 minutes. The pumps are usually in there pretty tight, so you have to pry a bit. Turn and pry on it at the same time - just don't scratch the mating surfaces of the pump and the block. Pretty simple, just watch how it comes apart so you know where everything is. Could be your front main seal needs attention too - the pumps don't usually leak, they lose pressure from bad seals, but they don't leak. The front main seal could need replacing. Have to remove the pulley for that. Not hard either tho. GD

You just have to wonder if it would have made a difference when the car rolled off the showroom floor. I tend to doubt it. Subaru engineers were pretty good, and if it needed a higher output ign. system then I think that would have been accomidated in the original design. Or at least addressed in a later model. I don't doubt that you noticed a "performance" increase, but I also haven't seen any hard data to prove one way or the other. I say that if it ignites the fuel, then that is enough. What people do not understand is that gasoline does NOT explode. It is a controled burn. The fuel is ignited at the top of the cylinder, and the flame front travels downward from the point of ignition. So really if the spark plug manages to ignite the fuel, it has done it's job. There is no "better" ignition of the fuel or "more complete" ignition of the fuel. This is the same reason that all the multi-electrode plugs are bunk. The spark only ever uses a single electrode anyway. If you notice a better running engine from a hotter than stock coil, it's probably because you have eliminated a partial miss-fire condition in the system. A hotter spark will ignite the fuel a higher percentage of the time, but never better, or more complete. And a stock system will ignite the fuel well over 99% of the time, so the perceived "increase" in performance is largely what researchers call the "placebo effect". You know the result you want to get, so that's what you receive. Research should not be done this way. You make a change, and then you record what has transpired. Only THEN do you attempt to draw conclusions about what effect the change may have had on the system. GD

The automatics didn't get as good a mileage as the manuals did. Still, being a 2WD (3.7 diff), you should get at least 25 I would say (my 4WD manual Brat with 3.9 diff was rated at 24-28, and I get around 27.5 usually). Your carb should be a DCP-306-14, -15 or -19. Or you might also have a carter weber single barrel, which would be a TYF-7419S. Those are the correct numbers for the 82 model year. It's most likely a -14 since it's a 2WD. I don't have vacuum routing info for that year - sorry. You should head up this way - get that tranny from Andrew (Hondasucks), and I'll help you rebuild that carb. The Kit is like $30, and it can be done in an afternoon.... GD

*double post*

It depends on a lot of factors - condition and resistance of your wires, plug gap, etc. A properly tuned stock ignition system should perform just as well with either coil. Adding the high power coil is probably just masking other problems - similar to what MMO does for lifters. Subaru didn't need MMO to stop them from ticking, but lots of people use it.... same goes for spark. On the other hand, a high power coil may be cheaper than replacing all the ign. system components... GD

Justy's make sweet rally cars. Subaru built one for bonneville that had 125 HP. It's a 1700 lb car! GD

86 hatch would be an EA81.... are you sure it's not a 3 door? If it IS a hatch (EA81), I have a carb that I can rebuild and send to you. $100 plus shipping, and you send me your old one. It will cost me $30 just for the rebuild parts. Look on the back of the carb float bowl and find the model number on the carb. It should be a DCP-306-??. I have a -26 here that should be the same as the one you have.... GD

Nothing will fit - the car is completetly different. It's a transverse mounted 3 cylinder...... don't bother pulling any parts. The CV's are too narrow for one thing. GD

Yeah - I had mine mounted similar to what Qman shows - and he's right, the cable could be at a better angle. I think if you use the throttle from the "kit" above it will be at the right height so it won't groove the end of the cable. With my mounting tho, I had problems with it bending.... and I think the throttle cable bracket that was on my rig was different than that. I had the feedback carb - maybe that's why. I'm also considering cutting a section out of the cable bracket, and welding it back together so it's a bit lower to remove the angle in the cable, but still retain the bracket on the carb. As to the spring - it's never moved on me, and you can change the tension by drilling more than one hole in the clip, or by moving the clip forward or back in the grooves. I will have to find a new way when I get my snorkel adaptor tho. GD