Free Range

EJ22 in the '79 brat was a chore, pics in my photo's page... the body lift all you have to do is slightly notch the frame rails to clear the valve covers, but you would have to swap in a gen 2 cars brake master cyl to clear the setup, with the 3" blocks the entire front end had to be frenched... all the rubber parts of the fuel lines had to be replaced to run the high psi fuel pump, otherwise it's exactly like any other ej>ea swap, tons of little things will get in the way, but the result is well worth it... I just started my new gen 1 swap, '81 brat (1800 D/R) swapped into a '78 GF coupe, 3" body lift, gen 2 rear torsion tube, pics to come soon

search: 'body lift'

like they all said, direct bolt in up front, keep your strut tops in the rear (sedan coils are tapered, you can trade for normal coils and tops), adjust camber if you feel like it, done!

'79 brat: 3" body lift engine crossmember, a-arms, & torsion tube from '81 wagon 3.90 5spd d/r, welded rear diff '94 EJ22+harness when it drives it's a blast, but the trans/radius rod mount ripped out of the body(rusty swiss cheese style), I finally got my harness cut down and I think I found the battery drain too, so by summer it should be all together, maybe some paint too ---------------------------------------------------------- Spigma06 'the pickle' R.I.P '78 wagon 3" lift gen 2 rear torsion tube EA81+4spd d/r this is definitly the easier way to lift a gen 1, put blocks up front and fab in the gen 2 torsion tube. That blue brat posted above has seen a few 'light' mods... what motor/trans does it have in it now? 1.6, 1.8, or the buick V6?

any possability your setup is bent, I've trashed a few control arms and a trailing arm or two going banzi...

"Re-furr-bished" '83 GL wagon this pic doesn't do it justice, 2" purple fur covering the dash and headliner, lepard print seat covers, lepard print door panels, disco ball... And he's only had the car for a month or two.

I know some stuff about the legacy vs outback, so imp vs forrester should be very simmilar. Not sure if the legacy outback stuff will bolt onto an imp, but the outback stuff does have different bushings and trailing arms in the rear, and different mounts on the outside of the control arms. also a 10mm body lift (spacer on the front engine crossmember) from '96-'99, If it was me, I'd go take measurements from your car and compare to a gen1 forester, these parts should interchange, especially the trailing arms and rear control arms, camber bolts, also the swaybar mounts at the control arms are longer/different on the outbacks, so... In my experience with lifting leggie's (4 so far) I've only ever swapped struts and coils, never needed to swap any of the other stuff over, but if you wanted the complete package, well, keep swapping.

Why don't you just keep the entire ea71 front end and just lift it with blocks, no welding required, that's what spigma's 3" lifted wagon had, stock front and gen 2 rear torsion tube... That's what I'm doing to my next gen 1 lift... (Ryan your pickle's rear end will live again, poor thing:rolleyes: ) anyways, for my gen 2 front in a gen 1 brat, the radius rods were sleeved and lenghtened a bunch to use the gen 1 trans x-member, and like Spigma said the trans mount holes for the 4spd are there, just don't forget to cut a hole for the linkage and adjust it for the 4" lift. keep the ea71 struts in front they are ~1.5" taller than the ea81 stuff, and in the rear, well go shopping at the junkyard for some custom stuff. definitly get rear disc brakes. your using the gen 2 rear end right? what motor/trans I kinda wish I went 4" on my brat, but not on the offcamber sections, welcome to the lifted gen 1 crowd, there arn't many out there...

here is my $.02 First off, do it, but it won't be cheep or easy... OK, these are a few of the issues that come to mind. the motor will fit just fine in a gen 3+ vehicle, but like 88hatchmonster said some slight mods to the frame rails would make the motor fit, the 2.5t is a fair bit wider than a 2.2... custome radiator mounts and IC hoses the intercooler will be hanging off the front where the bumper was, the exhaust will all be custom, power steering is still straghtforeward with a ea81 ps rack and some modified hoses the fuel pump will need a small fuel cell to keep inself in enough fuel to work(rugyver style), or a full fuel cell in the back. The wiring will be nice and fun, but no real problems except a lot of tracing wires, the trans should be just fine, the viscous center diff will do its job, the 04 sti didn't get the vccd trans, so it should just be a manual 6 speed, but trans mounts will be custom, so will linkage and driveline... rear diff is a r180(correct me if I'm wrong), so custom rear diff hanger and custom rear axles, not to mention front axles with ea82T inner cups... Suspension, well it could remain stock brat, but to get the sti stuff in there won't be easy these are just a few issues that come to mind, i'd be looking for a legacy or impreza to swap into with a wrx 5 speed trans, it will be much, much less of a headace and much cheeper to build, maintain and repair down the road... or put it up for sale at a hefty markup...

legacycentral.org and nabisco both have a fair bit of info on this hybrid, search for "high compression frankenstien" or something close to that... copression depends on which blocks and heads you use, I believe the phase 1 ej25 + phase 1 ej22 heads (dual port exhaust) ~11.2/1 comp phase 1 ej25 + phase 2 ej22 heads (single port exhaust) ~10.5/1 comp and the phase 2 ej25 will make higher compression... Matt Monson said something to the effect of the hp/tq gains are more from displacement gains than compression gains... you will most likely need 91 octane Skip: Intakes must remain matched to heads, so 2.2 intake on 2.2 heads and 2.5 intake on 2.5 heads... Headgaskets line up, just not as much openings for water jackets on the 2.5 gaskets as on the 2.2's seems most people have been drilling/dremeling the gaskets to get around the issue I'm getting my heads re-surfaced asap, my 2.2 is blowing smoke out the tail and oil out the maf...

stay away from the egg shape, just think about stalling the engine really hard, all that torque on those flywheel bolts can't be pretty, I'd have a machine shop drill bigger holes than needed, then sleeve the holes down to the proper size and location

here are some more, I had ea81 front struts with the adjustments maxed out when I first built the rig to save on axles, the ea71 struts are now back in with the adjustments ~1/3 up, that brought the front 1.5" up. so far no broken front axles since the strut change...

I'm putting the RX trans into my '91 lego with the 2.5 block/2.2 head frankenmotor. the real reason for me is I want the locked center diff, a slightly lower first gear and awd for the street, I do a lot of irrigation and random ranch work in this rig and with the awd the lego plain sucks offroad, with the locked center I can go out wheeling and keep up with most of the tame rigs in my RX as it is, so into the lego it will go.

Do the lift, it takes some work, but all things are possible. My '79 brat came out well, gets plenty of looks, 3" lift, complete '81 wagon running gear. power steering is possible on a gen 1, you just have to mix and match a bunch of different gen 1 and 2 parts. my next gen 1 project should be fun too: '79 FE coupe (hardtop) ea81 and 4spd d/r from '80 brat 3" lift (gen 2 rear torsion setup, blocks up front)

took to long, caboobaroo beat me to it, ha ha but here it is anyway A couple of things, the dual range 4spd has to be mated with it's larger bellhousing that is on the 1800 motor in the '83 car, the 1600 in the gen 1 brat is way smaller bellhousing, but they swap, or keep the 1800 and the d/r... The transmission mounts will have to be moved, but that's just a bolt change I think? Or get a D/R out of a 80 or 81 brat... the shift linkage will fit, but you will have to cut a hole in the trans tunnel to get the d/r shifter in place. The body lift will bolt up in the front no problem, in the back you will have to fabricate an entirely new setup, the 77-81 brats have a dual rear torsion tube setup. lifted gen 1's are rare, good luck

yup, direct swap, the e-brake will be a little funky to get hooked up but shouldn't be too big of a deal, just some little clips, a drum brake tool will be a huge help getting things back together too.

should work fine, just keep the side case shims matched to their associated ring and pinion, I mixed them up on my 4.11 clutch type LSD swap and the diff slowly ate itself up in 10K miles.

Like ballitch was saying, plenty of wheel spin is associated with a 3.90 d/r and the EJ22, I've blown a few front diffs by running too hard in fwd, with both my ea82T, and my EJ22 mated to 3.90 5spd D/R's the trick is to run in 4wd when your pouring the coal to er' then all you bust is axles and drivelines(ha ha), especially in slippery situations like wet pavement... Archmetis(*sp) has an er27 mated to the 4spd d/r in a hatch, and I believe 88hatchmonster has the ej22 mated to the 4spd d/r as well, wouldn't be worried about too much power(stay with the 1800 if you are), just a lack of fifth gear, oh and the 5spd d/r has a lower first gear than all 4spd d/r's except those made in '80 and '81.

John Bloom did that swap into forrester ranger's ride.. don't really know John's status on this board anymore, but this is the only ea d/r into an ej car that I know of. The only real trick is the front stubb shafts, there are a few way around this.

First off, DO IT! It's really funny to see the look on peoples faces when you pass them uphill in a rusty brat. B/C yer going into a '79 there are a lot of little things that will hold you up. How ya gonna do up yer axles, RX trans has two more splines (25 spline) on the stub shafts, (can't remember if you can swap the inner cups from an ea82 turbo car axle on to your gen 1 axles, but that could be a solution) Turbo or not turbo, I love turbo, but it drinks premium fuel, adds complex exhaust work, funky cooling(your gonna need some crazy radiator hoses). with the turbo you probably would want to re-locate the fuel lines so they arn't right next to a glowing hot turbo. Me thinks the car would be scary fast, with the 22n/a and a 3.90 D/R my brat goes plenty fast, over 100mph and everything just gets flighty. suspension, you are adding a huge amount of weight up front... think helper shocks, If you went turbo you would really want to improve the handling. The xt6 five lug setup would be nice, but there would be plenty to fab, front axles would definitly be homebrew (different hub style). Create rear strut towers... relocate battery, or re-locate the MAF,my battery's on the drivers side, garners is behind the cab underneath Massage, or downright french the frame rails, Transmission mounts driveline again, its a killer setup, but I'm pretty shy on the turbo part. party on.

Can you re-use the buckles on the insides of the seats on a '91 Legacy? wanted to know cause I'm getting a guy to pull the parts for me in BC and he knows nothing about subaru, and if I can re-use the buckles bolted to the seats it means less work to pull the parts. Thanks

compare the 5spd trans x-member, and the 4spd x-member in the donor vehicle with a tape measure, weld some crap together to make it all bolt up, then cut hole for shifter linkage and lengthen the driveline, or use the two piece DL by welding in nuts for the carrier bearing... sounds simple right -N

nope, ea81's have some differences through the years, solid lifters from 80-84, hydro lifters after MY '84, Brats have a hotter cam for more torque(this might end with the hydro lifter motors?). On the '82 brat the carb is a carter weber, rather than the normal hitachi, the carter is worse off than the hicrappy, lots of little stuff, like distributors(nippon denso or hitachi), emmissions crap varies too. almost any of the wiring on a ea71 car can be made to work for a basic ea81 motor swap, in general they run the same carb/sensors, little oddities abound in these swaps, the oil filler tube support bracket rubs the gen 1 master cyl, the air can rubs the gen 1 radiator hose... my favorite badboy ea81: ea81 block, ea71 pistions, decked heads, depending on the decking you can end up with 13:1 compression. then go with the 32/36 weber, or spfi... Oh the '80 and '81 4spd d/r has a lower first gear. the real reason you want an '80 or '81 ea81 brat is the d/r shifter linkage(otherwise you have to cut a hole for the later gen d/r shifter) and the associated 4spd d/r the '78 and older cars are factory catless(non catalyst) makes it really easy to pass emmissions... these things really are legos -later on

welded front diff in a legacy is a kick in the pants, strictly offroad it's all good, unless you really want to turn a corner tight. welded front diff in an '83 toyota pickup, kicks rump roast, turns like, well it doesn't really turn too good, but in the yota you can unlock the front hubs and mob around town.

refer to legacy 777's 4eat to 5mt swap on his website. you don't need the shift lock, or tcu or any of that crap, just jump pin 10&11 on the 12 pin trans connector to bypass the starter interlock, and then pin 18 on one of the ecu's plugs(at/mt identifier wire), I believe it's the 22 pin connector, either needs to be snipped or given a reference voltage depending on what year ej harness you are running... that's all there is too it. oh and when you butch your harness down it will be even more wires gone.