Paperscale

I was reading the ancient engine swap info thread from Uncle Ed, and he states that you need to change the transmission along with the engine for an ea81 swap into an ea63 car. What is preventing these from mating up? Is it something an adapter plate or some other modification could make work? I see ea71 is a darn near direct swap, but those are even harder for me to come by than an ea81 is.

By not lasting as long, do you mean like they will barely last a year, or just a bit less than normal ones?

Well I found the rattle! One of my exhaust pipes lost a nut, and the other side was coming loose, so it was rattling when moving and shaking the engine. Silly fix.

The low beams on my brat are trash. I've been looking on rock auto for some good options but there's a bunch, and several that claim are nice and bright, but I'm looking to see what you guys would suggest. I don't need super ultra off road Low beams, and I don't want to have to modify anything, just plug and play. I just want something brighter than what I have now. These are the two different ones i was considering, unless you all have some better suggestions. http://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=6319587&cc=1267747&jsn=489&jsn=489&jsn=489&jsn=489 http://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=319216&cc=1267747&jsn=485&jsn=485&jsn=485

Well for now at least I'm just going to chalk it up to the cold weather for how smokey it seems. We had a fairly warm morning here and there was no smoke/steam at all. The source of the rattling is still a mystery. Haven't found anything exceptionally loose or that would be clanging.

Alright, well the cat is newer, but wouldnt it rattle still even if I'm not moving? It's such an odd time that it rattles. Only when driving, and only while accelerating, over 2k rpm. But if I'm cruising, say, at 50 mph, and over 2k, no rattles. Only when I try to go faster. The smoke smells.. sort of sweet I suppose, but like I said only for the first minute after starting, not while I'm driving.

I know, it's old, it's rusty, and in general falling apart. But, it seems to run well. Lately, I've been more nervous about the amount of smoke/steam coming from the exhaust. It's multiplied by the fact I have a huge hole in the muffler so it gets two places to come out of. I don't know if it's been the cold and I'm paranoid, or if I have coolant coming from somewhere, but it's only really smokey/ steamy in the first maybe minute of it being on, then it seems to settle down to a normal amount. Is it typical to be putting out more steam on start up on a cold day? Or should it be fairly even amount from start to normal operating temp? My other oddity, is something I just can't figure out. The car makes a rattling, as if a heat shield is rattling against something, but only on acceleration, above about 2k rpm. When I'm keeping steady speed, there is no rattling. It also doesn't rattle when I am stopped, but rev the engine, it's only when I'm moving forward. I looked under the car and I can't see anything that could make such a racket dangling down and sitting against something. The engine sounds perfectly fine otherwise, as I had thought maybe something was off. And ideas? What might be loose, but not affect the driving? It drives fine, and there's no loss of power or engine struggles. It's not tappets or lifters because it's much louder than those.

My 85 Brat has some shakes. not always though. I assume brakes to be somewhat suspect, but she doesn't pull to any side when slamming the brakes, but there is a bit of steering wheel shake. Also, on the interstate, the steering wheel shakes a bit going about 55-70, but once I reach almost exactly 75, there's no shaking and its nice and smooth. What's the problem then? One, or all of these things? I've had new tires and a balance and alignment done *maybe* 800 miles ago. I wouldn't think brakes would affect normal driving at those certain speeds, but I won't be surprised if that's the cause of the steering wheel shaking when stopping hard.

2nd gen? Would you ship them? I'm in Utah.

I'll have to consider the cheap set. My Brat is in no way pretty, but I'm getting sick of being asked why I don't have any rears at car meets It'd be nice to have anything to put in there. I assume ones without headrests have nothing else that sticks up high, so I could still fit a topper on it, right?

I've been on the hunt since I bought my Brat, and I've seen only one set for sale from a guy in the US that wouldn't ship them, and then a good number of Aussie people, but I doubt shipping from there would be worth it. I'm part of a bunch of FB groups, but theres never any in the US, or near me. How do you guys find them?! And what would I expect to pay for a set of second gen seats?

Yo, those seats are SUPER cool. Id buy it for the seats alone haha. Man I feel better about the rust on mine now. Thats one rusty turd for sure.

So I took the topper off my Brat to move some larger things, and when I did, I noticed a lot of the rubber seal was no longer attached to the topper. Most of it is falling off. Anyone have some good suggestions, or things they've done to fix their seals? I've been told to try some screws to hold the rubber back up and silicone around it, but the top itself seems so thin, I don't want to damage it, or compromise the already old rubber by drilling into it.

So just step on the gas with nothing on at all? The key doesn't need to be in to.. activate it?

So it doesn't really seem to be a problem, more than an an annoyance. When I start it the first time, it's only idling at like 400-500. It will stay like that, and if I press the gas hard enough it will bounce up to a normal idle and stay there like nothing was wrong, buyost of the time it will just die. Then, I start it again and it idles at 2000 till I press the gas and it will go back down to a normal 1000-ish and I have no problems from then on. Is there something that is causing this? It's not cold out any more. Is this some weird carburator thing I'm not familiar with? Again, it doesn't give me any problems when driving or any time after this, it just seems.. odd.