UnorganizedMechanic

The aforementioned engine set up and rebuilt in the bay. Fingers crossed my skills have not waned over the years.

The new-ish engine. Fully rebuilt, slightly questionable, but hopefully reliable.

I suppose the first thing people will as you is what year and model car you're talking about. How did you check for spark and fuel? Which fuses?

If the brakes grab and release properly, the tires spin freely when off the ground and the alignment is within specs yet still pulling, try cross-rotating the front tires. It's possible tire conicity is causing the problem. Edit, just re-read the OP. You've had the problem before and after replacing 4 tires. Sorry about that. But who knows, maybe. Good luck.

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I ended up finding a nice fellow locally who sold me a used block. Unfortunately it had a rod knock, but the rest of the block is pristine. Good people out there, or just luck. But I'm going to use pieces from both to make one good one. Cannibalize and modify is my motto. Luckily it's the con rod, not the main. Time to check clearances. Up, up, and away!!!

That indeed it is. I've had, and will probably have the Brat bug for a long time to come. Glad there are people like you out there helping us addicts.

A glorious hunk of junk. A little before and after of the bearing surfaces. Took the old 400 grit wrapping and shoelace trick and got them to where I won't hate myself for it.

The case before going balls deep in cleaning and rehabilitation. The cylinders after taking a glazing stone, ball hone, then a honing stone, then ball hone again. Gonna run what I brung!

They're getting harder to find, and some guys are asking $400-$500 for a used engine WITH a rod knock. They must have the solid gold bearings installed. As long as they're still on the market when I need it, I'll likely be willing to step out of my comfort zone to acquire one...within reason of course. I"m going to post some cleaner pics of the cylinder walls as I plan to run them. They look worse for wear, but they'll be usable enough. She's rough, but I like her like that.

It's a tactic to make JB weld or a similar epoxy stronger. Some people have mixed in aluminum drill filings or similar metal as to what it's being used on. The equivalent of rebar in concrete I suppose.

Hehe, I like it. In Soviet Russia, car smoke you! I think I've decided to go for it. I'm putting some new rings and bearings in it, honing the walls until I feel OK, then praying as I start it up. Most likely running a thicker oil and we'll see what the speed gods have in store for me. Dang, that's awesome. But I'm in California and who knows what shipping would be like. If the poopoo hits the wall, for sure I'd appreciate having the option. Thanks DLGL8388. The price of boring it out, putting new pistons and rings would be probably the same, or more, as getting a used motor.

After splitting the block and freeing everything from the cylinders on my 1984 Brat's EA81, I was left with rusty and questionable walls. All the rust is gone and I put a deglazer and ball hone to smooth it as much as I could but I'm still left with almost imperceptible pitting and stains. Anybody just say fuggedaboutit, put it back together with new rings looking like that and have little to no problems? I'm trying to save money but fully ready to bite the bullet in the future if a cleaner block if one comes up. Long story short, in your collective experiences do you think these walls are acceptable? I'm willing to take a chance. I'm also ready to get a few harder stones for my cylinder hone and just go to town until it's smooth enough. Not sure how these engines take to it though. Any, and all advice is greatly appreciated.

A cocktail of ATF, acetone, Marvel Mystery Oil, diesel, and eye of newt. Soaked each set of cylinders for a few days and hit it with hammers. No luck. Then, I applied an appropriate amount of hydraulic force and BLAM!!!! She busted loose.

There may be a place in my heart for Evaporust if this thing breaks loose after sitting for a week topped up with that black magic juice. One bank down, one more to go.

It's been a while since I've seen it, but a tire may balance well, but it'll still have RFV(radial force variation) that may creep up at odd times and need to be addressed. One more thing to consider I suppose. Good luck.

This hunk of junk is registered. The engine is out. The cylinders look like poo. PB blaster didn't do much. Trans/marvel/diesel cocktail didn't help much to loosen the pistons. Attempting the old Coca-Cola sauce to loosen the rust. Evapo-rust is on the shopping list. Lots of hammering and torching the pistons yet to come.

So many uses for baking tins, I love it. Here in California there are more hoops to jump through than a seal in a circus when doing engine conversions of that extent. Plus it's more money I'm trying to not spend. Good idea though and I'd love to do it, but as for now I'm going to crack open the ea81 carefully and see what I've got to work with. Plus a brand used ea81 so far is around $300 - $400 USD from these local maniacs that horde them. If anything, it'll be something fun to document and share. Thanks for the comment @el_freddo.

After long hours of PB blaster, torches, slide hammering, cursing, crying, kicking, torching, cutting, prying, yelling, and more hammering, it finally came up. A possible bent intake manifold, but who cares? I won.