October 31, 201015 yr So I got this 1986 Brat when I was 12 to do a restoration with my dad, and to learn about cars. It didn't look nearly as good when I first got it Now I'm 18 and the Brat is going into it's final (for now) build up. After driving it around this summer with the stock 1.8 and comparing it to my 02 wrx. I wanted something a little better! So I have started doing a frankenmotor Ej swap as of yesterday when I, on a whim, decided to pull the whole drivetrain out of my Brat! Future plans include a five lug swap, suspension upgrades and brakes of from a 97 legacy GT! I also am going to use an ObdII harness! Sorry about the size of the pic, I can not for the life of me figure out how to make it smaller! I will post more as I go along! -SB
October 31, 201015 yr Author Just pulled the whole OBDII harness out of my 97 Impreza 1.8 brighton coupe, and am going to have to stop with progress as I'm off to school this week where I'll be building my 2.5!. Plans for next weekend, pull the diff and trans out of my outback donor car and get ready to put the drive train in!
October 31, 201015 yr your going to make it all wheel drive? you should swap a 5 speed d/r into it. you already have a badass awd. make the brat a mobber. just my .02 Ryan
October 31, 201015 yr Author I have a five speed d/r but I'm going to put that in my 82 gl wagon because I need that to have a fifth gear real bad! And I have like 5 awd legacy transmissions just lying around needing to be used! Also I think awd would be a good life choice with the engine I'm putting into it. Plus with the amount of $ and time I have put into the body I don't want to beat it off road I have a $150 Nissan pathfinder for that Edited October 31, 201015 yr by 1982gl4
November 1, 201015 yr I have a five speed d/r but I'm going to put that in my 82 gl wagon because I need that to have a fifth gear real bad! And I have like 5 awd legacy transmissions just lying around needing to be used! Also I think awd would be a good life choice with the engine I'm putting into it. Plus with the amount of $ and time I have put into the body I don't want to beat it off road I have a $150 Nissan pathfinder for that Don't let others tell you what you should do with your Brat. You're doing fine. That's a tall project but keep at it and you'll get her done. As to making your pics smaller, open them with Microsoft Paint, click on Image, then Stretch/Skew, enter the size you want (you're at 100 to start/ I usually go to 35 for both vertical and horizontal) and re-name the smaller image and save. Not elegant (and there are better ways to do it) but Paint is free and works for me for the few times I want to reduce the size of jpg.
November 1, 201015 yr Author Don't let others tell you what you should do with your Brat. You're doing fine. That's a tall project but keep at it and you'll get her done. As to making your pics smaller, open them with Microsoft Paint, click on Image, then Stretch/Skew, enter the size you want (you're at 100 to start/ I usually go to 35 for both vertical and horizontal) and re-name the smaller image and save. Not elegant (and there are better ways to do it) but Paint is free and works for me for the few times I want to reduce the size of jpg. Thanks! And I have a MacBook... I'll figure out something to make them smaller this thing must have something like paint
November 1, 201015 yr By no means am i trying to tell you how to do your project, i was merely giving a suggestion. Sounds like you know exactly what you want to do and you have all the parts you need. That being said good luck with your project, you're doing a great job.
November 1, 201015 yr Author By no means am i trying to tell you how to do your project, i was merely giving a suggestion. Sounds like you know exactly what you want to do and you have all the parts you need. That being said good luck with your project, you're doing a great job. Thank's and I have no problem with people giving me suggestions, half the time people on here give me advice I would never think of so thank's! But this Brat is going in another direction, plus they have made It pretty much a pain to go offroading anywhere in this state :/ I also have a Gl wagon I plan on lifting, but that's another story... -SB
November 1, 201015 yr Nice. Another addition to the Frankenmotor army. If you plan to ever touch the gas pedal under, say, 30 mph, then you'll want the AWD transmission:banana: My work is blocking your pics. Are you doing the swap to the Brat in your avatar? Jacob
November 1, 201015 yr Author My work is blocking your pics. Are you doing the swap to the Brat in your avatar? Yes sir! It's the love of my life! Hahaha, I can not wait until it's all back together!
November 4, 201015 yr Author I just pulled my Ej block all apart New rings, bearings, and pretty much everything else! I'm going to seat all the valves in my ej18 heads this weekend and she will be ready to be dropped in in the next couple of weeks!
December 5, 201015 yr Author This weeks progress, new valve seals, and some paint! I also started on the harness :-\ this is going to take some time. The engine has all new bearings and rings, and is ready for heads! I was wondering what other people had done to cut the head gaskets? Do most people just drill holes where needed? Here are some pics!
December 5, 201015 yr Nice work! Is there a special engine paint for aluminum? It seems like no matter how carefully I prep aluminum parts the paint just doesn't adhere like it does to cast iron parts. Love the pics!
December 5, 201015 yr Author I'm sure there is special paint, but did I use it nope! I'm sure it will all flake off pretty quickly, but it will look nice long enough for some pics . I sanded and cleaned everything really well, and then primed the heck out of it so I hope it will stick for a while, but I will most likely be redoing them all in a years time.
December 5, 201015 yr This weeks progress, new valve seals, and some paint! I also started on the harness :-\ this is going to take some time. The engine has all new bearings and rings, and is ready for heads! I was wondering what other people had done to cut the head gaskets? Do most people just drill holes where needed? Here are some pics! From what I've read, it's a crapshoot between cooling and gasket integrity. People who opt for cooling usually drill holes where needed. I opted for gasket integrity and left the gaskets how they were. I don't know of anyone having any issues either way. Jacob
December 6, 201015 yr Author From what I've read, it's a crapshoot between cooling and gasket integrity. People who opt for cooling usually drill holes where needed. I opted for gasket integrity and left the gaskets how they were. I don't know of anyone having any issues either way. Thanks! I think I will opt for that method as well, drilling holes in head gaskets doesn't sound like a good time, plus I have changed enough of these to know that taking away integrity is probably a bad idea, I'm planing on running some decent fans ( I have some front mount ones in a volvo) and possibly a radiator out of a Legacy or Impreza.
December 17, 201015 yr Author Today I re-finished my wheels, did a five lug swap (on the rear thus far) thanks to Psyko! I'm curently trying to figure out what I'm going to use for struts up front looks like 92 legacy struts will work pretty well! I know you guys hate pics! And the (other besides the engine) new heart of the beast!
December 18, 201015 yr Author Got the engine back together for the most part and just waiting for a few more parts for that! I also ran into a problem with my five lug swap my radius arms don't seem to be right :-\ any suggestions?
January 4, 201115 yr Author Some more work done. mostly on the subframe. It has an EA81 Turbo PS rack in it now, and I'm going to use the ea82 lines. Anyway here are some pics I'm using the ears off from an ea82 subframe as well so I can use the xt6 control arms
January 5, 201115 yr Author Control arms in Also you do not have to use the EA82 radius arms the EA81's fit just fine
January 8, 201115 yr Author Got the five lug swap done-ish it's back on all four wheels again anyway. I need to figure out tire rod ends now because the ea81 ones no longer work due to a wider track, and the legacy hubs. Right now I kind of have a crazy strut combo going on. It has gen one legacy struts, impreza springs and ea81 mounts. I may have to do some fitment later with a BFH, but I think they will work alright! Also have the new brakes fitted and the look SWEET! I know everyone on here hates pics
January 8, 201115 yr Looking great! Keep up the good work. Those rotors look shiny with the painted calipers.
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