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Where do i get good port/valve work done?


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i just want my ea81 cleaned up and smoothed out, get the intake matched to the heads, the weber matched to intake, the heads matched to exhaust.....

 

i figure i can do all the bowl work myself.

 

who does a good multi angle valve seat? at least 3 angle.

 

which brings up a good question. are the ea81 seats 3 angle originally?>

or just 2 angle?

 

it doesnt need to be a fancy shop. i know there are guys on here that do great

work right in their garage.

 

just be aware i am on a budget here, i am not a microsoft executive.

 

my brat is stock, i just have the weber conversion and a magnaflow catalytic converter setup.

 

also, i know im throwing 5 hundred questions in one thread, but kiss my butt,,,,

 

does anyone know of a good mandrel bender i can hire?

 

thanks ahead of time!!

 

p.s. ive said it before and im sayin it again, i am a good/decent mig welder with all my own gear. if anyone on here needs help, let me know, i wont

chew you a new rear hole, people on here have been real generous towards me, id like to pass that friendliness on.

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It would help to know where you are located ;).

 

Also - it is my opinion that if you do *nothing* else you should change the cam. There is no single other modification that can match it for price/performance. Talk to Qman, or just call Delta Camshaft in Tacoma WA. I beleive the price is less than $100..... from my experience it is only a fool that doesn't change the cam first - that one change can make all the other things you are planning SOOOO much more worth it.

 

Nothing wrong with a good valve grind - I agree with that.

 

I wouldn't worry about doing much port-matching. The EA81 has some pretty piss-poor porting - not a lot you can do and the cost is pretty high. Personally I wouldn't take the time - but if you have it to spare I don't suppose you will hurt anything.

 

The next mod *I* would do is to change to EA82 SPFI pistons - that will increase the compression to about 9.5:1 - which is much better.

 

Then add the EA82 SPFI system to replace the carb. That will take advantage of all the mods you perform without any tuning of a carb. No guesswork. Simple and reliable.

 

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maple valley, washington.

 

yea i had intended to just shave the deck like .02"

 

wouldnt that have the same effect as the longer pistons?

 

 

what kind of cam would you recommend for mostly highway and city miles?

 

from what i gather, there are just 2 ea81 cams from delta. a low rpm torque and a high rpm horsepower cam.

 

do they affect gas mileage?

 

i dont mind doing the porting, should only be like 3 hundred cash. for a basic street port job.

 

not sure about the injection. one of the main reasons i bought a brat in the first place was for simplicity and i have a survivalist mentality. i need at least one reliable vehicle that i can fix or McGyver in case of zombie apocolypse or world war 3. or just a Red Dawn thing. since we cant depend on patrick swayze saving us these days.

 

i never understood the benefit of a single point throttle body injection, over the basic carburetor. is single point injection REALLY any better than a carb?

 

yea i know a late 90s and newer MPFI system is superior in performance and fuel efficiency. but even a brand new system is all computers and circuits and plastic.

 

my impression of fuel injection on a rough and ready, git er' dun kinda truck, is that by the time fuel injection technology was developed enough to be worth the trouble, it had become TOO developed to work on for me and neighbor jim bob and lil joe down the street.

 

am i wrong>? maybe i am. i am always open to others opinions.

keep in mind my mechanical skills are limited and basic.

 

im not a limp pansy yuppie that needs to take my truck to the shop anytime i need an oil change or spark plugs.

 

i grew up taking care of that stuff with my hands, callouses and dirty fingernails, etc....

 

but i rebuilt my first generation, 1967 850cfm quadrajet a few years back, and it BARELY got done. it was REALLY testing my mental abilities.

big and heavy and dirty, okay i got it done. small and precise and ten thousand tiny parts, no thanks.

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p.s how do the ea82 spfi pistons compare to the ea71 pistons?

 

dont the ea71 pistons have the same effect on compression?

 

i see ea71 pistons on ebay ALL the time, they are very common.

 

i have never seen ea82 spfi pistons for sale.

 

please advise????

 

also, thank you for taking time to give me advice.

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maple valley, washington.

 

yea i had intended to just shave the deck like .02"

 

wouldnt that have the same effect as the longer pistons?

 

It would have some effect, but the piston change is a *better* solution to increasing compression because it does not change your valve geometry nor the fitment of your manifolds.

 

what kind of cam would you recommend for mostly highway and city miles?

 

from what i gather, there are just 2 ea81 cams from delta. a low rpm torque and a high rpm horsepower cam.

 

The HP cam is not what I would use - the problem there is that the power increase is all above 4k RPM. Which is useless with the stock transmission.

 

do they affect gas mileage?

 

That would be a question for Delta - I would say they probably would to some extent. But if you increase the compression you increase the thermal effeciency of the engine so it might actually get better if you can keep your foot out of it.

 

i dont mind doing the porting, should only be like 3 hundred cash. for a basic street port job.

 

not sure about the injection. one of the main reasons i bought a brat in the first place was for simplicity and i have a survivalist mentality. i need at least one reliable vehicle that i can fix or McGyver in case of zombie apocolypse or world war 3. or just a Red Dawn thing. since we cant depend on patrick swayze saving us these days.

 

i never understood the benefit of a single point throttle body injection, over the basic carburetor. is single point injection REALLY any better than a carb?

 

Yes - it's a lot better. It handles changes in altitude, temperature (engine and air), and driving conditions without any fuss at all. Not to mention it magically adjusts itself to any changes you make to the engine (within reason of course - adding a turbo or something radical like that would confuse it) - so when you port/polish, change compression, add cam, etc, etc - it just works. No tuneing, no fuss.

 

yea i know a late 90s and newer MPFI system is superior in performance and fuel efficiency. but even a brand new system is all computers and circuits and plastic.

 

It does have a computer (they never fail) - but the system is very simple. There are only about half a dozen sensors for the SPFI. There's WAY fewer vacuum lines (two - which can both be eliminated for the swap) and the system is 100% self-diagnostic. Jim bob and lil joe would probably be confused but frankly the system is very simple. You plug a connector under the dash and it flashes codes in morse (long and short) that tell you what it's problem is. Quite frankly it's a LOT more reliable than a carb - any carb. I've rebuilt many stock carbs and rarely seen one that made it past 200k still working in a *really* driveable way. I've seen plenty of SPFI system make 350k with nary a hitch. The components are THAT reliable. I put a system on my Brat from a donor car with 254k on it. Runs like a top. Another I just installed on my lifted wagon has 179k on all the parts. Again no issues - runs great.

 

my impression of fuel injection on a rough and ready, git er' dun kinda truck, is that by the time fuel injection technology was developed enough to be worth the trouble, it had become TOO developed to work on for me and neighbor jim bob and lil joe down the street.

 

FI runs at any angle (no more float issues), it has no tiny passages to clog up with junk, it has no valves or diaphrams to wear out. It's got some electrical solenoids (a magnet with a spring loaded plunger - this isn't rocket science), a couple sensors (Coolant temp, O2 sensor, TPS, Crank angle (distributor), etc), an injector, a fuel pump (21 psi), a computer, and an ignition amp (transistor). That's about it.

 

am i wrong>? maybe i am. i am always open to others opinions.

keep in mind my mechanical skills are limited and basic.

 

Can you use a meter? Check resistance, voltage, and continuity? That's all you need to know. Familarize yourself with the basic tests and how to pull the codes - troublshooting is similar to a carb - do you have air, fuel, and spark - if one is missing why? Etc...... and of course you have this board. We can walk you through any problem you might encounter..... but if you really take a look at past postings the number of actual SPFI problems that people have tried to solve is very low. It's usually a bad coolant temp sensor or something equally simple. You can keep most of those parts in the glove-box for spares if you like. And the system was used from '86 to '94 and from '88 on it was used *exclusively* except on turbo's. I would say the SPFI system is a very under-appreciated part of *why* Subaru has the reputation for reliability that they do. The EA82 engine had enough problems with the timing belt system - if it had a crap FI system to boot there wouldn't be any of them left on the road. But the reality is that the SPFI has been the silent champion of the Loyale body cars. It's only due to it's fearsome reliability that so many of them are still with us despite their value being nearly zilch.

 

im not a limp pansy yuppie that needs to take my truck to the shop anytime i need an oil change or spark plugs.

 

i grew up taking care of that stuff with my hands, callouses and dirty fingernails, etc....

 

but i rebuilt my first generation, 1967 850cfm quadrajet a few years back, and it BARELY got done. it was REALLY testing my mental abilities.

big and heavy and dirty, okay i got it done. small and precise and ten thousand tiny parts, no thanks.

 

Q-Jet's have their strange issues - I rebuilt one for my '69 GMC about a year ago. But I've rebuild a lot of carbs before that. It was definitely differerent does have a LOT of parts. Strangely it runs very good despite it's high level of complexity. Not so with the EA81 stock carbs. I like the Q-Jet. I do NOT like the Hitachi's. Weber's are alright and definitely where you will *have* to go if you are not going to do the SPFI...

 

For more info on the SPFI (don't be scared off by it's apparent complexity - really it's not that bad), look at my conversion manual:

 

http://home.comcast.net/~trilinear/EA81_SPFI.html

 

GD

Edited by GeneralDisorder
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p.s how do the ea82 spfi pistons compare to the ea71 pistons?

 

dont the ea71 pistons have the same effect on compression?

 

The compression increase is better with the SPFI pistons and they are a newer, better design and stronger too. Remember they came from a 90 HP engine designed to run at that high compression. The EA71 pistons came from a 65 HP engine designed to run at lower compression.

 

i see ea71 pistons on ebay ALL the time, they are very common.

 

i have never seen ea82 spfi pistons for sale.

 

please advise????

 

also, thank you for taking time to give me advice.

 

I would pickup some used one's from a member here - try the wanted forum. Pistons aren't typically a wear item unless scuffed to oblivion.

 

No problem - love talking EA81's. Still my favorite Subaru engine.....

 

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