October 5, 201312 yr So a buddy of mine and myself picked up a 1980 brat with a 5spd before it was too late. If you remember me posting about two in the So.ca for 700 each a while back this is one of them. The kid that bought it broke some things and now it is up to us to fix it and bring it back to life. When we rolled up to check it out it was sitting on a flat tire and wouldn't start. We swapped a spare onto the flat tire and After tinkering with it we realized it was just running too lean so we adjusted the carb and got it started. We tried to limp it home and it died a few times. After checking under the hood to see what was going on we realized that the idle is all wonky and the accelerator cable is so stretched out that it wasn't moving the throttle when you stepped on the pedal. after rigging it up we were able to drive it home. Last night we were tinkering again and we are pretty sure a head gasket blew because now the oil is all milky and it spit up oil through the air cleaner....so now the fun begins. Our plan is to get the motor out pull the heads and check to see if they are warped at all. We will do all the necessary labor to get it going and while we have the motor out we will be changing every gasket we can think of and probably do a full motor rebuild. So keep checking back for updates. We ended up paying $300 for this one and keep checking back for updates!
October 5, 201312 yr Author It's crazy to see all the differences in smog equipment from CA model and mine which is a 49 state and federal smog model
October 6, 201312 yr Author So here are a few more photos. Everything is in pretty decent shape besides blowing the head gasket.
October 6, 201312 yr PCV should be what's causing the oil buildup in the air cleaner. If the oil is milky, then it's most likely HG. Its also possible that water found its way in some other way.
October 6, 201312 yr Author Yea we are pretty sure the HG went. We were messing with the carb and we think something got stuck because it idled at about 6k dead cold when we started it and then a few minutes later the oil was milky but no oil in the radiator. Something is probably wrong with the PCV as well but we are going to tear the whole motor apart and rebuild so we will find out all the damage when we get to it!
October 16, 201312 yr Author So We got it all primed and some dents knocked out. Played with the torsion bars a bit waiting probably til next week to pull the motor.
October 16, 201312 yr Looking good already! Keep up the good work. I love seeing these old classics that seem on their way to the scrap yard get turned around and fixed right back up.
October 29, 201312 yr Author So over the weekend we pulled the motor and replaced the Headgaskets. After we got it all back in and back together we went to fire it and it won't turn over. We are fairly confident it will just need the valves adjusted Hopefully getting back on it in the next few days.
November 14, 201312 yr Author update! We got the motor turning over and running like a champ. We ran seafoam through the system a few times to get the internals cleaned out and things seem to be running great! We also did some body work and painted it and dialed in the ride height. Now we just need to figure out if we have any back fees on the BRAT and all the dmv bull spoob hopefully it will be on the road soon!
November 14, 201312 yr Author Here is a better side shot of the new ride height and progress of the paint Untitled by Kevin Talley, on Flickr Edited November 14, 201312 yr by Kevint143
November 14, 201312 yr Author Yeah this one is my buddies but I loaned him money to buy it and have basically helped with every bit of the rebuild so figured I would share with everyone!
November 26, 201312 yr Author d by Kevin Talley, on Flickr Subaru Shenanigans by Kevin Talley, on Flickr Subaru Shenanigans by Kevin Talley, on Flickr this weekend we hooked up some relays to the headlights to try and get them a little brighter.
December 10, 201312 yr Author So this weekend I decided I wanted to get rid of my hood scoop and gave it to Mike and we threw it on. Hood scoop came off a 02 wrx Untitled by Kevin Talley, on Flickr Untitled by Kevin Talley, on Flickr Untitled by Kevin Talley, on Flickr
March 11, 201412 yr Author Mike decided he wanted to build a Buick Wildcat so this is going away to fund that and i wasn't going to let it go to anyone else =)
March 14, 201412 yr Author Untitled by Kevin Talley, on Flickr Untitled by Kevin Talley, on Flickr Brought it home tonight.
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