Hello fellow Subaru fans,

 

Backdrop:

So a few years ago when I still lived in Indiana, I saw a 1982 Subaru BRAT on craigslist for $2700.  I had never seen a Subaru BRAT before.  A truck with T-Tops and seats in the back?  That's pretty 80's!  I looked around for how many there were for sale in the area on craigslist: 0.  Surrounding area: 0.  United States using searchtempest: only about 20 at the time and most were beaten up or rusted.  This one had spent most its life in San Diego and then a garage, had no rust, 4 year old paint job and still ran (not well, but ran).  I bought it that night.

 

I realized pretty quickly after driving it that it was a dog... 73hp from the factory and after sitting for as long as this one had, I bet it wasn't topping 50hp.  With the rebuild path requiring a decent amount of work only to get back to 73hp, I figured an engine swap was the better choice.  I've been shopping for EJ22's for months now when I came across a deal on a wrecked 2002 WRX that I couldn't pass up: so it looks like I'm going to be building a Subaru BRAT WRX :-)

 

The Build: Death and Taxes:

I did some research after buying it and learned that the jump seats were installed to prevent a 25% tax on imported trucks from Japan (source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subaru_BRAT), which I thought was pretty clever.  The import tax for passengar cars (which is legally what the BRAT was thanks to these seats) was only 2.5%.  Maybe this makes me a bad citizen, but I love it when I find a way to pay less taxes!  Once I had the BRAT in my garage I sat in the jump seats of the BRAT and realized that if this thing were to roll over, you are most certainly dead.  I'm 5'11" and my entire head sits higher than the top of the cab.  This reminded me of a quote from Benjamin Franklin in a letter to Jean-Baptiste Leroy in 1789 (source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_and_taxes_(idiom))

 

"Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes."

 

My goal is to lift the BRAT ~6" in the front and ~4" in the back (this should level it) and use the full drivetrain from the impreza: from the engine to the wheels (eventually upgrade wheels and tires), including suspension and brakes.  I'll be designing brackets to mount everything and attempting to fabricate them myself.  I'm a mechanical engineer so I'm not too worried about designing the brackets, more so my fabrication skills :-/  Worst case I'll outsource the fabrication.  The fab shop I use at work is full of car guys so hopefully they'll give me a good price when they hear what I'm doing...

 

I've never blogged or posted to a forum before, but I'll try to keep this updated as I go.  I've already read a lot of the threads on here for similar builds but if anyone has any specific advice feel free to post it!  

 

 

 

Nice hit, enjoy the ride and let us know how it goes.  Glad that brat is in good hands. 

 

I'm a mechanical engineer so I'm not too worried about 

That often means academic, limited mechanical abilities and experiences, inflated sense of expertise, qualifications, and skills, and sitting in offices talking about big screen TV's, craft brew, and restaurants. Skills and openness to learning new things is welcome to us engineers as a whole!

You're in for a huge project. Almost this identical project (full drivetrain/suspension swap) has been talked about hundreds of times over the years. To my knowledge, it's only been finished once.

 

 

I recommend you spend some time with the retrofitting faq, and the search tool. There are recipes for a similar result that require hundreds of hours less fab time.

You got a sweet ride there! I'm an Indiana native as well, now residing on Florida's west coast. Welcome to the forum!

 

My advice would be to swap the engine, trans and rr diff first, then see how you like that before swapping suspension, lifting, etc. That's going to be a huge project anyway, and many, many, people get overwhelmed with that alone. One chunk at a time.

Nice hit, enjoy the ride and let us know how it goes.  Glad that brat is in good hands. 

 

 

That often means academic, limited mechanical abilities and experiences, inflated sense of expertise, qualifications, and skills, and sitting in offices talking about big screen TV's, craft brew, and restaurants. Skills and openness to learning new things is welcome to us engineers as a whole!

 

I'm certainly getting into this project to learn!  Professionally I integrate diesel engines into industrial equipment, so custom engine mounts, cooling packages, wiring harnesses and drivelines are problems I encounter regularly.  Custom suspension not so much, so the learning curve is going to be steep there :-/  I also live with a diesel mechanic who works on heavy duty trucks, so I'm hoping between the two of us (and USMB support) we can figure it out.

To clear the valve covers on that dohc ej20 your going to have to notch a significant amount of your unibody rails out. The ej22 and ej22T barely fit in a second gen like yours. I'm working on swapping a ej22T into my 82 glf which will fit without notching but I will have to pull the engine or jack it up to ever change the valve cover gaskets. I'm already living that life in my 2 door hathcback that's lifted 6" with a ej22.

It's the timing belt covers that are a tight fit between the rails on this generation. It's been done without notching by a couple Australians but the plastic timing covers literally touch the chassis rails.

turbosubarubrat and 86BRATMAN I agree, I expect to have to cut and reinforce the unibody rails with the bigger engine.  I anticipate even more cutting when trying to get the larger transmission to fit.  The lift will be a spacer lift (similar to the SJR kits) which will space the transmission out from the body a little,but probably not enough.  I think I will end up having to make a transmission tunnel.

The transmission will not be an issue, especially with the lift. A stock height 4spd 4wd ea81 tunnel can hold an ej 5mt awd trans with a bit of hammering in a couple spots.

Transmission, engine width, fueling, wiring, cooling, etc. All peanuts.....

 

 

 

Fabbing a modified-MacPherson rear suspension onto a unibody designed for transverse torsion bars and trailing arms.....that's the nightmare. With no payoff. By lifting it, you're completely negating any geometry advantages you might get. XT6 rear hubs are tough to come by, but get your hands on a set of those, and you almost completely eliminate all fabrication (and you'll be able to sell the arms, knuckles, hubs, and struts off your donor car....probably still come out ahead).