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Hello world! Way back in 2019, I purchased a beaut little 1989 brumby as my first project car. It has a 5-speed transmission, air-con (de-gassed), a new exhaust, an aluminium radiator, relatively fresh chunky tires, and barely any rust or under-body damage as far as I can see; so when I saw it on sale for $500, I knew had to snatch it up! This isn’t to say the car doesn’t have problems, it’s currently unregistered, has no interior, blows smoke like a 2-stroke, sustained many dents in use as a bush-basher, and I don’t appear to be the first amateur to attempt to restore it. I’ve documented the major problems below. The car was all the way down in Batemans Bay when I bought it, so my Uncle had to pick it up for me. The plan was to go get it after a couple of months, but of course, rampant bush-fires and global pandemics conspired to keep me away from my newest pride and joy, to the point that the first time I saw it in person was in August. As things worked out, I am now in Batemans Bay staying at my Uncle's, and I started on the bodywork in October. Unfortunately, as much as I love this car, I have a long history of unfinished projects, so I’ve started this build thread in order to both give myself some accountability, and draw on the knowledge of more experienced enthusiasts to help me finish. Here are some pictures of the project; (I am terrible at documenting things, so I don't have any pictures of the exterior from before I started) The car as it is now; The worst of the rust; The tailgate before, during, and after paint stripping and panel beating; A full centimeter of putty off the tailgate; A small sample of the wiring I will have to deal with; The Interior when I got the car; What I found when I removed the floor vinyl; (The newest newspaper was from Dec 2016) h As you can see, my brumby is currently in that dangerous stage all project cars seem to go through, where they sit un-worked for an indefinite amount of time, while the risk they go unfinished grows as parts slowly disappear. So hopefully this thread gives me that extra bit of motivation to keep going. Thanks for listening!

The biggest difference I have found in the two short blocks is the pistons, the EJ259 block (03-05 2.5 SOHC w/single port and California emissions) has a large dished out section in the piston and the EJ251 block (99-05 2.5 SOHC w/dual ports and federal emissions) has a more traditional and symmetric shape. I have heard from some people that EJ251 heads will work on a EJ259 block and I have also been told that they might not work. Im not sure if there would be issues with valve contact/clearance and compression ratios due to the odd shape of the EJ259 pistons. You can see in the pictures how different the tops of the pistons are.