The Beast I Drive

If you were on my side of the mountains Id come over and help ya out, but yeah... -Bill

I think it needs a lift -Bill

I just use whatever chain I have laying around... Usually nothing smaller than 5/16" diameter links, but I have used smaller... Ive pulled Big Block Ford and Chevy motors with the same chains. On a Subaru engine that I can pick up myself, I really dont see the risk being that high... When I buy new chain I get it at Ace becasue its closer, but If I wanted like Grade 8 strength I could go to my local farm fabrication shop, they can get anything... But like I said, what I used works... -Bill

I usually have all kinds of parts like that, engines, trannies, etc... But nothing thats ready to drop in and go... And shipping would be kinda spendy...

I think you should press forth with the restoration, even if it has to sit on the backburner for a while, these cars aren't very common... However, IF you do decide to sell it, I have a particular interest in this car and with the shape it is in it would be PERFECT for what I want to do to it (think G-Machine/Pro-touring but on a smaller, less-powerful scale) If it comes to that -Bill

For being the prototype/test mule I could do you a 4" lift for $200, a 6" for $300, just because I need someone to try them out and say "wow, this is great stuff!" The most difficult part is really just figuring the angles in the rear, Ive done enough fronts that they aren't a problem. The rears are different because of the angle the outer torsion bar mounts sit at. On a side note, you will need some kind of spacers for the rear wheels or they will rub on the control arms, Gen 1's have the least amount of backspace from the hub surface of any of the EA series cars, about a 1" spacer should do the trick with Toyota offset wheels... -Bill

I think I have one of those, Ill have to look. I probably have 3 or 4... -Bill

How high do you want to go with it? Im planning on making some 4" lifts soon, I helped Jayare12 fix the camber issues he had with the back of his Brat and I have a bunch of Brats here to play with. Where are you located? If you are anywhere close to Toppenish, WA maybe you could come by and we can get that all set up and Ill make you a great deal on a lift for being my guinea pig I already make Gen 2 and Gen 3 lifts, but I havent done a complete Gen 1 lift yet... Also, how soon do you want it? Im pretty busy until after WCSS 11 what with getting the Beast ready for Evans Creek and makin some parts for a few other guys... -Bill

Nice job on the steering linkage, I dont really like what I did with my Hatch, I took out the rag joint and bolted the shaft directly to the input shaft on the rack, then clocked the rack with a custom shim about oh 5-10 degrees (I dont remember) and then lengthened an EA82 double U-joint piece and put that in. It works, has no binding at all, but I dont like that there is no shock absorbtion of any kind, and it looks really hokie/flimsy where I took out the rag joint and bolted the 2 shafts together... But If I ever finish it I will convert to Power steering and open a new can of worms... Just curious, have you built custom rear axles for it yet? I plan on trying the GD formula, EA82 DOJs on the EA81 axles... More flex room when I get my Brat lifted... -Bill

What year and model might help... -Bill

Actually I built most of that lift.... -Bill

I think you are on to something... Lengthening your control arms by about 1" would give you better camber and make the Legacy axles fit better, as well as possibly solve your sway bar issues. Or, you could just cut the sway bar mounts off and move them 1" outboard and it would be a lot less work... -Bill

Nice! Its good to finally see pics of that thing, looks pretty sweet... Are you sure those are 13" wheels? the tires look bigger than 185/80 R13 but maybe its just me... -Bill

No road salt That might be changing soon though, but up until now they never salted the roads in the winter around here Oh, and some Brats are totally OK to off-roadify, like my Black one, if it comes with every body panel trashed and evidence of being T-boned and kinda fixed, along with a host of other "issues" there really is no hope of it ever being nice, so what other options would you have? Hope you get it running good, and if that is a Black interior I am extremely jealous, I dont think Ive ever seen an EA81 Black interior... -Bill

You really can't leave it in the "stock" location, its attached to the crossmember which is now 4" lower than stock, so the bar is still in the stock location relative to the lift... The bar is hitting the tie rods IIRC from when I looked at it, I think it needed to be rotated a bit to clear, so new endlinks would have to do that... BUT my memory fails me this time, I cant remember exactly what we talked about doing... -Bill

Is that a Black interior??? Nice score! -Bill

I love having the front doors off, I modified my hinges so all I have to do is pull the pins and off they come, Im going to try to make some Jeep-style hinges when I get a chance after WCSS 11 though because after sitting all winter with mud and sand in them, the pins did NOT want to come out this spring :-\. Personally I dont really like the look of the back doors off, but it would be cool for the passengers -Bill

Oh no, your fit is definitely worse than mine was, mine was off only by thousandths, 1/8" max, but it was just enough that I couldnt get the bolts in. I think Ill just run regular NA 1600 pistons in mine because I want about 10.5:1 compression... Might have to use 1800 pistons for that though, guess Im going to have to start using some math to make my ideas more realistic On a side note, Ive been using studs to mount my intake manifolds and thermostat housings now, I can torque them to 20 lbs instead of like 7. And it looks sweet, maybe look into having ARP make you a custom set, I just make mine out of B7 Metric threaded rods, but for something as trick as your car it would be killer to have a custom ARP set with 12 point Stainless nuts... Im gonna try this out on my water pumps too... Possibly the oil pump as well. Basically anything that has a gasket between it will get studs and stainless nuts. -Bill

That's odd that your manifold fits worse than my JDM Dual carb manifold, Im running the 1400 DP heads though, perhaps they are taller? Mine fit pretty close, but not close enough to bolt up... Yours looks quite out of whack compared to mine... I plan on having my block milled down though to make mine work, maybe if you throw some lower compression (EA81T 0r EA82T) pistons in there you can have the block milled down enough to make it work? As long as the coolant and oil passages stay in tact it should be fine... -Bill

Looks real good man, especially cuz of the green -Bill

I do have a pair of GL-10 swaybars, front and rear, as well as a pair of RX swaybars from my burnt hulk of an RX... Im keeping my rear discs though... I run dual exhausts for the sound mostly, I love the sound of a sube with duals and glasspacks, but a crossover pipe is important, its a night and day difference from my 2 brats, my 1600 Brat has more power than my 1800 Brat, all because of the x-pipe I put on the 1600 exhaust setup! Both have Webers and dual exhasut, but I didnt put a crossover on the 1800 Brat... -Bill

The Brats w/o jumpseats had the bars closer together than the ones with seats, and the bars themselves are different too... Basically the headrest bars bolted to different locations on the ones with seats, and were longer. I tried to use headrest bars in my 85 Brat but the mounting points were in the wrong spots.... -Bill

Clean the engine bay, eliminate anything that is not essential to make the car run/drive safely(makes the engine bay much cleaner and easier to work in), check all the wiring for any damage, clean all the grounding points, change the gear oil in the tranny and diff, flush the brake system, replace all the old heater/vacuum/fuel/PCV hoses with new ones, that kinda stuff. I would do a new dual exhaust too, but thats just me -Bill