Twitch de la Brat

Right, I was implying that the other person may assist in doing it "right", as in not bastardizing the hell out of a straight car. Twitch

After reading your post, you're going to have to fab almost everything. Literally. The only "Aftermarket" for these cars is to go taller, and that's just those of us on the few old school Subaru boards. As was suggested previously, and only to emphasize it, declock the rear torsion bar and possibly find/make some shorter front springs and struts. And no, torching springs or simply cutting off part of the spring isn't "making" new springs. You haven't stated, but is it 2wd or 4wd? There is a gentleman somewhere on here with a 1st gen (EA71 body) with it slammed and cambered. If you can find him he may be able to offer a few tips on how to do it right. Twitch

What did you clean it with? And that bypass is your idle air control valve housing; so if it got chemical soaked it may be malfunctioning, causing your weird idle issues. Do you have a spare ecu to drop in and test? Twitch

There are many good people on this board that would be willing to help you with this project, to get it done in a weekend If I were closer I'd drag my tools to you and help you tear it down and put it back together. I can pull that engine in 30-60 minutes, change the clutch in another 30 (not counting resurfacing the flywheel and have it back in the car in an hour or so. Unfortunately I'm a tad far away, but there may be someone with EA experience near you. Just check around Twitch

Check your MAF if it already had the code for it. Also, is your intake clean? All of it, not just the manifold... Twitch

Failing Throttle Position Sensor Nasty vacuum leak somewhere ECU not told it's not hooked to an automatic any more (there's a simple pin grounding procedure to fix this) Failing MAF Curse of the undead Subaru? Twitch

Sounds like clutch fork. Bracket is new, correct? Had the same problem after eating 3 cables on my BRAT, turned out to be a bent pedal bracket. Sounds like your clutch fork has had it, because it sounds like a "too little movement" issue. I'd also check the flexibility of your clutch cable mount points, see if they're flexing at all. Twitch

Dual exhaust is doable. Stay to 1 3/4" or smaller for each side and you'll be fine. The crossover pipe is a must however. I'd show you a pic of my dual exhaust setup on my BRAT but unfortunately those pics died with my old phone. It's easy to imagine however. Very straight forward. Directly off the head, 90* to aiming backwards,go back until right before the transmission crossmember. There's where the crossover pipe is. After that 1 glasspack per side then it 45*'s out to directly in front of the rear wheels. Power gains were pretty impressive in the midrange and there was no noticeable loss on the bottom end. If you want to see the math that explains why I went with that particular setup, I have a thread in the performance section on basic flow calculations. Twitch

After having a 5 speed in my BRAT, I must say having the extra-large clutch and the passing gear was great. Made freeway travel much nicer and the shorter shift points were much quicker that the sloppy old 4 speed. Another benefit was the increased strength of the transmission (no blowing out 1st or 3rd gear) and a lower low range. The ratios matched the EA81's power band even better than the original 4 speed. Not having to rev out the engine to get moving fast enough to make top gear usable was convenient. So, the 5 speed is an all around upgrade and not too terribly difficult to find or install. Twitch

Yeah, but when does the pinging begin? Twitch

Well, considering there are people around here that have shaved .020"+ off their heads, albeit un-warped, I'd check with a different machine shop. Twitch

Either you have a nasty air bubble in your heater core, a clog somewhere or, well, I have some bad news for you... Twitch

So now that it's driving, I can finally acquire a new windshield for it and another project I have... Took it on a nice long drive (35-45min) and it performed flawlessly. I'm going to set the alignment myself (crazy, I know) and put some sort of temporary fix on the separated transmission mount. And I missed you Mike, but at least you made it safe and sound. A 5sp d/r is a must for this wagon though. I'm happy with the torque curve, very happy actually, but I have to get a better ratio for in town. 35mph in 4th isn't so bad as I can still accelerate fairly well, but being able to drop a gear without putting it over 3k to overtake would be nice. At least until the little guy wears in. After that... Twitch

So I redid my valves, and cylinders 1 and 3 were upwards of 1/4" off. Not .025 out of spec, .250. Yeah. WHOOPS But it has quieted down, so I'm guessing I'm all good as there is no residual rattle aside from the norm. Got the timing set dead on, I was only 2-3* out of spec there... Curious on the dieseling issue, are there any solutions with the weber to stop that? I ran it for about 20 minutes solid, idling and driving and let it cool down a bit before I shut it off and it still dieseled. I know why it does, I mean, .030" off the combustion chamber is a lot of material to take off and that's a lot of compression and therefore lot of heat. My oil filter relocation kit/cooler won't get here until next week and neither will my gauges, same shipment. So cooling down the oil is soon to be had, in case that was a suggested solution. I have 2 fans on the radiator, both "stock" EA81 fans, one a standard 4 blade, the other the slim fan. Standard fan runs all the time for now while the slim I have on a toggle. I have relays coming for the fans... I think that's all the updates. It's licensed, insured and drivable, aside from a slow leak in the driver's front tire. So if you see a crappy looking blue EA81 rolling on chrome Jackman's, give me a wave or a honk Twitch

Depending on the year of your engine, you may be able to get bigger valves just by changing heads. If yours is 83 and earlier, you may have small valve heads, where as the 83 1/2 and up heads have the bigger higher flowing valves. Twitch PS: I've done a high compression build and so have a few others, so feel free to peruse our threads (found in the performance and 2nd gen section) and ask questions as they arise

I'll be running Schaffers 5w40 all year because solid lifters Got it licensed today, insured and wiring inspection/replacement and valve adjustment tomorrow, order gauge set and remote filter kit tonight and that should be it. I'm double checking my valve adjustment because the amount of rattle in that engine bay is just too much. Twitch

Ok, I'll check those sites out. And I'm getting a voltmeter because the one on the dash doesn't work I'm getting an oil temp gauge because even with the cooler I want to make sure I'm not cooking my oil when it passes through the engine. Twitch

Thank you! It didn't sound too happy to be awoken from it's slumber, but I think it'll take it just fine as it warms up to the idea of actually operating Maybe soon I'll get to pull off a roadtrip in it like you're doing But for now, time to make it dead reliable, which involves buying an oil filter relocation kit to allow me to attach a cooler and a bigger filter as well as hook up some proper gauges. Oil pressure, oil temp, water temp and volt meter. The 3 that are already on the dash I trust about as far as I can throw. Twitch

It will either have a 5 speed manual push button 4wd, 5 speed manual lever actuated dual range 4wd, 3 speed auto push button 4wd, or if it's a late model 87, 4 speed auto full time 4wd/AWD. The official name for the automatics is the 3AT for the 3 speed and the 4EAT for the 4 speed. This is assuming you're referring to the 4wd models. Twitch

And the timing gear setup is why I opted to rebuild my EA81 rather than EJ swap my 83 Wagon. So, just for references sake, all production EA engines before the EA82 were timing gear driven. Starting with the EA82, Subaru started using belts through the EJ's until the EZ engines, which they used timing chains. The belts continued on the EJ engines until their current replacement, the FA and FB engines. #mentaltidbit Sidenote: the EG33 engine used a combination of a timing belt and timing gears. Twitch

I did true dual exhaust on my BRAT. Thankfully I had a master welder and exhaust hanger do it for me for cheap, and it worked great. Some of you may have remembered the super loud white BRAT from WCSS 14, that was mine. 1 3/4 dual exhaust straight off the head to a crossover pipe and then glasspacks right behind that then a few feet of pipe and exit in front of the rear wheels. It worked really well and helped pick up some MPG's (if I kept my foot out of it) and gained midrange power. This sounds like the setup you're looking for, just on the cheap. If you go any bigger than 1 3/4 with duals you'll be overflowing the exhaust (yes you can do that) and losing your bottom end (which honestly is the only thing BRAT's really have). http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/148469-exhaust-flow/ That link ^ will get you to a basic workup I did for exhaust flow of an EA81. Twitch PS: Glasspacks that are 1 3/4" are getting expensive, so they may not be the cheapest route to take. Also, the legality of the exhaust setup, if you're smogged, forget it. If the cops don't like loud exhaust, forget it. If you don't want to be deafened every time you rev it over 3k, forget it. If you don't want to piss off the neighbors whenever you leave your house, forget it.

In addition to the above suggestions, check your lower radiator hose, it connects directly below the radiator cap. There is the aforementioned steel pipe that runs between that hose and the water pump. Make sure that isn't cracked or broken when you're testing the lower radiator hose. There is a little elbow that jumps off the water pump and runs up the block under the intake (that big aluminum piece on top of the engine). Check that little guy for any leaking as well. Hopefully you can figure out the issue easily Twitch PS: I apologize for any rudeness you may have encountered here, most members are usually pretty civil.

That sounds like fun! Once you start it, take lots of pictures and ask as many questions as you can think of! We love both around here, especially when it involves something quirky. And welcome to USMB! Enjoy your stay Twitch

I started it Twitch

So after all the ignition drama (as seen in this thread) and my soon to be eaten pie, IT'S ALIVE. Had to swap around a few oil pressure senders and oil pumps, but realize that the low oil pressure reading is just the sender/head unit. And that sucker is LOUD. I never thought I'd have valve rattle louder than a honda, but guess I have one now. Qman, will the cam, lifters and valves quiet down as they wear into each other? But overall, I'm VERY happy with this engine. I got it up to 50mph without breaking 3000rpm in a stretch under a mile, which may not sound all that impressive, but if you've driven an EA81 wagon, you know that's pretty fast Also, TORQUE. How I have missed that so much! Planting the throttle at 1500rpm creates this swelling roar from the engine bay and the front tires try to maintain traction. Y'all will get a video as soon as I can nail down my mild overheating issue. It's not getting "hot" but above middle temp and it's making me uncomfortable, especially on a fresh rebuild. But for now, VICTORY Twitch