newgen85brat

Thanks for the input. I will make a 2 inch lift. My brother has a machine shop so I leech off him. If the back does not lift well enough with only turning the bolt in, I may have to modify that. I will more than likely make new mounts on the front that are round versus the method of putting blocks in there. The only thing I have yet to figure out is the need for the 11 to 16 degree offset. Will that come obvious to me when I start working on it? Any dumbed down suggestions or pics for me would be appreciated. I have not started yet but when I do I will probably figure the need for it. Thanks as always.

I agree that 13's are not so easy to find but raised white letters are near impossible. I looked everywhere and lots of places claim that they can get them but when it comes down to it they always put you on a waiting list that neve comes. I would sell these tires and rims (without the trim rings) if someone wants them. Once I go bigger, I will not need them and I have another set of new mud and snows just setting in the shed. Non white letter of course. I paid 100 a tire for them and if you are interested let me know. Thanks as always, Walt in Iowa

So nobody really said but will a 2 inch lift and 195/75-14 work? Also mikaleda did the KYB struts you mentioned have any special ordering or requirement? Thanks

I see some other sizes and lifts for bigger tires but I have a nice new set of chrome 14's I would love to put on and a small lift. I was hoping for 2 inches max. Would it work with those tires? I want to buy BFG KO tires. They are 10 ply and do a lot of driving in bean and corn fields. 4 ply tires tend to eat stocks. Not to mention BFG's are gorgeous! Okay so I am dating myself but I like the way they look with a little lift. I have looked at a lot of lift sites, posts etc and see home made lifts. If you use a 2 inch lift, is it really just as simple as a lift of the strut towers with 11 degree offset? How about the rear? Can you just crank it up or do you need to lift it as well. What else needs adjusted with 2 inches? Steering shaft, camber, etc? Thanks guys. Walt.

I got my tires from a local shop who ordered them for me. They are Delta Road Max. Nice big letters. 205/60-13 I attached a photo.

Thank you for your help. Sorry to get things fired up. I will search for options on ventilation. I would prefer to have no EGR valve at all. I live in Iowa so there is not any inspection issues. I keep all my parts that could be needed later so I can always go back if needed. The engine also had the tube that runs from the passenger side head to the intake cut and welded. Should I continue as that also or should that be back in? If I understand this then, all I will need to do is to connect both valve covers and the pcv valve along with a small line to the weber carb base? It is not as easy to search for things with new format, I keep running into dead ends. Thanks for your help again. Walt.

Thanks, I have both the original EGR and the welded one so I can go either way. I will hook it back up but am not really sure of the routing. I will have to look around for pics to get all my hoses right. Thanks again.

I have some new ones on my Brat, they are 205/13. I had to pay 100.00 a tire for them. I now just found some 14 inch Nissan rims and am going to go with BFG 195/14. My tires have less than 500 miles on them. I will take a pic but I may want to sell them unless I decide against 14's. I have to figure what lift to use. I would guess no more than 2 inches front and crank up the back.

Well, I am just as not sure as ever. Anybody else want to chime in? GD? I can go either way but want to stay as clean as possible. I do not want to leak/pull oil or have to make a catch can. Any ideas on pictures of people' rides that are clean and simple? Thanks

Thanks for the answer. So without all the stuff, what is the set up and routing from the valve covers?

With this new format, I have lost the ability to search for some things. I run into a lot of missing pages. I was looking to see about EGR valves, emission canister and other plugged items. I just bought another EA 81. I have a new Weber on my old EA so I am in the process pulling it and making the new motor fresh. (Oil pump, gaskets etc.) The new motor had some porting and polishing on the heads and manifolds so I am trying to figure if the guy was good or wishfully trying things. The motor had recently worked heads which look good but then the guy had taken panty hose and hose clamps to use for breathers on the hoses from the valve covers so kind of a hack? The "new" motor has a welded up EGR valve. Should I keep it that way or put one back on? Will it make a difference? Some of the other ports etc are plugged/welded so should I follow the previous owners start or go back to mostly stock? Should you get rid of the canister or keep it? I have seen it both ways and would like a definitive answer. I want to keep it simple, I love getting rid of hoses. Thank you for your help.

Okay, i just bought another EA81. Reportedly 153000 miles, good runner, from a guy who bought it 2 years ago from another guy who did a EJ swap in his Brat. I got it sight unseen and planned on just working it over gasket wise then dropping her in. My indecisiveness kicks in as I drop the oil, etc. The oil was black tar in the bottom of the pan. It had quite a few leaks so I pulled everything I could. I did not and do not have a way to test compression except by just turning the crank. 2 of the plugs had a lot of black wet oil on them. When you look in the spark plug holes, you can see the top of the pistons look wet and dirty. I have the original 85 engine with a broken crank (I think) and 108,000 miles, a 82 EA with unknown miles and either cracked head or blown gasket and now this one. What I would like to do is just go ahead and crack the engine, use the 85 heads with hydro lifters on the block I just got. Clegg sells engine kits for various prices and parts so I thought I would just do it right and completely rebuild it. What do you think? My last engine was a just buy it and drop it in kind of thing that back fired on me so I have wasted enough money on wrong things and do not want to waste anymore time. I have new oil pump, water pump, fuel pump, distributor, coil, carb and everything else. My only thing needed is a good long block. What do you guys suggest? I just figured I would get the "pulse" before I jump in. Thanks as always.

So as long as my heads are okay on my 85 engine, the short block does not really matter? I just want to make sure so I don't starve something of lubrication. Thanks for your help.

I have read numerous threads but just need the straight talk. I have an EA 81 from my 85 Brat that has a broken crank. I have not had the time to open it up and see what happened but I do know when I bought it, the crank pulley was sitting in a "funny" position as if it broke not far behind the pulley. I am afraid of what I will find when I split it so I am trying to find another engine to use for parts or rebuilding it. I know that you dont usually need to build the bottom end but I would like to go through it and have a brand new motor for my Brat. My Brat has another motor in it (solid lifter) but I want the new one to replace it just as I pull the old one. I have a bad habit of taking too long to finish projects and cannot afford the shop space for this project. I found a motor and the guy says it came from a Brat but does not know the engines year. It is 646941 serial number but does not have the sticker on the valve covers. My question is this, can I buy this motor and put my new hydraulic lifter heads on it even if it is a solid lifter motor? There are not a lot of EA 81 motors close to me and when one pops up with all parts including a radiator and shrouds for 200 bucks, I may have to grab it. Please let me know what you think. Thanks

I put the EGR back in service and am running a large hose from it to a hour glass shaped valve by the brake booster. This was how it was before. I just think I must have messed something up when i put it back in because I never had that much pressure before. One post I read here said to take the canister out alltogether. Will try to take a picture and show how it is at this time. I am not that good with the computer so I may not be able to label things as I wish I could. How does the engine usually get the crankcase gasses out? I worry that I may blow seals and the like so I wont run it until I get it vented properly. Thanks

I have to constantly feather the foot feed when I start it. Thank you for the link to the weber troubleshooting guide. I will try working on it again. It could be the idle mixture setting. I will get that set first. I was a little intimidated by the setting and was worried it was getting too rich although it does not smell rich in the exhaust.

I am having some issues starting when it is cold with the new weber. I kind of feel I should put a manual choke on it. When I bought it, there was no option for a manual only electric. Can you put a manual choke kit in like we used to put on old 4 barrel quadrajets? It was a simple kit that included everything and you just pulled out the electric and inserted the manual. Any suggestions? Ideas on tuning the electric choke? Thanks

Finally got my Weber running pretty good. After some problems with surging and searching the USMB, I eliminated some other stuff like the emission canister, the EGR valve and the like. I hooked the big hoses from the valve covers to each other then put a "T" in and put in a pcv valve. Now I get way too much smoke and vapor coming out of my Oil fill tube. It was fine before with the EGR but I am not happy about it. I think I have something wrong. I saw a post from 2manetoys (attached photo) that had this good photo of his work. On the lines I am talking about what is the brass looking item that he uses on his hoses? I am looking for a description so I can buy one and put it on mine. I think the PCV valve I put in is not working as intended. Or should I go back and put the EGR back in service? Should I block off the ASV with quarters? Would this help the over pressurization of the block? Please help me. I always get good advice from you guys. Thanks

Not that too many people are reading my posts but I found the problem. I put a fuel pressure guage on and found that I was only getting less than 1lb of pressure. I have no idea why but I then pinched the return line (the one from the fuel filter) and as a test put a clamp on it. The pressure went up to about 2lbs. I tried driving it and could not get it to surge at all. It ran great. Do you think the new fuel pump is weak or is that pressure normal? Thank you for your help. A few more minor problems and I think I will be done. I will start a new thread though.

I will run some tests. I have already timed the engine, checked compression and the fuel pump was replaced with a factory replacement type that bolted into place just like OEM. Vacuum is good but I need to check it as it occurs and not occurring. I have seen that there are ECU boxes listed on ebay for 85 Brats so I guess that is an unknown variable. Thanks for the suggestions, I hope to find it and I will post it. The Brat had sat for years and many of the items I replaced have been for necessity anyway. The carb leaked, the fuel pump did not work, the fuel tank leaked, The plug wires were questionable, the tach was jumping and making strange clicking sound when you turned the engine off so it needed replacing. I don't feel bad for spending this money for 90% of this so that is not bad money spent. Since the thing was setting when I bought it, I knew there would be many items unknown and I would replace anyway. As far as fuel goes, I put a regulator inline at 3psi. I will keep trying, thanks again.

I need more help. I have changed everything I can and my Brat is still surging around 1800 to 2800 rpm. I found another thread that was identical to my problem but it turned out to be a bared wire shorting out voltage to the disty. I had hope until that happened. Here is what the problem is: Some days the surging does not show up but then out of no where it will start. It is so bad that it will knock me down in rpm and damn near stop all motion. As soon as it drops slow enough to warrant shifting into 1st, the surging will stop and I can get over my problem. It will continue if I put slight load on the motor such as trying to maintain speed on an incline or anything while in 3rd and 4th. 2nd won't do it unless you are coming down from 3rd while trying to maintain some forward progress. It is not a cyclical surging so it is not something caused by rotation. It is more like a bucking and random. The car idles well although when it has just stopped surging, I can rev the engine to about 2k rpm and the idle will jump 250 rpm or so erratically. Also after these episodes the idle may be lower than usual. The thing that gets me is sometimes it runs fine then once it starts, it just gets worse until you use it the next time. It does not do it all the time, you cannot make it do it but once it does, it will do so for a while. Here is the list of things I have tried: I put on a new fuel pump-no change. Changed all filters including a brand NOS fuel tank from SOA so it is not dirt or rust. I have put on a Weber Carb-NO change. I have put in a new coil-no change. I have new plug wires, rotor and disty cap-no change. I switched out my disty with one from a donor motor-no change. It has a new alternator and almost everything is new except the long block. The gas is good, it is not dieseling. The only other things I am going to try is to look for a short in a wire to the distributor. I will pull the fuel cap next time to see if it is starvation. I put the Weber on and plugged everything-Could it be something I need to un plug? Oh, is there any type of ECU or "brain" that could be doing this? I love my Brat and the only thing left to do is to rebuild a new block and swap them. It currently has a solid lifter 83 and I want to build the original 85 that has a broken crank. The motor runs fine but does have some piston slap although I think it would run for another 50k and still not have problems. I got a lot of money in this thing, there cannot be much left.......Thanks for the help guys....... This was the final post in a problem that sounded identical to mine. Re: ea81 surging problem. HELP!! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- yes i did. Thought i posted it, but i guess i didnt. One day, i went through everything with a fine-tooth comb. Turns out that the part of wiring harness that runs across the bottom of the radiator was rubbing against the AC hardlines and exposed wires and they started shorting out and causing voltage drops. At one point, it was using the hardlines to complete the circuit somehow when i turned off the key, and would stay running even when i unhooked the battery and took it out.

Well in another related thread I talked of my Brat having problems with no power to the fuel pump until the engine starts. There is only 9 volts to the fuel pump during initial key turn and then when cranking. When the engine starts the voltage goes to 12.4. I read some other threads looking for answers and someone said the voltage regulator was bad. One question first, if the voltage regulator is weak or bad will the amp meter drop considerably when the turn signals are on? Also when the headlights are kicked on too. The ammeter drops about 2 volts as the turn signals are flashing. It used to worry me but not too much. Maybe this is the culprit with my fuel pump not getting power during cranking? Is the VR part of the alternator or is it separate? Thanks for the help as always.

I did it on an 89 Toyota Camry. It worked great for years until one day when I had some left over refrigerant in a can, I thought I would "top off" the ol girl. Well, I must have over pressurized it because the compressor slowed down and the gave up. Be careful and watch your gauges. I was just wanting a little colder a/c and was too cheap to waste about 4 bucks worth of 134. Cost me considerable more to replace the compressor.

Very sad but I have been very lazy this summer. Too hot to work on anything. I swapped out my disty with the other one I had and it fixed the stumbling but now the fuel pump does not give that 7 or 8 seconds of gas to the engine upon first turning the key. Once the engine actually fires I get 12.4 volts to the pump and it works fine. During cranking I only get 9 volts and the pump does not pump. It will be a problem as long as the thing sets for a while and there is not gas in the carb to get her going. What do you think, should I just bypass it altogether and run a hot wire (switched of course) to the pump or what?

Okay it is not a new problem but I thought the new Weber would make it go away. While it still had the Hitachi on it, the car would hesitate and jerk while under slight loads in 3rd and 4th. In 4th gear it would be so bad that it would eventually sap all your power. I could floor it and it would come out of it and I could drive down a hill and it would be fine. It is only while under a load. It is bad enough that I think it is dying but when I stop, it idles fine. It does not pop or backfire out the carb so it acts like a fuel problem. The valves are adjusted fine, the timing is on. You always could hear a slight miss at the exhaust and while it is better, it still acts somewhat like there is a spitting to it. The old hitachi was doing the same thing but it was getting awful leaky on gas so I took others advice and upgraded hoping the problem would clear up. It did not. Here is what has been done with the Brat. I have a NOS fuel tank, new fuel pump, new filters, new regulator set on 2.5psi, new Weber from Redline, new oil pump, coil, new plugs, disty cap and rotor. The only thing not changed is the plug wires and I will do that tomorrow. I could try to adjust the carb some more but considering that the problem was there before the swap, I am sure I will not work it out that way. I am starting to believe I am not meant to win at this. I have not checked the compression but the engine ran great for a while then just stared doing the cut out thing. I am suspicious of the fuel pump. The engine is an 83 that was supposed to be an airplane transplant until someone lost interest. I need another crank to rebuild the original 85 in my shop. HELP......AGAIN IT is getting to be an awful pretty lawn ornament and way too expensive to sell.