el_freddo

Will you need to mod the chassis to properly centre the axles inside the BRAT’s guards? It’s a pretty big change from the original direction! I bet the off-road options in upgrades are much easier to come by! I’m looking forward to more pics of this build. Cheers Bennie

Inspection camera poked through the spark plug hole (if possible). From viewing the piston you’ll know if it’s NA or turbo. NA wil have little “moon crescents” in the top of the piston, turbo will have a dished or stepped down section. It’ll be very obvious, especially if you can find pics to compare if you don’t already know what you’re looking at. Cheers Bennie

You already had a few New Years drinks Jono?? Happy New Year mate! Bottoms up! Bennie

Low boost turbo application. That’ll be my next EJ conversion Cheers Bennie

If it’s got a redundant knock sensor this indicates, at least to me that you’ve got a turbo block - these have a lower compression piston fitted. This could be where you MPG is going. Some one please correct me if I’m wrong! Cheers Bennie

I like that tube bar on the front of the Impreza. It looks good! I’ve heard of one or two of these getting around Oz but never seen them in the flesh. With that dual range, do you have low range oil feeders to help keep the low range cool? Well worth looking into IMO, especially with that EG33 upfront! Cheers Bennie

Block will bolt to all sorts of heads in the EJ range. It all comes down to the piston combination used with which head etc. It will physically bolt into any EJ engine bay and as Crazyeights mentioned, it can be fitted into the EA series vehicles too with a bit of work. You need to charenwith is what you’re trying to achieve and we can go from there Cheers Bennie

Plus the Tercel, 505(?) and the Magna of the same era - very close back in the day but easily distinguishable apart today! I still Iove the L series and it’s shape. I also love the fact that I can choose what computers to put in it. Currently it has one for the EJ. It’ll stay this way too. Cheers Bennie

High 30s is good if there’s a breeze - and you can keep out of the sun! We’ve already had a couple of days in the early 40s. We don’t do much on these days other than sweat it out without the old power hungry AC on - 1940’s style best of luck with that rethread. Not fun. Thebother trick you could do is place the stud back where it should be once the thread is fixed, then run a hole through the side of the head, through the stud and place a grub screw or just a piece of metal rod in there to act as a lock if the stud ever tried to move again. This would be best done with the head on a bench, not in the vehicle. I helicoiled one of the exhaust studs on our brumby, tapped the thread all the way through that steel spacer plate ours have due to the EGR system addition. That was the hard section, the alloy head was easy. Cheers Bennie

I so want an “L series” Coupe!! We didn’t get them over here Cheers Bennie

Why not go 18s?? All you need to do is run a tyre with a lower side wall profile to keep the rolling diametre the same as stock/what its running now. Cheers Bennie

The later H6 was done a while ago, and before this engine became available I dare say someone did it back then too. Cheers Bennie

Can you use a couple of Forester grilles to make a faraday cage? Cheers Bennie

Here’s that image I was referring to. Courtesy of Subarino Auto Electrics (Australia). Cheers Bennie

No worries. I know the 4wd light is activated from the 4wd lever, so no need to change that! Cheers Bennie

This might help: http://ausubaru.wikidot.com/wiki:gearbox-conversions I'll see what I can dig up. Subarino says he’s got the original image he created... somewhere. Cheers Bennie

Google search or check out ausubaru.com.au - Subarino did a photo and short write up on this. Hopefully it’s still floating around the webs somewhere. Cheers Bennie

I had this idea years ago but certainly didn’t have the skills to pull it off! Plus I doubt an engineer over here would pass it without wanting that modified arm x-rayed within an inch of its life. Cheers Bennie

Consumerism and the built in disposability of products at its “best” I too like the older vehicles, but unlike Yu guys in the US with your large market, most of our locally produced vehicles are all but gone due to the (typically) Japanese vehicle makers doing a real push for their models of vehicles in the ‘80s. That effort paid off and now older cars from that era are hard to find in the parts yards or the second hand trade sites. Forget about a locally produced 80s vehicle being in the yard, and no one other than nostalgic cashes up baby boomers can afford the asking price of a decent locally produced ‘80s vehicle. Even then they don’t drive it regularly. Consider yourself lucky in that department GD. The Subaru seems to have lots of parts still available, moreso the ‘90s EJ platform over the ‘80s stuff. No reproduction parts yet or any of that “voodoo” app stuff but you never know... There are plenty of brumbys still available and they’re holding their value, if not already climbing, plus they’re one of the longest running models over here (82-92 I believe). About ten years ago you’d be lucky to find five nation wide for sale on trading post or gumtree, now it’s basically take your pick! Cheers Bennie

“S”trange if it’s awd, get those tyres replaced for the same make and tyre model - all four need to be the same including how worn they are. If not you can kill the centre diff. Sounds like you had a good adventure trying to find that fuel station! Cheers Bennie

You can’t have a MPFI in a SPFI vehicle unless you do a major wiring change. You might have a block that was originally MPFI but is now fitted with carb/SPFI heads. If one lifter is ticking, I’d leave it as annoying as it can be you could spend ages chasing it and end up wanting to burn the car at some point. Or EJ’ing it. Here’s my lifter tick. It was odd. Came on suddenly, did this for two weeks then went quiet again. Maybe because it was when I decided to do the EJ conversion, then it went quiet when it realised I was serious I haven’t looked back since, other than at this video. I’d like to do a repeat video with the EJ engine but that space is now covered in wrecks... Cheers Bennie

Yeah they do That’s one of the reasons why I knew they could be found. The painful part is that the MT diff was listed AFTER the Auto Trans. That took me a moment or two to work out... Cheers Bennie

When the vehicle was near new it wasn’t so crazy. They do come up on gumtree and eBay second hand from time to time at a much better price. Plus they’re the best looking bar you can get The other thing to do is modify another vehicle’s bullbar. A few over here have used a Toyota Hilux arb bar on their Imprezas and libertys (legacy) with good results. I believe they cut the bar to pull each “side wings” back to match the shape of the frontnof the vehicle. That’s probably your best option as it would be cheap and get the job done in the event you hit another deer. Cheers Bennie

If GD recommends swapping the pistons out, then I guess you could say you made (an unknown) mistake... I didn’t know of this swap either, but it kind of makes sense. Cheers Bennie

http://www.subaxtreme.com/product-category/forester/ This would be the bar to have. Expensive even over here - and getting ANYTHING out of Oz is an arm and a leg price exercise. But I’ve heard of at least one other in the US doing it. I doubt you’d have much left from $5G once fitted - but you’d be the envy of all your mates and other Forester drivers too. And they’re fully airbag compliant. Cheers Bennie