el_freddo

All was going well with the maintenance on Ruby Scoo so this trip was on. I also needed it! Packing Friday after work saw me leaving Shepp at 8:45pm and arriving at the campground in Walhalla at 1:30am. I was very glad to see that Venom was here too, I thought he had bailed. After an ok night of sleep, once interrupted by a bunch of drunk rednecks being a pack of, well, you can come up with your own word for that one... We decided we'd have breakfast in town and got an awesome bacon and egg muffin with a white chocolate mocha. We got the group together and headed off. First place to go was our favourite and really the only places we knew – Coopers Creek: Bruntons Bridge: From here we decided to head East to then head North as we didn't really want to back track. Once back in the bush from Seaton we hit up a stretch of “commuter tracks” - old logging tracks where AWD/4wd really is a good bit of fun. Lined up on Williamson Spur Rd to discuss where to go from here: Along the way I found this tree in the middle of the burnt out area, to me it looks like it's in shock with what it sees around it: From Williamson Spur Tk we headed northonto Army Tk: When we dropped into this area via Army Tk we thought we might be in a spot of bother as this track was pretty steep and the weather was still very light rain on and off. Once at the bottom of Army Tk we decided to hit up Morning Star track – this track started climbing again up the other side of the valley: There was a bit of winching involved with my mate's Pajero. I think we had a go at it about 3 times on a very slippery slope. Venom and I got up without an issue. Once the Paj was up Nachaluva was sceptical that he'd make it up – but with his new found “rally style” he had nothing to be worried about. I wish I had my camera for all of this. I also broke a thong while carrying the cable up the hill for the Paj... From here we hit up the commuter track again to look for a camp site. This was McEvoys Tk where we tried out the Mt Useful 1434 tower and hut site. You beaut, no one here, there's an industrial portable hut with a car port and the communications tower behind it. Once out of the vehicles it became apparent that this was not a suitable site overnight due to the noise of the portable generator powering the tower! On we went until we ended up hunting around for “Johnson's Hut” off S14 tk. This was all good but there was no hut to be found and some dodgy tracks going in too. Dodgy in the way that they were not “official graded” tracks of any type. We found a little clearing and setup camp. Nachaluva and I took a ride in Ruby Scoo to find another nearby hut. It too was on a dodgy track but was already occupied by some young kids that were clearly into the country scene but still drank UDLs and the like (not something I associate with the “country theme”). We headed back to setup. This is what camp looked like: While out collecting wood I stumbled across the “Johnson Hut” - it was well hidden with all tracks to the hut concealed from the track we came in on. Sunday we packed up and headed off to find more tracks like what we found late arvo yesterday. It certainly didn't disappoint! We headed west from our last camp site and were well north of Walhalla at this point. Our aim was an intriguing looking track called “Trig Tk” that has marked on the map that there's 12 switchbacks due to the steepness! So we weaved our way in that direction: Venom on O'Keefe Tk: Nachaluva coming down O'Keefe Tk: At the low point of O'Keefe Tk, small river crossing: I honestly can't remember where this switchback was! We then headed through Aberfeldy on our way to the next track, Dream Creek Tk: Once on CMF Tk at the intersection of Trig Tk we had a bite to eat while viewing what was to come: Before we heaed off we saw Adrian and Lucy off in their Paj from here. It was great to have an old school mate along for the ride – and to see different 4wd in action. Adrian really wished he'd found the time to fit his muddies! Thanks for coming mate! We then jumped into Trig Tk! You can see the other side of Trig Tk in the background on the other side of the valley above. Looking down at Venom: Nachaluva's foz looking mean at the top of the switchback on Trig Tk: Going down: Switchback fun: Nachaluva has some great shots of Venom and Ruby Scoo heading down the hill at this point! Nachaluva headed down at the lower end of Trig Tk: I got this shot to have a dig at a mate who keeps telling me to get a real 4wd – he's just got himself a landrover 130 long wheel base ute; I'm yet to see it off road. I've also used it to “annoy” another mate who offroads his Range Rover – some of you might remember that vehicle from a trip to Mt Cole. Once back at the bottom of the Valley we headed off to see Venom's end to the trip. The section of Trig Tk above CMF Tk was a good climb too! Nachaluva and I headed back down the hill to camp where we left his car – it seemed we were racing a group of 4wd's that were coming down the switchbacks. We don't know what they thought about seeing a forester at the camp site but they weren't sticking around for a chat anyway. So we setup and got the fire going, with a little bit of drizzle around at times we knocked this up: The next morning this was bliss: Once we were packed up we climbed out of the valley to the “main road” - Walhalla Rd where we then hit up Beardmores Tk. This track followed a spurline down the front of the Thompson dam: Then to the river where we had a lot of fun messing around in the river crossing: I love the lighting and the detail in this image: It was now time to head into Rawson for fuel – only to find they didn't have any as their delievery hadn't come through! So off to Tyers we headed, it was about 20 kms down the road and made more sense than heading all the way into Moe. From Tyres we headed back along some rough old logging tracks to the Old Coach Rd that took us to Bruntons Bridge. We had a quick bite to eat and headed to Coopers Creek crossing where some kids that were camping there took great delight in watching the two vehicles cross the river. Since we'd already crossed it we didn't bother stopping to check it. From here we took some tracks that we'd only just noticed on the map – they turned out to be a bit of fun with some good climbs in between – there was a 1km long climb to begin with We then aimed for our intended camp ground on Fulton's Creek Tk. We took Dry Gully Tk that ironically followed a spur for most of the time we were on it. Once it started to drop into a valley we were stoked with the terrain! We ended up back at the river to have another look around and a play: We decided that none of the campsites on the river suited our requirements so we headed back up the spur to a bogan camp we passed earlier. And we setup: Unfortunately we saw too much rubbish on this trip – empty cans discarded out the window of moving vehicles halfway up tracks, water bottles everywhere and some of the camp sites where people had burnt logs and thrown deck chairs, aerosol cans etc into the fire only then to leave the remains. This camp had plenty of aluminium cans, buried rubbish, broken glass and markings in the bark of the surrounding trees. It's very disappointing to see in this day and age! Tuesday we decided to follow the full length of Fulton's Creek Tk that we camped on – we were only just below the start of the track. It was interesting to follow as at times it used sections of other tracks to get back onto the next section of Fulton's Creek Tk. Some of the highlights were steep climbs and descents as well as the creek crossing, this one inparticular was a highlight for me – beautiful rock wall and a crossing that required you to head upstream a little bit: The next crossing needed a bit of track building on one side, then Nachaluva decided to follow the proper crossing track: ^ Here Nachaluva really needed a bit more speed as his tyres were fighting for grip as the car started to float at one point, but he got the required grip to keep moving forward and got out without issue. He did have a wet engine though! I took a different line with Ruby Scoo in the second part of the crossing as I didn't trust Ruby to stay grounded and I didn't want to end up getting the ECU wet if things went wrong in that section of the river in the last pic! We continued along until we ended up back on Williamson Spur Tk. So we dropped in on Army Tk that we did the other day back down to Donnelly Creek Tk. Since the hut at the bottom of Army Tk (northern end) was now vacant we checked it out... but failed to take the camera! Following along Donnelly Creek Tk I developed a knocking noise with a distinct clunking through the steering system. After two checks we discovered that my wheel nuts on the front left were barely on anymore. I don't know how this happened so quick without any noise with any of the ascents or descents we had done earlier. All of my wheel nuts were tightened! We checked out O'Toole's Flat – a large open and well groomed campground. We then decided that Flats Tk was the go to get us to where we wanted to be. It was a bloody rough track with mutiple options in several sections. Ruby Scoo certainly worked hard to get to the top – where I found that the track became well graded and did a hair pin turn to head down hill, while it continued up in the direction I was travelling! Ruby Scoo at the top: The problem here was that Nachaluva couldn't make it up, so I headed down on foot to help guide him, then it was decided that the winch was needed (turfor). I headed back down in Ruby Scoo, parked up, go the gear together then headed down on foot to Nachaluva. It must have seemed like an eternity to him while waiting for me! We ended up getting Nachaluva off the track without the use of the winch, there were some hairy angles his foz saw in the process which he didn't really enjoy, but we got him down safely. Both vehicles headed back down to find the new “official” start of the track, only to eventually end up passing where Ruby Scoo was parked in the above pic. We travelled some good tracks from here, checked out Merringtons Flat Campground and ended the 4wd'n part of the trip via Sullivans Tk. We aired up and hightailed it to Walhalla via Walhalla Rd – we passed the start of Fulton's Creek Tk where I had a bit of a chuckle as we looked DOWN this track a few years back thinking “that's epic” only now to have done it up and down in that section! Once in Walhalla we pulled up as I was keen for a White Chocolate Mocha. I ordered two white mochas (with a different girl to Saturday morning), Nachaluva and I were stoked when we got them. The first sip was awesome until the brain kicked in and said this isn't white chococlate! Anyway it was a good coffee none the less. We travelled home along the freeway together talking on the radio – I enjoyed that part of the trip, it was a good end instead of travelling all the way home on my own. Thanks to Venom, Nachaluva, Adrian and Lucy for coming on this trip. I'm looking forward to our return to this place as we now know where to go! There will be “requirements” for this trip so that everyone has a chance and it's an enjoyable experience :twisted: Cheers Bennie

That's a score mate! I bet there will be some jealous members out there about the price you paid and the jump seats you've got with it!!! I wish we got those instrument clusters from the factory in the Brumby/BRAT - we only got them in some sedans and the coupes; some of the early touring wagons have them instead of the digi dash too. Cheers ​Bennie

I've often thought about the Gen3/4 rear strut/shock fitting into the rear of the L series - I'm sure it could work, but the double rubber setup on the L series shock could be an issue. I reckon the load rating on that spring and strut/shock would be higher with the heavier body of the Gen3/4. Just need to find a set of second hand units to have a play with... Cheers Bennie

Check the cables and the little geared mechanism between the switch and the tap to make sure there's no slop in there. Guys on ausubaru.com have used the VT/VX/VY heater tap - it's roughly the same shape but vacuum operated. I don't know how they've got around this vacuum operation but it'd be doable and I'm sure you'd have it nailed Cheers Bennie

I'm sure dad's got an RX7 carb from a rotarty 12B in the shed somewhere if you want to play with it - of course I'd have to talk with him about it first It seems that weber performance in Melbs has seen a bit of business recently - Tweety has just made a purchase there for his EA81 too... Cheers Bennie

You need to check out this fella's conversion for the suspension: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=793968740631717&set=gm.10152389533988973&type=1&theater I hope that link works... Basically a forester floor pan and firewall welded into a brumby/BRAT body... Cheers Bennie

I've looked up part numbers of kits on rockauto, then dropped this number on fleabay motors in the US to see what comes up. Had I have known about importexperts I would have purchased through them. The kit turned out to be really good, I was happy - and it cost me about half of what I could get a kit here in Oz for, including postage! Cheers Bennie

I believe swapping to rollers makes it an interference engine. Correct me if I'm wrong pls. Cheers Bennie

Oh yeah, the engine has been rebuilt at some stage too - the pistons are flat tops without any subaru factory marks that I'm used to seeing on EA82s. Cheers Bennie

Maybe I got that wrong then - I thought they were all hydro, the imports were solid lifters... Yeah I didn't think the 14 litres of water and oil I drained out was important to the issue at hand: Still going: It had apparently sat for 6 months with this mix in the engine. I thought it'd be a dead engine due to over heating and a severely blown head gasket - but it turned out to be a popped welch plug: And this is what I found once the heads were off: Hmmm... yummy! So it's taken me six months to get it from the clean up after finding the above on the engine stand to being on the floor ready to go in. It then took me a week to get it back in and running - on all four pots Cheers Bennie

Hydraulic lifter. I backed off the rocker arms on the side in question until I could make a tiny tapping noise with the lifter arm on the valve stem. Fired up beautifully - got a little bit of lifter tick (to be expected) but it runs and I'm very happy with that. No smoke after the initial burn off of the oil we put in the cylinder - much much less than what came out when I first fired it up! Now to replace the water pump, ball joints, engine and gearbox mounts, sort out why the interior fan, radio and thermo fans aren't working, replace rear diff seals, replace damaged front guard and clean the interior then it's off for a road worthy. Can't wait for that day! Thanks for the suggestions guys. Hopefully this thread might help someone else out if they use the search function. Cheers Bennie

Diff output stubs can be swapped for the EJ units. Problem is pulling the EA 5spd PT gearboxes apart is a PITA to do. Worth the effort in my opinion - you can use off the shelf drive shafts then. It's also a good time to drop a front LSD in there I kind of find this funny as in Australia we're using adaptor plates to mate EJ engines into the EA vehicles. I only know of one EA gearbox being fitted into an EJ vehicle and that was a FT4wd locking centre diff unit to a H6 - went well until the incorrect use of the centre diff wore it out (unlocked on sand). Otherwise it went very well! Cheers Bennie

I don't have the gear to do a compression test until I can steal dad's unit. The head gaskets and inlet manifold gaskets have all been replaced. The downside to this engine is that when I got it the guy said "it just stopped dead on the side of the road one day" and had sat like that for 6 months - engine was full of water as a welch plug had let go. I thought it was a head gasket. The engine was pulled down to a short block, all the muck cleaned out and the surface rust removed with some sand paper. Bores *looked* good after this, cylinder 1 was the worst with some tiny pitting at the top of the cylinder, but it's one of the working cylinders. Hence my thought that I need to look at the valves on the non working side of the engine. This engine could be a loss, but I want to look at every possibility before I come to that decision and decide on what to do after that. Cheers Bennie

G'day all, I've finally got my red targa brumby's engine to fire up - but it's only running on one side of the engine (driver's side to the US crew). I've checked plugs and leads, swapped the working side to the non working side without any change, swapped a good set of leads in without change. When I remove plugs 2 & 4 there's no change in it's operation. Would I be correct in thinking that I need to play with the valve clearances? Cheers Bennie

You'll be surprised how rust can hold the CV end cups onto the stub shafts! Very painful situation to be in All the best with it. Cheers Bennie

^^ And that's how you'd want them to look! Cheers Bennie

My L series wagon has the same issue - but in the heat! It's the instrument cluster for some reason... The brumby with the factory 6 gauge instrument cluster doesn't have this issue... Cheers Bennie

Phiz have you looked into the stock carb from the ford 6 cylinders? They look like they'd fit well, they're dime a dozen. Apart from that I don't really know much more on them (as you know I'm pro EFI - but understand what you're trying to achieve!). It'll be great once you get it up and running - then the real fun beings! Cheers Bennie

I would say that the best EA81 blower set up would be with EFI - either a set of turbo heads running the turbo wiring or even the EA82 MPFI wiring. Or go with the SPFI setup. You would need to watch the richness of the mixture in the exhaust gases for a while to make sure it wasn't leaning out when on boost. Tweety (on here and ausubaru.com) did a draw through setup with a side draft weber I think they were - datsun units I believe. A draw through unit will eventually eat the teflon coating from the supercharger fins/blades/whatever you want to call them - some say this is not an issue, but who knows... Tweety did have issues with his fuel economy - too high for his liking plus the block started having blow by issues as you could imagine. Shoving a blower on a well used engine that's been built for NA will show up all sorts of blow by issues. Ultimately you need to build up an engine specifically for boost. I'm pretty sure he loved the power the supercharger provided though. Now he's managed to source a SPFI unit in Oz and is running that - after a lot of fine tuning and troubleshooting he's finally seeing the smooth running and simple start that he's been chasing. There was one in QLD that I've seen on facebook as well - I think that one's been parted out, but it showed a good setup that fitted under the bonnet... Cheers Bennie

If you've managed to bend both rear wheels to a new angle you've "done things well". Just not the type of well that you're after! Depending on what you find it could be time for a new rear subframe. But you could've just bent both rear swing arms - still a huge effort to do that! Cheers Bennie

If you're going to destroy a gearbox like this, send it my way and I'll sort you out with a PT4wd gearbox. The part time gearbox would be stronger for this application, but as with all subaru gearboxes, the rear output shaft gears are the weak link in running RWD. That gearbox you've got is not something to weld up like that! Save a good gearbox and get a run of the mill PT4wd box Cheers Bennie

G'day mate, To hook up the fans to make them ECU controlled you need to use plug F47, wire 17. This is an earth switched wire, same as the stock EA radiator thermo switch. You can wire it straight into that factory wiring if you've got your fans hooked into that, just make sure it's NOT on the earth wire side of the radiator switch With the ECU controlling the thermo fans they should switch on and off as needed. If they're on all the time you need a new temp sensor - the brown plug, two wire unit on the coolant crossover pipe under the intake manifold - it's a PITA to get to! I'm still working on my radiator situation too. Your setup looks neat - I personally wouldn't worry about it, after having seen the pics I think it's neat and effective. If you don't want 5 lug anymore "feel free" to ship the rear end setup to me!! Cheers Bennie

I wouldn't say this thread is old... I'm yet to get the stock EA81 going - then I'll mess around with the MPFI setup. Does anyone know if the crank pulley on the EA81T is a direct swap with an EA82 unit? I'm thinking it's not as the EA81 crank pulley from memory also runs on the oil seal... I'm keen to get my hands onto one of these and the bracket set for the EA82 AC/alternator setup - or does the stock EA82 unit bolt straight on? More questions! Cheers Bennie

All good, we've got the message. While this is not an autocad file it's certainly one way of producing your own adaptor plate. Cheers Bennie

Top effort mate - especially having a little man child to deal with too! Hope you get many years of happy trouble free motoring from this conversion! Regards Bennie