RAD

Ok... Two developments that at least for me are MAJOR. Preface: Even though it could be cheaper and more available, I am not considering "turbo". There was a very good discussion or two inhere somewhere about why Superchargers are better than Turbo, chiefly, because Superchargers operate directly in relation to either what you are doing with the throttle, or the engine/RPM, whereas Turbo does things slightly differently, and if I recall right, it was said that a drawback with Turbo is that it can kick in when you may not want it to, like in the middle of a tricky turn. That was what changed my mind to not wanting Turbo, with the caveat that of course, I could get some wrecked Subaru with a turbo engine and do a swap, and doing so could be fairly easy and cost effective. HOWEVER, specifically if/since I am in love with the EA81 for its simplicity and lack of any timing belt/chain and want to stick with it, and not have to modify things just to put it in my Brat, Turbo is out of the game for me. (1) I and others should study up on the similarities, differences, pro's, con's - what are the differences concerning "Superchargers" "Blowers" and other possible similar hardware. (2) The possible game changer for me, was when I realized the possible potential for doing something different - a blowers, superchargers, etc. are basically about forcing dense (cold?) air into the engine, therefore, I could possibly put a glorified shop vac motor on my carb and make a difference - I know, that would not necessarily work, and reasons for it, etc. HOWEVER, what if one could use an ELECTRIC based blower? Such a thing could be far less expensive, much easier to get, mount, fabricate, etc., and if the right blower/motor was found, for one thing, a variable speed motor/blower, it could be controlled in/by different means, relating to your use of the throttle, the engine RPM, etc. What I am in the initial stages of checking out, is mounting a second alternator where the air conditioning used to be, and using that to power some kind of electric blower, and possible an alternative form of air conditioning/cooling, likely using Peltier devices in some way.... I will have to find out what the CFM?/ Cubic feet per minute of say, the beloved Weber Carburetor is or can be, and using that as a minimum/base requirement for the blower. I am off-the-bat considering something with a cool looking scoop of some sort, using two roller type fans right at the front or it, with a removable grill/filter, which, if the fans had blades that can be chromed, would look super vicious ultra cool, lol... Holy Carp! I think I already figured it out! I also happen to be a freak about private/hobby/commercial drones, and RC aircraft, in that realm, they use certain motors called EDF's, Electric Ducted Fans, which are by nature and requirement very power efficient, extremely high RPM, and built from inception to efficiently blow a high volume of air at high speed. On the aesthetic side, they would also give it a Jet engine whine type of sound that would probably sound a lot better than the average 'Turbo' sound, and look just as cool if one mounted say three of them side-by-side in a cool looking scoop! I will be checking this out immediately!!! Found an article: http://electricsupercharger.blogspot.com/ UPDATE: This is looking just too good... - Now, also, it is said to have dense, COOL air forced into the system, so when I find.... - A cooling jacket for such motors, (Actually for RC boat motors, but if it fits and bolts on/in...) I wonder if I could use these water-cooling fan shrouds to super-cool the intake air! Who knows, maybe not necessary, but if it makes a real difference (in other than winter conditions) then I know these babies exist, and there is more than one way to inject cold water or whatever through these.... - And then, mount them in something as affordable as possible or improvised, such as this:

I want a blower/super charger, the kind that comes up through the hood and looks cool, like on the engine in th eoriginal Mad Max movie - is this possible? What is it and where can I get one? Thank you.

Sorry for the late response, Situation changed. I'm camping out in wilderness near Redlands, CA. I have figured out what the actual problem is. Brat was getting horrible gas mileage, made a deal with a mechanic to rebuild the carburetor. He mounted it wrong, mounting gasket blew, coolant spraying into the carb and cylinders, which in turn half-blew the head gasket so that the compression and hot gasses were super-heating the coolant and over-pressuring the system blowing hoses and the water pump gasket. So it needs a head gasket, water pump gasket, hoses, etc. Not the worst thing, in an emergency I may be able to start and run it a short drive somewhere. I just got a new job, so there is hope, and I just found another running Brat that may be for sale. I could do one as a street rod, and one as an off-roader.

Likely in the next 3 months, I will be looking for a mechanic to do an engine swap for my Brat. I will be in the Lake Elsinore, CA area, and otherwise in the San Bernardino / SoCal area in general. Any and all suggestions and offers are more than welcome.

Here's an odd thought - Instead of my dual carbs dream, what if I put a non-subaru larger carb on, larger than the popular Webers? What if I could get or make an adapter plate for a small 4 barrel carb from some other performance-based car/engine?

I did try to find the info in suggested links, and was not able to. The XT6 is still available, and I have had another possible way to do it. Forgetting the hood for now, what if I found just the right spot, and cut the whole front end off the Brat, moved it out a few inches needed, and then add framing, and sheet metal for the gap. The nose would just be a few inches longer, and there would be no issue regarding the radiator...

My Brat is a special one, but it was horribly neglected, abused, and badly repaired. I had been fixing it up when people where I lived turned out to be real lowlives who stole anything they could trade or sell for drugs, and caused an illegal eviction. I ended up homeless, living in a desolate area, and became broken down out there, with nothing close, almost a mile to walk just to get water, 6 miles to walk to get or do anything else, and what aggravates that is that I have Bursitis & Plantar Fascitis in both feet, two bad ankles and one bad knee, which means on hell of a lot of pain and difficulty. Through it all, I have been doing all I can, what little I can, to try to fix and save the Brat with very little luck. One person after another has tried to talk me into abandoning it, but I refuse to. With any luck, I may soon be able to get it started, and find myself in Lake Elsinore, CA. Are there any really gifted Subaru Mechanics or Subaru freaks in that area who could help me fix this Brat and give it the fix-up it so deserves? Thank you.

(Retracted for lack of interest)

Solution - problem - solution... Problems with carb were getting bad, had to do something, so I took the top section off, and found that (1) float was off - knew that. (2) the gasket was pretty ragged. (3) there were hardened gobs of gasket goop half blocking the main barrel, surrounding the jet but not actually blocking it. Got all that out but need an upper body / Top end / mid body gasket, and since everything else I'd good, and I am nearly broke, I want to find just that gasket, but can't find one in local auto Parts, only rebuild kits. I simply cannot spend that much right now, so unless someone has a link where I can get one, I may have to use "Form a gasket", though not the best choice, The Brat is down, on the street, and I need a quick fix. Already tried without a gasket, predictable fail there. Any sources / ideas? I suspect once I get this solved, performance may improve, lol...

Thank you. I have done a couple carb rebuilds in the past, and all I probably need for this then is maybe a new gasket to be almost pro about it. More than one person has told me that, so seems pretty obvious, but did not occur to me. Now that I look back on it, the problem seems to have been progressive, not all at once necessarily - would that indicate anything in itself? I might apply Murphy's Law and wonder if the float itself may be compromised or going bad or something.

EA81 with Hitachi carb, good spark plugs that look like they should; newer, quality wires, all cylinders firing, but a lot of un-burned fuel going out the tailpipe... I don't understand, how does that happen? Don't know what to fix....

That might actually be not so good newws, as I want nothing to do with any kind of electronic ignition, period. But I do at least need a better coil, mine is pretty beat up.

This looks like it might work within my vertical hood clearance, despite that I want to use a Ram Scoop... http://www.webercarbsdirect.com/product-p/wk730.htm This, from weber redline site looks interesting.... "Footnotes: All three digit K kits are for racing and offroad use only and must never be used on the highways in California." http://www.redlineweber.com/carb-kits/auto/subaru/

So... here is where this is at so far.... At least for stage #1, for the relative here and now, I am settled on sticking with the EA81 engine. So far, the plan is to get a performance coil, such as ferp420 suggests to get more out of the gas I am already using, and to get a much better carb to feed more fuel, in a more efficient way into the engine, which can be handled by the engine due to the performance coil giving better spark/burn. Next is what else I can do.... I love the idea of a super-charger, but that is not for the here and now, and would be costly and very involved if and when I go that route. SO... After Turbo and Super Charger, that leaves the use of some kind of Ram Scoop or similar, to in turn force-feed more, denser air to the carb... Other than presumed basics of using what amounts to a glorified air funnel, I know nothing about Ran scoops, so I will be looking this up, and would appreciate any further tips on improving power with such a set-up, and just how much improvement a ram scoop does make..... Ram scoop is already making some sense... From a link.... http://ateupwithmotor.com/terms-technology-definitions/hood-scoops/ "As a rule, cooler, denser air will yield more power while warmer, thinner air (such as on a hot day or at high altitudes) yields less." I am at moderate altitude, running on warm to hot days, with a hot engine in a hot engine compartment - and, to be honest, I am also running about the smallest air cleaner\filter there is, so in a way, I am suffocating my engine, the air it IS getting is thin and hot, and I am pushing it hard despite this. Seems like a recipe for poor performance anyway.. the question is how much increase in performance will a decent Ram Scoop add? This leads to minor problem #2: A normal height/thickness of air cleaner does not fit in my engine compartment, I have small dents, etc in my hood from this, and was considering a hood scoop just to provide room for it anyway. The apparent choice is to either (1) Mount a ram scoop so when I close the hood, it seals with the carb well, and tolerances and clearances become the devil in the details. or (2) to mount the ram scoop securely to the carb, and cut the hood to fit around the ram scoop - simpler and easier in some ways, but may not work well with the scoop I have already been considering and have on hand. Both of these options have to deal with the engine moving a little under torque, gear shifting, suddenly punching it, etc. The bottom line is starting to look good though... More/better air, more/better gas, more/better spark. That would have to have a real world noticeable difference. Lightening the vehicle is also a concern that I must deal with. I carry a lot of gear with me, been slowly cutting down on that, but am starting to wonder what, if anything I can do as far as lightening the vehicle itself. Not too much to work with as far as that goes without compromising the vehicle's structural integrity. In this vein though, the aim is to make the job easier on the engine. I have to start thinking about various ways to maybe do that....

Ok, this sounds very involved, and not just a weekend task, but does sound like very serious performance. It may be the optimum solution down the road if I ever change my mind about the EA81 engine. I wonder... Can a distributor from an early Ford Escort actually work in a Subaru as-is? A 4 barrel carb sounds like some serious possibility, but (1) would need a custom adapter plate/base of some sort I am sure, and (2) It has been said that if the base engine is not powerful enough, dumping more gas into it may not be the solution, as the engine cannot make enough use of it. I am very curious about " a set of weber down drafts" - can you explain this a little more? Sounds interesting... Thank you.

Yes, makes perfect sense. I am pretty much decided that this will be a basic and solid part of the solution. For what little difference it makes, the Brat has some kind of dual contact\spark type spark plugs, combined with the coil you mention would mean the best and most complete burn of the fuel, in a way doing better with what I already have. I'm sold on this much, anyway, lol...

I am finding equal amounts of difficulty and \earning on this subject... In the end, preference is everything, there is more than one way to do most things, and the more I deal with this subject, the more I feel solid about the EA81 engine, somehow modded for performance. Your statement "you can swap in a Weber 32/36 and flow better with a single carb and once tuned it is set and forget." is very encouraging where that is concerned. It has the promise of improved performance, with not so much expense and complication. I like that. Just to fully explore the issue, is that 'THE' best carb I can get to make the biggest difference? I did find this link helpful for a basic understanding of this to me: http://www.redlineweber.com/html/application_guide/making_the_right_choice_32.htm I am now focusing on a very particular goal: How to rig an EA81 engine for performance, as odd as that sounds. My lack of performance is mostly due to: (A) An older, smaller, less sophisticated engine. ( Having a 4 speed tranny, when a 5 speed would itself be an overall improvement where gear ratios are concerned. © Going up a mountain grade, as otherwise on freeways and especially city streets are concerned it does ok. I have a thing about no timing belt(s), and no electronic ignition, which admittedly goes against performance in general. But that is the core issue emerging out of this - to get more power/speed out of that EA81.

I remember the issue being brought up before about changing out the ignition, and that does make sense. However, if that would still technically be an electronic ignition, I would hesitate going that route. I have been in touch with JDM, they don't have anything that will bolt in, don't have any dual carb set-up, and it took them WEEKS to answer my inquiry. They are also a bit expensive. If I solve the bolt-in issue first, the easiest overall answer would be to get a junker subaru with a usable engine, and use that for the swap. That would mean timing belts, electronic ignition, Turbo, etc. I have tried carb adjustments, running premium gas, lightening it up, etc, with no obvious results so far. The performance ignition seems like a good idea that I could keep\swap with a new engine if\when I replace it. I have been told that a dual carb set-up cannot be done right with an\the engine made for it because it will not bolt up right. Even if dual carbs come out of sync, maybe I could rig-up something for a remote to manually adjust the carbs, that might solve that problem. So... I assume that reality is that the EA81 and maybe the EA82 are the only engines without timing belts ???

I have learned a lot in this process.... Chiefly, that any XT, be it 1800 or 6 cylinder is just not worth my time. Regular 1800 XTs don't have any more power than my Brat, and XT6s engines are expensive and problematic to service. My Brat is cooler and sexier than either, so I will just stick with Brat(s). So far, the most exciting suggestion was using a EJ2500 with EJ2200 heads, both to solve the reliability\blowing head gaskets issue, and to further increase the power through the higher compression. It would be complicated and involved, and is something for another time to do, but seems like the best option for the most power as far as the engine itself. So, answer seems obvious, but I have to make sure - is the EA81 engine the only one without a timing chain\belt, and that can run without Electronic ignition? Thanks,

Hmmm... What a shame.... I think I could get it for maybe $500, trying to get a goog engine for less would be difficult. I also was thinking about someday getting an XT6, but after what you guys have said, maybe not. Parts for all these less common vehicles are hard to get, some worse than others. Could not find new tranny mounts for my brat, so I had to rig my own separate tranny "stabilizer" I guess I would call it. For my brat, I can get front rotors for $20 through regular store parts, but the rear drums are hard to find and like $85 or so. Thanks for the detailed warnings, I guess I will pass on this one opportunity.

Thanks. Good to know its been done more than a couple times.

(A) Roll bar radiator - If it was made from scratch as a spoiler, it would look cooler than other spoilers, and cool your water, probably better than in the front, because it has a little back pressure from the turbulence of the lower engine compartment. ( Just how many inches more forward in length IS the XT6 2.7 ? I could reason up to 3 inches extra - but if going by the numbers I would have to find some official reference to what it is for my Brat as well, as I might not trust just using a tape measure and getting something wrong, and not figuring it out until 2 pizzas, 3 friends, 2 six packs later when every one's scratching tier heads, lol.

I could maybe cheat a little and be able to move the radiator forward a couple inches, but as I have dealt with these brats that forward frame member (if I dare call it that) the radiator sits on comprises half of the front end of the car, including the headlights, etc. That's my front end collision defense, not just for a crumple zone, I want my vehicle to survive too, if possible. It would not hurt to beef-up that front end, move the radiator just a little forward and do something for the grill to still look right. There is a trick with the headlights I already wished I could do, and this would be the opportunity for that, too. Special engine brackets of some sort, But the transmission is a complete mystery so far, as my two best chances are to either sacrifice 4WD (Oh, CRa- !) Never, or probably have to find something hard to find, or get an expensive special adapter plate, etc, etc, etc.

- What? What does that mean, like the Brat is "Gone" ??? You mean some lucky bastar- bought it I hope? Not a wreck I hope. If anything did happen to it, that might justify the effort in itself, to bring one back again. I am a cautious enough driver, pretty good at not letting other people hit me. Not likely to push anything to far, but good to have either the extra 'oumph to get up a steep grade, to pass, etc. and be able to do so without taxing the engine and running a high temp. ( I wouldn't mind being able to chirp all four in two or three gears for a little fun in a safe area, lol )

Ok, I have a 1983 Brat. The engine is not doing so well, and even in better condition, the Mountain grade I have to drive fairly regularly dogs it down to average of 45mph, 50mph max. I need more horsepower, I want more horsepower. Been looking for parts cars or engines I can bolt in. I hear all about EJ 22 swaps, but I stumbled onto something to good to pass up if its possible. I know someone who has an XT6 with 2.7 Liter, 6 Cylinder engine. The car is so bad off it may not be worth all the fixing up that would be necessary. Interior bad, paint bad, drivers door and window bad, Title cannot be found, etc. etc. etc. Not touching on the subject of transmission at all for now, what I need to know is has anyone ever put an XT6 2.7L engine in a Brat? I know people have swapped smaller engines, many examples, but an XT6 6 Cylinder engine? I have been told it could "Fit" in the engine compartment, except there would not be enough clearance with the Radiator. Bottom line: Has anyone ever done this? Can it be done without a lot of cutting and welding? I don't mind if I can/have to move the radiator forward some, might be able to do that for a couple inches with very little modification. I assume I will have to have special engine mounts, and there may a problem with future servicing, due to a lack of room in the engine compartment. However, if it is possible, I can (A) Have all the horsepower I will ever need, ( For very little money invested in the engine / parts car. Huge horsepower, very little money. The question is about feasibility and how much modification / work would be necessary. Electrical is another kettle of fish, not sure about that, trying to put off dealing with that until I know if this can be done at all. Thank you in advance.