Zosojojo

Hello Subaru brethren! I am selling my 2003 baja! ej2.5I with new head gaskets, cat, and o2 sensors. new rotors and pads. It also has a professionally installed cap. 130k on the body. I live in northern California. I'm wondering if anyone is interested in buying, but more importantly what should I ask for this car on craigslist? The reason I am getting rid of it is due to the fact that AWD isn't really as useful as it was back east, the car is HEAVY, and the mileage is poor. The car is a trooper. It survived the 3000 mile trek from PA to CA. New A/C compressor (not reman). The previous owner had a dog that liked to chew. The arm rests are a slight bit mangled but other than that the car is nice. The aftermarket head unit is cd/usb/aux capable. I would appreciate your feedback on a reasonable price to ask for. Thanks in advance, Zosojojo.

1st: So, my Subaru brethren, I have installed a new 32/36 Weber (with intake conversion plate) on my 86 brat (ea81, hydraulic lifters, a reputable smog tech told me it is a federal emission, high altitude model). On the Weber, there are two inlets, one for fuel and the other (I assume) for vacuum advance. This second inlet/outlet is located near the bottom of the carburetor. I directed a vacuum line from the distributor to that second inlet, bypassing one of the many thermovaccum valves. It runs great, but I would like confirmation on if that is the correct setup. I have also modified the throttle pedal so that it has the travel distance to activate the secondary. 2nd; My main concern; Judging by the sound it made at full throttle, I have a suspicion that the stock exhaust limits the additional air/fuel mixture created by the new setup. I believe that the stock exhaust was causing too much back pressure. I felt a great power gain until about 5/8 throttle (after I knew the secondary kicked in); after that, there was no difference. Also the sound was congested. I felt like I was driving a Honda with one of those bad exhausts. In my panic, I put a lot of effort into straight pipping the system. I realize that, the way I put it together, the system produces no back pressure. This is what I have done; I rented a tail pipe cutter from a locate parts store, and cut the "y" pipped catalytic converter to maintain the header connection and 90 degree angle. I then used various adapters and exhaust clamps to fasten two cherry bombs to those headers. From each head there is about a foot of 1,7/8" pipe then two feet of cheap cherry bomb As it is, it is a duel cherry bombs pointed at the ground. The exhaust output is located in the middle of the vehicle. I am a back alley mechanic with no professional training. I realize that the series of metal pipes under an automobile is designed and mass produced for a reason. I want to understand this system to maximize the investment of the Weber. I am willing to make a custom exhaust that produces maximum efficiency at about 2800-3500 rpm (modern day highway speed in 4th gear). I want a system that has power if I need it (/WANT IT =P) but also economy. What this post boils down to is this; Would a modified exhaust give me this desired outcome or would the stock exhaust (catalytic converter 'n' all) achieve this performance? As always, Thank you for your attention, I wish to hear from you soon!

It was indeed the accelerator pump. My weber has arrived. I am 100% done with crapatchi carbs.

the grommets (i guess) for the accelerator pump were cracked. this is the quality of gp sorensen. "matches original fir, form, and function" for like a month..... I reassembled the carb however the brat is like 60 miles away at a friends house, so it will be a few days till i get back to you guys if it worked. I live in california but I dont care ITS TIME FOR A WEBER!

Well, the exhaust is not blocked, however it was VERY dirty. Pitch black carbon build up. I flushed it out with a hose and let the cat sit for awhile with some water and soap in it. I tried running the car without the exhaust and the same problem occurred. I took the air cleaner off and ran the engine. While looking straight down the carb, It appeared that the primary was dumping way too much fuel at low rpm. I have previously rebuilt the carb and did that utility wire trick. The reason I did that was the secondary was never opening. I had the car for about a year running only one of the barrels without even knowing it. The strange thing is, the vacuum diaphragm is functional it just wouldn't get pressure for some reason. I changed all the gaskets I could with the gp sorensen kit but the secondary still wouldn't open. After the modification to make the secondary mechanical, the car produced alot more power. I've been running it like this for about 7 months. Now I just have the carb out of the car and am about to thoroughly reevaluate it. thank you for your attention and I will keep you posted!

Well you got me thinking. looks like I'm going to rip apart the exhaust system. Thank you everyone!

Hello brothers in Subaru! I am a sad man. Today I drove my brat 60 miles, no issues. Then out of nowhere, extreme power loss. I pulled over. Fuel is getting there, distributor cap is ok. month old spark plugs. the wires are like less than a year old. the coil is an accel. It is about a year and a half old. It starts no problem. I can rev it up in neutral but when I put it in gear, It can go past like 1.5k rpm. I can only put about half a toe on it or else it acts flooded. I suspect the distributor is the problem, but that is why I'm here. Any advice would be appreciated.

Hello everyone! thank you for helping me with my 1986 brat. My father has driven my 2003 baja from Pennsylvania to calfiornia. the brake system is in terrible shape. The brake fluid reservoir is brown. my question is, how to bleed new fluid into this system? Should I run the car while all the bleeders are open and monitor the level of the reservoir, then close them in a criss cross manner starting from the driver side front? I know the rule of thumb is to start furthest from the master but when i consulted the manual for the brat it stated the criss cross method. I was wondering if it is the same for this generation of subaru. Any advice is greatly appreciated!

Very nice work. thank you for sharing this. I wish to grease my rear bearings. Could i simply lower the back diff and pop the axles out?

im in northern california. the temp never gets below 32F so straight 30 can be run year round. In the summer I will try straight 40 because the temp will not drop below 60. I will also most likely will be trying lucas oil stabilizer.

Are hyrdo lifters in ea81 rare in the US? The manual I have says that hydrolifters are on the 2.2 and 2.5 engines but the 1.2 , 1.6, and 1.8 need valve lash adjustments every 15,000 miles. There is a sticker on my both of my valve covers that says something in Japanese (it might be something like "do not adjust valves"). The manual said there would be locking NUTS, but there are locking TABS that must be bent. I didn't want to believe it but I think I just adjusted hydro lifters as solid ones. WTF do i do now? P.S. Thank you for your input

baby's got 257,000+ I think the valves may have been adjusted like 100,000+ miles ago. I can tell someone has been in there before (scratches on the lock tabs).

Hello everyone! I just performed a valve lash adjustment on my ea81. NONE of the valves had any clearance. I loosened the valves as far as they can go but I still have no clearance on top dead center on #3 on either valve and the #4 exhaust valve has no clearance. After this adjustment I noticed a clear difference in the sound of the engine. The strokes are now more defined instead of faint puttering. Also there is a major reduction in weak hits/slight misses.I need to replace the valves. where can i find them?

It was a grounding wire. The wire that connects the tranny to the unibody was broken. After attaching the wire to the tranny the gauge worked properly. Thank you for your time!

replaced clutch. changed oil weights. replaced rear main seal, replaced oil pan gasket. had flywheel resurfaced. She grabs like a virgin on prom night now! Thank you for your time!

Hello everyone!. Thank you for your posts! Here is what ended up happening... I replaced the oil pan gasket and the rear main seal. I switched from 10w-40 (part synth) to straight conventional 30. Baby's running much better now!

I don't like the idea of mechanic in a bottle, but I recently separated the transmission and the engine and to my surprise Autozone sold me the wrong clutch set. Upon inspection of the clutch set installed previously in the car, I found black oil and sludge EVERYWHERE. It was probably leaking for a long time. It only leaks a tiny bit, I didn't want to do want I just did again so I thought I would ask. Thank you for your quick replies. NO STOP LEAK FOR BABY!

Hello everyone! My 1986 Brat has a moderate rear main seal leak. Changed the oil last month, had to add about a half a quart. Should I put some lucas stop leak in and take her for a long drive? Also my clutch disc is slipping pretty bad, haven't been able to floor the pedal in a long time =( Thank you, Zosojojo

I have been playing with the clutch adjustments and the issue is more or less the same. When I had the tranny and the engine apart there was considerable amounts of sludge. Is there a seal that has failed?

Now that you mention it. I did start doing this after I adjusted the clutch but I just made it so that the clutch petal and the brake pedal were flush. Maybe all I need to do is wongleflute with it.... thanks guys. Hey turbo nice seein you again!

Hello all! My brat has been driving strange for awhile and I would like to fix it. While driving in any gear, The RPM's will shoot up if I open the throttle all the away and the car will not move faster. This can happen in any gear but its the worst in 3rd. I tried to replace the clutch a week ago but it was the wrong size clutch set, so I cleaned the assembly with brake cleaner and slapped it back together. The clutch that was already there didn't look to bad but the inside of the bell housing was covered in black sludge and grease (maybe gear oil). I just want some input on the situation before I separate the engine and tranny again. Thank you, Zosojojo

Hello all! The issue must be wiring/ cluster related. I took the thing on a 20+mile drive. The temp gauge is around normal when nothing is on. When I turned on the heater core, blower motor, wipers, and head lights the temp gauge shot up to red. When I turned all of them off the temp gauge returned to normal. Thank you (everyone) for all of your help. I guess the next thing to do is take the neg. cable off the battery while it is running and see what happens...

Thank you my brethren for all the replies, I sincerely appreciate your opinions. The attention has been amazing! Drove it to work today, it did similar things except this time it didn't go to the red while driving. The gauge was still higher than what I'm used to. After work I returned to the forums. I then walked to Napa and bought a blue fluid test (part #: 700-1006) and an infrared thermometer. I drained the radiator slightly so no coolant contacted the tool. I made sure the fit was snug on the radiator. When the engine reached running temp there was no change in color of the fluid. This was frustrating and relieving at the same time. Then I used the ray gun to look at the temp of various parts of the engine and exhaust while running. At idle no parts of the engine exceeded 200F, in fact most parts varied between 160F- 180F. The fluid in the radiator was around 105F. One thing that did make me wonder was that the passenger side exhaust (the one with the pre-heater hose) was around 300F while the driver side was about 400F. I let it run for about 15 minutes. The fans would come on then shut off, then come on and so on. All the while I was attempting the blue fluid test and ray gun test. The gauge in the cluster still indicated that I was running above average temp.

Thank you turbosubarubrat and 2.5loyale. I am now going to drink and grieve.....

I am going to do a head gasket test, but the thing drives the same way it did.