alexbuoy

Got this car for free it's extremely rusty, but I think it'll be a great trail rig. I'm already a couple months into the build and it should be ready for the trails real soon. My first subaru was a 1991 Loyale 5 Speed 4x4 I picked up for $675. The two following years it received a 2" lift, 29 inch tires, a 5 speed dualrange swap, a welded rear diff and an EJ22 swap. The entire driveline was donated to the brat. I'm hoping to get the loyale running again with the stock EA82 and 5 speed pushbutton 4WD. I also had a red Loyale for about a year. What's been done to the BRAT 4/3 inch homebrew lift EA82 Front End Front to back tube chassis Ej22 Swap 5 Speed Dualrange Welded Rear Diff Rock Sliders Rear shock hoops Fuel Cell EA81/EA82 hybrid rear axles to name a few... This is it's current condition. Updated as of October 26 2018 This whole build was done with just an angle grinder, bandsaw, and a welder in the garage. My Loyale Pictures from the previous owner. Originally a New Mexico car. Rusted to spoob and the pictures don't do justice. I had to drive 2 hours to San Diego to pick it up and used 2 triple A tows to get it home. At least it had a clean title. Engine ran, but only on 3 cylinders. No power. I think that engine was toast. Mileage was unknown. Finally got it home, at least he left the cyclops light grille and a fairly complete interior. Exterior wise everything was missing Flat towed it to the DMV to register it. Over the next few months I started to collect all the missing exterior parts. Here is what it looked like after I got all the parts. MINT jump seats and headrests!!! Stole the EJ22/Harness, 5 Speed dualrange, driveshaft, and welded rear diff courtesy of the Loyale But before I could put any of those parts in, I wanted to change over to EA82 front suspension as it is superior, wider track, and has power steering. The EA82 front crossmember was wider, so I had to offset the holes on the lift blocks. Then the blocks got linked together with DOM tubing. Finally the EA82 front suspension was on minus the front lift blocks. The whole front suspension was scavenged from an 85 GL. All the EA81 front suspension was ripped out. I was doing a 4/3 Inch lift and the subframe for the front was dropped 4 inches. You can see here how the subframe block holes are offset. I think around an inch each hole was offset Here are my designs for the EA81 to EA82 subframe blocks. On the subframe blocks on the engine crossmember closest to the cab, the holes were offset about 1.25 inches. On the subframe blocks on the engine xmember closest to the front clip, the holes were offset 1 inch. See the pictures to get what i'm saying. Blocks on the crossmember and blocks on the radius rod/transmission mount. Then linked all the blocks. Front xmember, trans xmember. Some sick notching. Done by hand I also decided it would be best to extend the radius rods. I extended them 1.5" to help clear my 29's. Note : you need to notch the holes in the control arms. 1.5" imo was a little to much. Now onto making the front strut lift blocks.cut at 6 degrees had an assload of camber... Finished product. Blocks tacked together Now onto the rear end. Very simple I used 4 pieces of 3x2x2" square tubing to lift the rear torsion bars. I also dropped the rear Diff the same amount which required 4 blocks of the same 3x2x2" tubing. Rear lift blocks in. And I know this thing is rusty. Rear lift blocks got linked as well. Threw in the Ej22 along with the 5 speed transmission, rear diff and driveshaft. To make the 5 Speed dualrange fit, I used the 4 speed mounting brackets which were modified. The holes in the bracket were elongated. Than the 4 speed transmission bracket and mounts were able to be used, to bolt to the 4 speed trans crossmember. The trans crossmember holes had to be notched. Wiring I went with a different approach than in the loyale. Everything power related was hooked to a switch panel like the on, start, fuel pump, and acc. I believe I only spliced the harness to two wires, the tachometer and the VSS. Well it finally ran and drove! I also made a quick front bumper for it. First time out of the garage. Drove ok but had no rear shocks, and the steering was sloppy. The steering I had in was a manual EA82 rack, and I had like 3 u-joints which made for ultra sloppy steering. Drove it 10 minutes to Agoura Hills. Had some extreme issues with it dying when coming to a stop. I still haven't fixed it but I do believe its because of my broken Speedo cable tripping up my VSS. Driving it with no shocks was sketch. Back end was wayyy to soft and hopped all over the place driving down the road. Had to hit a trail on the way home. No rear axles. I started working on welding in shock hoops for the rear. Used 3/16 plate to weld to the frame rails along the pinch welds, and generic shock hoops bought offline. Eventually this will also be linked to the tube chassis. Here is the drivers side welded in Both hoops welded in. Yes the passenger side hoop had to be angled. Linked the two hoops together for uber strength. I'd like to see how this holds up as the frame rails are super thin. And this is my fuel cell I mentioned. It's plastic. The whole front end was finished being tubed, so it got hit with a coat of paint. Got around to swapping in a blown power steering rack from my loyale. I had to extend my current (90-94 legacy) steering knuckle a couple inches to make it work. The new steering joint and blown power steering rack cured the sloppy steering. Eventually I'll have power steering in it. I have a whole new power steering rack and tie rods in the garage but I need to find lines to make it work with the EJ. The tube chassis was nearing completion, so I took it 45 minutes away to a trail in Malibu. Despite it being FWD I was able to make it up most obstacles. My friend in his first gen 4runner was spinning tires (open/open diffs). I struggled but bumping it I made it up more obstacles than I expected. Stay tuned. In my next post the rock sliders will be fished and i'll show some pictures of the tube chassis.

Almost finished my tube chassis and mounted the sliders on the passenger side

I love my Loyale although its sitting in the garage with no engine and transmission. I have no issues finding parts here in California and they are extremely hard to come by here (you PNW people are lucky). But I do have a massive stockpile of parts. If you want one, get one, they are incredible vehicles. I liked the EA82 engine more than my EA81 in my brat, carbs suck. Best setup for EA82 IMO is ej22 with the stock 5 speed transmission. Don't bother with the 3 speed auto ea82's, they are slow as piss. EA82 chassis is hands down my favorite vehicle, I think I prefer it over my Brat.

Easier to check from in the cab imo. But I doubt thats your problem. The 4 speeds are notorious for having issues.

These ditch light brackets fit the EA81 chassis. No drilling and no modifications are required, it's a direct bolt in. Made from 1/8" steel and will be painted black. $55/pair shipped anywhere in the US. Local pickup is possible(i'm in Thousand Oaks, CA).

85 and up (EA82) is a whole lot easier to EJ swap especially if it came SPFI. It also has superior front suspension, transmission, and axles. and not to mention wayyy easier to find parts. 82-84 only upside is the torsion rear end. only because you can gain mad travel. exterior parts are hard to find especially for the 1982. i have both a brat and a Loyale. I think i’ll take Ea82 over ea81 any day

You HAVE to drop the subframe when lifting a brat. I just made a lift kit for my brat. very easy to do. you need6 blocks total for the lift. and i think 12 blocks for the subframe spacers. i’ve been meaning to make a write up for a while now but never got around to ut

3 Bolt front strut? That’s ea82 struts. Rear end should be a coilover strut if it’s ea82. I thought all hatches were EA81 style. But EA81 has a two bolt front strut and shocks in the rear. EA81 also has quad lights or dual lights with headlight surrounds.

I just crunched some numbers on rockauto. for valve cover gasket, cam seals, t-belt and water pump total comes out to $175 shipped. and this is with quality parts gates and felpro. you could go cheaper if you wanted to save some $$

Hey man i live in thousand oaks just north of los angeles county. if you need any work done definitely PM me and we can work something out. I say seals and tbelt/waterpump kit would be all you need. I know of a warehouse in alhambra that sells the tbelt/waterpump kit for about $150 iirc. all other seals shouldn’t be more than $50

supply is the top on the drivers. supply is slightly bigger or the same size as the vent

the smallest line coming from the middle is return. two on the drivers side is vent and supply

it bolts right in.

ECU reset did nothing also

Replaced AFR sensor and plug wires. upgraded the fuel return line to the tank to 5/16 also. Also replaced crank sensor. I’m super stumped! I don’t think it can be low compression/bad valve since all 4 plugs were gas fouled???

Unfortunately my scanner does not do that. The vacuum line that goes from the FPR to MAP does not show any signs of raw fuel inside. Im thinking because my fuel return line is so small (ej swapped brat) the fuel pump is over pressurizing the system. Im going to upgrade the fuel return and o2 and i’ll check back.

Currently it runs pretty bad cold or warm. Pulled the plugs today and all 4 were fuel fouled and had a strong smell of fuel. I’ve also swapped my fuel rail and fuel pressure regulator with a known good one. I just checked my AFR sensor, wires are frayed a bit. I’m going to try replacing that and also upgrade my fuel return line since it’s only 1/8”. Would a bad AFR really make the car run that poorly ?

That was my thought too. I replaced it with a used one off my parts engine. My scanner shows that the ECU temp is about 10-15 degrees off from my mechanical coolant temperature sensor. although I do not know how accurate either are

Hello all thought i’d try my luck here coming from the 80’ s subaru forum. I've recently transplanted a 1998 EJ22 265k miles into my Subaru Brat. The EJ along with the wiring harness was out of my Loyale, which ran great before it was pulled. When I first wrapped up the swap it ran amazing. Did some pulls with it at operating temps with no issues. Now it’s missing quite bad when it gets to operating temperature. And it’s also been getting worse. No CEL’s which is leaning me towards it being a fuel issue. Modifications to the engine/fuel system. 1. Short Ram intake. All of the vacuum lines are connected after the MAF 2. Fuel Cell 3. Straight pipe with no cats. o2 bungs are welded in (gave no issues when the EJ was in my pryor car)  Also I cleaned/replaced the following 1. IACV  2. MAF  3. used Engine Coolant Temp Sensor 4. used Ignitor 5. New fuel filter 6. used coil pack 7. cleaned PCV 8. new plugs less than 5k ago What I’ve checked 1. No vacuum leaks whatsoever 2. Timing is good Im going to try replacing the fuel injectors and FPR. Any ideas? I'm super stumped it started acting up a couple of days ago.

Thanks I was thinking the exact thing. Ill make a post there now

Still have issues with low idle (probably around 500) and cutting out when warm. any suggestions ?

So i’m believing its a fuel issue. My friend had the same issue with his swap, upgraded the return lines and it fixed it. Gonna give that a shot

I've recently transplanted a 1998 EJ22 into my Subaru Brat. The EJ along with the wiring harness was out of my Loyale, which ran great before it was pulled. So the thing runs great when it isn't all the way to operating temp. I can really get onto the gas and do pulls with no cutting out. But after a little bit of driving, the EJ cuts out real bad. Definitely a misfire. Those things never happened when it was in my Loyale. It also idles really low, id say around 4-500 on the tach (and shakes a little but can this be because of no pitch stopper?). No CEL's (minus the typical like gas tank temp). I did a few things differently this time around. 1. Short Ram intake. All of the vacuum lines are connected after the MAF 2. Fuel Cell Also I cleaned/replaced the following 1. IACV 2. MAF 3. used Engine Coolant Temp Sensor 4. used Ignitor 5. New fuel filter Is it OK to use the stock return lines and vent lines from the EA81 or are they too small? I have an upgraded fuel pump for FI but I feel like its flooding the engine(Once it cuts out it backfires). Any ideas? I'm super stumped I literally did it almost identical to my loyale but i'm not getting the same results.

Update: I’m not sure what I did, but BOTH brake lights work now!! unplugged some stuff and then that fixed it lol. Thanks for the help guys!

Hello all i’ve got an 82 Brat and the brake lights do not work. Tail lights do work when lights are on. I have the two prong plug from the brake pedal connected to a green, green/yellow plug. I’ve cleaned the grounds and also have cleaned the electrical connections (which brought life back to my drivers side tail light) So a couple questions 1. Is the brake pedal switch connected to the right plug? 2. What else should I check that might cause an issue with my brake lights? 3. I think the issue might be in the harness. is there a way to bypass the harness and wire the switch directly to the tail lights? thank you!