mhisstc

Tank cleaning in progress. I'm amazed at how well the E85 is working to emulsify the thick accumulation of varnish in the bottom of the tank that originally looked like some sort of undercoating. I'm equally amazed at the quantity of rust particles embedded within the varnish that we are removing. Two rounds of soaking, agitating, and dumping are done and will do more until we no longer get any crud out of it. Didn't take any before photos of the tank, but I have one showing it hanging from the playset in the backyard ready for agitation. That picture is posted below along with one of the exterior.

No pics of either one yet, but I'll work on it. No plans on the '79 yet, although after helping work on the '85, my son is a bit jealous of his sister and is now eyeing the '79 for himnself. I checked all of the fuel supply, return, and vent lines, flushed them with carb cleaner and blew them out with compressed air. There was one hard line under the bed that was plugged that is now clear. It actually had a small bit of what looked like plastic wrap in it that I'm sure helped form the clog. The two supply/return lines in the tank that aren't vent lines are plugged. Further investigation shows the rusty/crustiness in the tank to be mostly varnish, so I'm going to see if I can manage to clean it out myself to the point where the internal lines are clear and it's clean enough to use. The plan is to use a few gallons of E85 and a couple handfuls of different sized hex nuts all shaken around and rotated every so often while suspending the sealed tank from the backyard playset for a few hours. From what I've read that should do the trick to emulsify the varnish. We'll see where we stand after that.

Excellent. Thanks. My daughter will be driving this, so a permanent solution is the better route to pursue.

Great info. Since I prefer not to get involved in a tank project right now, something new that fits looks like the way to go. I'm off to find a tank and sending unit for a non-turbo 4WD wagon.

That's one of the threads I found while searching for solutions that eventually led me to this forum. Good stuff. What kind of epoxy did you use to seal up the tank?

My fuel tank needs help. It looks OK on the outside, but is rusty and crusty on the inside and the fuel gauge sending unit is in similar shape. The tank may be salvagable, but the sending unit is doubtful. From what I've been able to glean from searching the Internet and this forum so far, neither the BRAT tanks nor sending units are unavailable new by either the OEM manufacturer or any aftermarket manufacturer. I found one place that says they have a tank and sending unit, but am leery of them actually having it. http://www.oemautopartsandaccessories.com/catalog/parts/list/system/fuel-system/g/fuel-system-components/v/subaru-brat-1985/vtec/45791/ That seems to leave me with a few options with the tank. 1. have a radiator shop clean the tank and hope for the best. 2. cut it open myself, clean it, weld it back together, and seal it. 3. try to use a tank from another '80-'87 4WD model and hope it fits/works 4. fabricate a completely new tank for the OEM location. 5. install a fuel cell in the bed. Option 1 seems the best bet as long as I can find a shop. Option 2 is doable, but will likely take longer than I want as my skills to do so are on the low end. Option 3 is questionable since it seems the BRAT is always listed as a different tank than any of the other models when looking them up in parts finders. I'm not sure if this is due strictly to the rear placement of the sending unit as compared to the top placement on the other tanks, or if they are physically different in size and shape. If they are the same physical dimensions as another tank, I'm not sure what difference it makes between the top vs. the rear sending unit mounting location, or if the top mount sending unit will work correctly with the BRAT gauge. Option 4 I have no skill in doing this, would need to have someone else do it for me, and it sounds expensive. Option 5 is not a consideration since I want to keep the rear facing seats intact and usable and don't want a fuel tank in the bed. With all of those options I will still need a new fuel sending unit. I really can't believe an aftermarket company hasn't made these tanks like they do other models of the same vintage. I also can't believe that while I have no problem finding 2,4, and 6 inch lift kits and 6 lug hub conversions for these vehicles, there isn't a handy entrepreneur out there somewhere who recognizes this need and fabricates a tank and sending unit retrofit kit for someone like me to purchase and install.

Thanks for the responses. The BRATs are both 4WD. Just because I know the tank that came out of it will fit back into it, I'm tempeted to cut it open, clean it out, and weld it back up myself as has been shown on this forum. But with my lack of experience, it will likely take me longer than I want it to. My daughter would like to drive it sometime this year. I'll have to see if I can find a radiator shop willing to do this for me. I'll also have to look more into the feasibility of using a tank from another model since the sending units on the BRAT bolt into the back of the tank while the others appear to be on the top of the tank. The sending unit is definitely something that needs to be replaced and new ones seem to be as non-existent as the tanks.

Hello. I'm new to the forum and am in search of information. When my wife and I got married, she had a '79 Subaru wagon she got from her grandmother that we ended up both driving for many years before the floorboards rusted through and we ended up selling it to a Subaru fanatic who was happy to get it and quickly made the repairs needed for his wife to use it in her house cleaning business. We currently have 2 BRATs I've inherited from my father-in-law. One is a '79 and the other is a '85. The '79 ran once 10-15 years ago over the last 25 or so years and is the rougher of the two. The '85 was his daily driver and started to run poorly in about 2005. I had a fresh tuneup done to it for him, but by then he had gotten another truck from his father and parked the BRAT in 2007. My daughter and I are currently trying to get it running again for her to drive to school and work. So far we figured out it would start when gas was poured in the carb, and it would mostly run with gas gravity fed to the carb. So the main thing we need to do right now is get the fuel system back up to snuff and check out what sounds like a stuck lifter. That means we still need to: - Clean the carb - Clean out the fuel lines - Replace the rusty/crusty fuel tank and sending unit as it looks like there was a fair amount of water that got in there while it was sitting. Anybody know where to find a new fuel tank and sending unit? The BRAT units seem to be model speific and non-existant in the land of replacement parts. Is it possible to mod a new and available tank from another model to make it work? Thanks for any insight. Scott