Respect for the EA81 and performance mods!

[iceageg]

Its like I said in one of your other threads RAD, 99.9% of all attempts at doing something new and innovative come with increased cost or decreased reliability.  Usually both.  Maybe you will find the holy grail of EA mods and shock us all.  Maybe you will fail so completely your username becomes the stuff of internet lore.  Most likely you will end up spending more money than originally planned and have a car that can't be driven reliably for most of your R-n-D phase.  That's the way this sort of thing works. . .

 

Dream, try, fail, scratch head, try again, fail again, scratch head some more, change, sorta succeed, change again, fail worse, change again, improve but still not good, change again, fail worse, throw your arms in the air and curse the automotive gods, loose sleep, kick car, go to doctor for a cast, take pain meds, dream it is possible, hobble to the garage and try again, fail, hit car with crutch, drink beer and complain about car with friends, one friend makes a offhand comment about component X or Y, you have an epiphany, spend the next couple days doing a 90% redesign, car works almost how you expected but only you can drive it because of quirks, drive it like that for a couple months while smiling, fiddle with it two or three times a month trying to figure out how to tune the quirks out of it and maybe succeed.

 

In the end you may be able to redo your design in a cost effective way but getting there will be expensive and inconvenient.  It ALWAYS is.  What you want to do may be possible, but not at the cost or level of inconvenience you are hoping for.  One in a million people have that luck.  Or you can do what others have already figured out at the known cost and effort.  Good luck either way.

[franbev]

I bought my Brat because of it's EA81.

[AdventureSubaru]

I bought my Brat because of it's EA81.

 

Good motors for sure. I don't know anyone who doesn't respect them. Simple, durable - good motors. I learned to drive on one and have put a lot of miles on my EA cars from the past. Still would be if not for all the road salt.

 

The emphasis here is that there's no room to gain much horsepower on them. They go on and on. Just not very quickly. Those who seek any significant performance increase have to step up to the EJ platform (Which was based on the EA.)

Edited March 6, 2017 by AdventureSubaru

[RAD]

General reply, not to any one person:

When I have won one street race after another against normal, nothing-special cars, have people come up to me denying that I could only have a Boxer engine' and cannot believe how it burned down the street past their vehicle, I find this OBSESSION with EJ swaps to utterly ignorant NONSENSE!

If all I want is a fast car, I COULD BUY ANY NUMBER OF USED CARS FOR LESS THAN WHAT AN EJ SWAP IN REALITY WOULD ACTUALLY COST !!! NOT TO MENTION THE TIME INVOLVED !

You all think that an EJ swap is the only answer?!? - and what about all those "Other" costs you guys rarely account for or mention, eh?
How about the whole rest of the drive line, including the drive shaft, and what 'punching it' with an EJ can do to the various other parts of the vehicle?!?

I don't throw thousands of dollars at a project or problem that can be solved for hundreds.
You have lots money and time to throw away, do what you want, but don't go bragging that an EJ swap is the only way to effectively improve performance, and insult someone who does not agree -  it is just plain IGNORANT.

The EA81 (Brat) is a VERY GOOD DESIGN. It has slight limitation, which can be deal with successfully IN MORE THAN ONE WAY.

Edited March 6, 2017 by RAD

[GeneralDisorder]

An EJ22 will not break a normally driven EA drivetrain. They are actually super under-whelming. I thought it was going to be like blasting off at warp 9 the first time I did one. It's not. It's not that much power. It's nice, and driveable, but it's not insane or capable of serious drivetrain harm. 135 HP is not that much really. And some old used one isn't even going to make that. Probably be lucky to hit 120. 

 

GD

Edited March 6, 2017 by GeneralDisorder

[AdventureSubaru]

lol. Keep talking. This is funny now.

 

Tell us more about how blazing fast your brat is in these "street races" (law breaking).... I like those parts. They make me giggle.

 

Tell me more about how the ea81 will be as powerful as an EJ. About how that EJ will harm the drivetrain, but the super, crazy, powerful, pixie dust Ea81 will not.

 

Tell us about how many unicorns you saw today. About how Elvis Presley himself taught you how to street race.

 

Especially tell me how you are going to accomplish this while paying a mechanic to do the labor. That's my favorite part - that you're both inept AND ignorant.

 

At first I was confused as to why mechanics wouldn't work on your car. After hearing you rant on here for a few days and your detachment from how these cars work, and the mechanical limitations they posses, I'm no longer surprised. You're a quagmire they'd be happy to avoid.

Edited March 6, 2017 by AdventureSubaru

[Logan K]

Um...just curious...what kind of cars exactly are you street racing?

[jmoss5723]

Um...just curious...what kind of cars exactly are you street racing?

 Maybe 50cc Honda scooters?

[AdventureSubaru]

 

Drag racing division of the sub 70 hp.

 

 

Lol. You guys ever read the old  "Mall Ninja" exchanges? Where this mall cop got on a forum of mostly active/retired law enforcement and military and tried to convince them he was a hotshot "Rapid Task Force" sergeant that regularly took fire from terrorists and mafia and such at said shopping mall. They sifted through the BS and went round and round and his attempts at convincing them he was tough stuff just got more and more hilarious and over the top. Its a good laugh to read.

 

http://lonelymachines.org/mall-ninjas/

 

Anyway. Seems we have our own "ninja" in our little corner of the internet. Shall we dub him "Brat ninja"?

Edited March 6, 2017 by AdventureSubaru

[TomRhere]

Some 8-10 years ago, there was a person on here that did the rant/rave about the EA series of engines.

Refused to listen to what anyone else had to say about "What HE knew" of the greatness of them.

 

He got banned finally.

[Naked Buell]

 

[AdventureSubaru]

Some 8-10 years ago, there was a person on here that did the rant/rave about the EA series of engines.

Refused to listen to what anyone else had to say about "What HE knew" of the greatness of them.

 

He got banned finally.

 

The arrogance astounds me. Unless he's just a really bored/creative troll.

 

He tells us how unreachably expensive it is to do an EJ swap, when so many of us have done them on the cheap.

 

He tells us how ridiculously difficult it is to do, when he's never done ANY motor swap. And we've done this exact swap repeatedly and with great results.

 

He proposes "better" alternatives that are #1. ghastly MORE expensive than an EJ swap. #2. Will take far more work, problem solving, and R&D time. #3. Yield far LESS return for the work and #4. Destroy the reliability he claims to love in these motors.

 

Despite this being verifiable history and patently obvious by way of basic math, even when experts in the EXACT field answer the questions with hard facts and learned history, he has to be right - referencing experience that includes somehow "street racing" his 68hp brat and some mechanical knowledge that we're supposed to be impressed with, but does not even encompass fixing the blown headgaskets or swapping a new motor into his dead brat (Which apparently is abandoned illegally somewhere and hidden so the police don't tow it)

 

 

Side note - I love this forum and that everyone has been as gracious and polite in trying to help him. Most forums this would have devolved into a swearfest/poo slinging long ago. I appreciate you guys/gals and the class that this forum demonstrates consistently.

 

Now that it's clear that we're wasting our time trying to teach him anything and that this kid, who can't change a motor himself, is the "expert" and will show us all. I'm staying for the entertainment value. :popcorn:

Edited March 7, 2017 by AdventureSubaru

[DaveT]

The earlier comments about street racing reminded me of something from long ago.    I think I was driving my 78 wagon. 

 

One night, I was going through a small downtown.  Stopped at a light.  Street was wet from recent rain.  NO one around.  A kind of old looking pickup truck pulls up beside me, and the driver is revving the engine like "wanna race?"

 

I clicked it into 4WD.  Light turned green, I floored it and dropped the clutch.  Beat the guy across the intersection, not even close.  Of course, he blew by me a little way into the block, but I also stopped accelerating at 30MPH, not that it would have mattered.

[NoahDL88]

My best build was SPFI pistons, a Delta grind cam, decked the heads, re-curved the Disty. That engine is somewhere in Yakima if I recall correctly, don't know if it ever got running right, but if it did, it should have put out maybe 100 at the crank? It was an interesting experiment at least.

[Sapper 157]

I swear by my EA81. Besides the crappy stock carburetor, the engine is incredibly reliable. They are simple, easy to work on, and will take heaps of abuse. But as reliable and tough as these little engines are, they are no means powerhouses. As stated by another forum member, with the EA81, you won't be the first to get there, but you'll get there every time. However, no matter how much you modify the crap out of a these little engines, an EJ swap will remain the cheaper option and will get you more HP then you could ever get out of the little EA81.

Edited March 7, 2017 by Sapper 157

[Torry33]

I have an 86 gl wagon that only has 155,xxx miles and runs strong.planning on swapping in an ej because I'm lifting it and want to run bigger tires.tried it before in my 94 loyale and the ea couldn't cut it.I haven't done this kind of swap but I like the challenge. And the reward will be worth it!

[bratman2]

I beat a car once with my Brat racing on our plant site road coming from a little air strip. Sadly it was a Geo Metro! Even more sadder it was an auto Geo Metro. But, I beat em, lol!!

[jmoss5723]

I beat a car once with my Brat racing on our plant site road coming from a little air strip. Sadly it was a Geo Metro! Even more sadder it was an auto Geo Metro. But, I beat em, lol!!

Now this is a BRAT race story I can believe.

[DaveT]

That's like when I found a car slower than my 76 4WD wagon.  A VW Rabbit Diesel.

[GeneralDisorder]

I would be willing to bet my 2000 Suzuki Swift (Geo Metro) 1.3, 5 speed manual, would smoke any EA81. In fact I would give it odds against an EJ22 swapped Brat. It's actually surprisingly fast.

 

GD

[bratman2]

Alright, actually it was like a hatchback station wagon looking Geo Metro, with an auto! Plus a three hundred pound driver! Still beat em, barely!!

[RAD]

PROOF!
I have been stranded out in the 'nothin for months now, surviving, doing what I can to continue, save my Subaru Brat, and save my practical life.
Not kidding, for months at times I have had to walk over a mile just to get water! Over a mile to get drinking water from a ranger station, and 1 mile or slightly less to get water from a river for anything else.

After all manner of hardship, difficulties, and just everything going wrong, one thingafter another, and doing all kinds of work on my Brat, I finally got it starter and running enough to get into town, get supplies, charge batteries on my devices, get on this internet, and make a couple posts to figure out the last serious problem with my Brat, which I have posted in a different thread, where water continues to get into my carburetor for some reason.

What I am posting about HERE is that if this were one of those fancier engines, especially a turbo, (as so many have figuratively beaten me over the head insisting I do an engine swap - which I don't have the parts resources or mechanic to do so, or lately even the money, or anything else to do so) I would not be making this post! Those fancier engines - I would not have been able to fix like I have with my EA81. I would not have been able to improvise like I have with the EA81. Those fancier engines would not have taken what my EA81 has already been forced to endure, and would not have gotten me here to post!

The simplicity, reliability, and 'forgiving nature' of the EA81 is how and why I am here, was able to get here. Otherwise I would have had to give up on it, walk for miles out of where I have been, and had nowhere to sleep, no job, and be redused to being a bum finding some bushes or alleyway to sleep in!

I have endured literally living in the wilderness, scraping out, living by my wits, and raising what little money I have been able to, to get this thing running, and to whatever limited extent, I have succeeded in doing do.

In the past, especially in my avid off-roading days, I have been abel to bet my life on my Subaru Brats(s) and the EA81 engine(s), and here, more than ever, it has kept me one step above and ahead of losing everything and becoming nothing!

Anyone who does not respect the EA81 can eat my dust, kiss my rear end, and go straight to hell!

Now to figure out why the hell IK have water spewing into the base of my carburetor so I can finally start my life again!

(See thread on this subject)

- P.S. NOBODY, but NOBODY loves or is more dedicated to their Subary Brat more than me, and my situation and horrid "adventure" is the real-life, nose-to-the-grindstone proof!

[RAD]

I would be willing to bet my 2000 Suzuki Swift (Geo Metro) 1.3, 5 speed manual, would smoke any EA81. In fact I would give it odds against an EJ22 swapped Brat. It's actually surprisingly fast.

 

GD

 

Your "2000 Suzuki Swift (Geo Metro) 1.3, 5 speed manual" can't take what an EA81 Brat can take and do despite any number of problems, difficulties, challenges, etc!

Been proven over and over again in my personal, real-life, first-hand experience!

It would not be able to go where I have gone, would not be able to tolerate, would not be able to do what my EA81 Brat has already done.

PERIOD!

[RAD]

- As far as racing is concerned, real easy racing on pavement or smooth dirt roads!
Try racing in the Baha races of past or if they still happen and see what happens to anything else!

Run a race through the worst country in the worst conditions to the far side of hell and back, and the EA81 Brat will do it, bring you back, and beg to do it again!

 

[RAD]

This post originally failed to happen for some reason, see following post...

Edited June 10, 2017 by RAD