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long time no post, need some advice on the Brat


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Hey folks,

 

I haven't been on here for ever but I really need some advice about getting the Brat back on the road.

 

 

Here's the situation: I moved from OR to NC about 2 1/5 years ago. I brought my Brat of course. For those who don't know it's a 79 with an EA82T and a bunch of other stuff....

 

I drove it here for about a month but could not get my inspection sticker, bunch of stupid stuff, no horn, no backup lights etc. I parked it and bought a used toyota truck. Figured I'd get to work on the Brat after I got my shop built.

 

2 1/2 years later, the shop has been built for 1 1/2 but the Brat still sits exactly where I parked it.

 

I have not done anything to it to prepare it for storage and I'm getting ready to get back to work on it.

 

My question is:

 

what can I do to prevent damaging the engine in starting it up for the first time in 2 years?

 

I planned to pull the plugs and get some oil in the cylinders, flood the valve covers with oil to get some oil on the camshafts, turn it over by hand with a wrench on the crankshaft pulley bolt. Then turn it over with the starter with the plugs out, then replace plugs and start as normal (hopefully)

 

Anything else I should do?

 

thanks in advance

 

garner

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Hey folks,

 

I haven't been on here for ever but I really need some advice about getting the Brat back on the road.

 

 

Here's the situation: I moved from OR to NC about 2 1/5 years ago. I brought my Brat of course. For those who don't know it's a 79 with an EA82T and a bunch of other stuff....

 

I drove it here for about a month but could not get my inspection sticker, bunch of stupid stuff, no horn, no backup lights etc. I parked it and bought a used toyota truck. Figured I'd get to work on the Brat after I got my shop built.

 

2 1/2 years later, the shop has been built for 1 1/2 but the Brat still sits exactly where I parked it.

 

I have not done anything to it to prepare it for storage and I'm getting ready to get back to work on it.

 

My question is:

 

what can I do to prevent damaging the engine in starting it up for the first time in 2 years?

 

I planned to pull the plugs and get some oil in the cylinders, flood the valve covers with oil to get some oil on the camshafts, turn it over by hand with a wrench on the crankshaft pulley bolt. Then turn it over with the starter with the plugs out, then replace plugs and start as normal (hopefully)

 

Anything else I should do?

 

thanks in advance

 

garner

 

sounds like you have it all worked out. Good luck w/start up.

:popcorn:

BW

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sounds like you know what you are doing for the most part. just take your time with it and maybe change the oil and spray some seafoam deep creek in the cylinders before youtry to start it. from my experience, the ea82t will try to run, even when it shouldnt.

 

on a side note, we should try to meet up next month when i take my trip to southern va and into nc.

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Just as a reminder:

Disable the fuel pump/ground out spark from coil when cranking over when plugs are pulled. You don't want live fuel being ejected out of plug holes onto a wild spark plug wire and then you get this fire... and then your running inside the house real quick and the wife askes "Whats wrong dear?"... "Nothing, just car's on fire!" as you blast past "Again!?" as her voice fades into the distance as you spray down the fire.....

:dead: (She still loves me... my wife too)

 

Sounds like you got it covered. They are tough rigs for sitting and starting back up.

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Garner! Good to see you are still alive. Too bad your on the wrong coast now, but at least you still got your Brat.

 

Sounds like your plans will be more than enough to safely fire up the motor.

 

-Brian

 

Hey Brian,

 

Yep, I'm still alive. Did you ever use that down pipe I traded you?

 

wish me luck, I'm going to start workin' on gettin the Brat running today....

 

garner

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good luck with the brat. i am still fighting with trying to figure out the ea81 in my brat. i am so tempted to just swap in the ea82t i have left over from my rx. at least i know how to work on and tune the ea82t, im lost when it comes to carbs.

 

 

le us know how it all turns out, and take more pics of the brat, i want to see how it finally turned out.

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Hey Brian,

 

Yep, I'm still alive. Did you ever use that down pipe I traded you?

 

wish me luck, I'm going to start workin' on gettin the Brat running today....

 

garner

 

I wish I had :( Not long after I got it from you, i ended up selling the RX. The Downpipe sat in the garage until the WCSS8 where I delivered it to Brad (Subaru_Styles) and it is now living happily in his RX.

 

Im cruisin in a Turbo Legacy now. Keep us informed on that Brat's progress... and dont forget the pix!

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disengage the fuel pump.

turn the engine just enough to see if it actually moves and isn't stuck

change the oil

i attach a socket to an electric drill so i can slap it on the oil pump

remove the belts and drive the oil pump for awhile to circulate oil through the engine (air tools would work as well)

rotate the engine over a couple times by hand and hit the drill/oil pump combo some more

 

i've pulled the oil filter beforeto check and you can turn the oil pump by hand to get some decent oil moving with the belts removed. but there's not much space to work with when it's in the car.

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I wish I had :( Not long after I got it from you, i ended up selling the RX. The Downpipe sat in the garage until the WCSS8 where I delivered it to Brad (Subaru_Styles) and it is now living happily in his RX.

At least it's in the family....

 

here's the Brat from today, after pushing it out of the trees up our drive way.....that's NC in the back ground, and our Impreza

 

P1010078.JPG

 

I pulled the plugs, sprayed a bunch of "P B laster" and she turned easily by hand!!!!(wrench on the crankshaft pulley bolt)

 

Will get some oil and plugs (actually they look perfect) tomorrow, charge the battery, disable fuel pump and see what happens....

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dude, that brat is the cause of much drooling and lust. it looks great though. i really want to see it in person now.

 

sounds like you are well on the way to getting it back on the road soon.

 

how hard was it to make those fender flairs?

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  • 3 years later...

Sad update to this, according to a thread I ran across on Pirate4x4, "Garner" passed away.

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?p=14073502#post14073502

A good friend of mine owned this car, and built it himself. Lots of cool touches, and he parked it in hopes to get it ready for paint. Sadly, he passed away way too young (38), and the car was unfinished.

 

It is now in the hands of a good friend of mine, and it may works it's way into my hands. I was hoping maybe somebody had seen a build thread, some pics, maybe a username for the original builder on a suby forum, etc...

 

Its a 79, with an 86 Turbo Engine and Megasquirt. He built the flares himself, and it has some healthy suspension mods.

DSCF2624.jpg

 

This thing is so extensively modded, It would be cool to know a bit more about it. I know it has the blue color in the door jambs and under the hood/firewall, but the inside of the bed if brown.

 

If it ends up in my hands, I'd like to build it as the original owner would have intended, and if there is any online history to it, it would definitely help.

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It is true, Garner passed away last year. He was 38. I'm sorry to have to tell your community, it looks as though he was a pretty active member here

 

Garner was a teacher/friend of mine in Boone NC at ASU. I was building my very first motorcycle when he was hanging around, giving me grief and tips :cool:

 

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=719041&highlight= my Bike Build Thread.

 

Anyhow, the Suby is now in the hands of a good friend, who is slowly taking great efforts to make it come back to life. He's not a major car guy, but he is learning. I posted it up on Pirate to see if anyone knew of anything about the car. It's great to see Garner was a member here, and find some history on this really sweet machine.

 

I helped my friend move his shop this past week, and the Brat was sitting there, and I got to see it up close for a brief bit. I knew I had to find more about it, it wasn't just a haphazardly assembled machine, but something someone really loved.

 

I will try to keep more updates on the car for you folks, and it's resurrection.

Edited by punkskalar
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i remember reading something about his passing, i was deeply saddened by the news. i had talked to him a few times when he was building the brat and we bounced ideas back and forth for our projects at the time.

 

 

good luck with finishing the brat, i would like to see more pics of it as it is now.

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