Buying a Brumby
Got some news that could ruin everything for me. Who am I kidding, my brumby build is over. Mrs is pregnant and we are going to need the dollars in a differently orientated budget. Damn 
But good
my first littl'n. Have 2 already but they aren't mine so it is new to me.
Anyone want a great condition 2.2Lt fully stripped?
But good
my first littl'n. Have 2 already but they aren't mine so it is new to me. Anyone want a great condition 2.2Lt fully stripped?
Owner's reports? If you've done these mods to your vehicle, how much improvement did they make in overall driveability and useful power/torque increases for off-road work?These apply to Subarus with EA81 and 82 engines. Assuming your current engine is vaguely healthy you can try the following:
Fuel and Timing: Use 98 RON fuel and advance timing to ~12 degrees BTDC.
Cost: $0
Ignition upgrade - Electronic Distributor:
EA81's mostly came with points based distributors, an electronic distributor is a good upgrade, though EA81 electronic distibutors can be had to find, all EA82's came with them and they can easily be adapted to the EA81.
Cost: ~$50
More spark:
Use higher powered coil such as the "MSD Blaster 2" and increase the spark plug gap to 1.1-1.2mm.
Cost: MSD Blaster $120
Carburetor upgrade:
The most common upgrade is a weber 32/36 DGV (manual choke), DGEV (electric choke), DGAV (water choke) or a 180 holley, they're all essentially the same carb, you'll need to buy or build an adaptor plate.
Cost: Carb $50, rebuild kit $50, adaptor plate $50
Exhaust upgrades:
Replace everything after the Y pipes with 2-2 1/4 inch pipe, a hotdog and a straight through/high flow muffler.
Cost: hotdog $50, lukey turbo muffler $100, whole setup supplied and fitted $220
Pro's: No compliance or legal issues, relatively simple.
Con's: Only goes so far, relies on current engine being healthy...ish
Workshops? Where in Brisbane (West side preferably) can I get all the work above done on my Brumby as a drive-in / drive-out deal? If someone could post the mechanic's contact details here, that would be marvellous. Obviously, I'll need a mechanic who knows his (or her) way around Weber carbureters.
I've done a lot of reading and I'm unlikely to consider an engine swap, but I would like to get the most out of my EA81 without compromising its reliability. Reliability is the most important issue for me (that's why I bought a Subaru in the first place).
Jack
1999 Outback (some mods)
1989 Brumby (more mods)
Subaru - Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive
1989 Brumby (more mods)
Subaru - Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive
I have done ALL THE ABOVE LISTED MODS.
* 98RON and 12 BTDC - Cheapest and easiest upgrade. You should start your grounds of performance improvement RIGHT HERE.
* The EA82 motor came with a factory electronic dizzy. Ask baron von chickenpants about his explorations into electronic dizzy conversions for the EA81. From memory, he reccomended it. Im not 100% sure if there were any EA81's that came with a factory electronic dizzy. If they did, change to it.
* MSD Blaster 2 Coil is the ducks guts. Definately more go from this, as the standard coil puts out 30,000 volts, as the MSD puts out 42,000 volts. With this upgraded coil, and running 98RON, 12 degrees of timing (12 BTDC) ONLY THEN increase your spark plug gaps to 1~1.2 mm. I also highly reccomend upgrading your spark plugs to NGK ones. (irridiums are best, but this is open to discussion elsewhere).
* Weber - Best to get it reconditioned and rejetted for an 1800 motor. Probably the best bolt-on upgrade available to the NA carb'd motors. (make sure you've done the associated mods above, to reap maximum benefits of the weber). Note - economy will suffer.
* Exhaust - I had a full lukey y pipe (without catalytic converter) and 2" exhaust installed, one hotdog installed (to keep noise down from obscenely loud) and one lukey sports muffler. headers cost me $250 installed, and exhaust was approx. $220. gains again, were very good over original exhaust. i reccomend doing the exhaust before getting the weber, as the air jets need to be calibrated to suit the flow level of your exhaust, and there is no point in getting your carby rejetted after you install your exhaust.
All of these mods were initially reccomended to me on these forums. You'd be silly not to take heed to any advice given here, as mostly everyone that can reccomend them, has been there, done that, many a time. Im sorry I can't give you any specific details and "seat of pants" scale of improvements, as I have modified my touring wagon from a bog stock standard tired and asthmatic touring wagon, to a capable and relatively powerful offroad vehicle which was about as capable as the next stock pajero or landcruiser (if not, more capable in some instances) over the course of three years.
The reason people are perhaps reluctant to answer your specific questions, is because, they have been asked rather frequently.
For this reason, we have established a guide to tuning and improving the performance of the older carby'd subarus, as a reference point for people wanting more pep from these cars.
please don't be disheartened by people's reluctance to answer your questions. just make sure that you do read the guides, and search the forums (ie using the seach button, next to forum FAQ) because chances are, there have been people asking the very same question you have. if you cannot find the information you are looking for, im sure people could either point you into the right direction, or give you advice.
use the forums as an archive, as it does contain a wealth of information. if you do not find what you are looking for, feel free to ask, and add to it.
cheers
alex
I have (had) a carb'd EA82. Im assuming the improvements with the abovementioned mods would be equally proportionate to your EA81.These apply to Subarus with EA81 and 82 engines. Assuming your current engine is vaguely healthy you can try the following:
Fuel and Timing: Use 98 RON fuel and advance timing to ~12 degrees BTDC.
Cost: $0
Ignition upgrade - Electronic Distributor:
EA81's mostly came with points based distributors, an electronic distributor is a good upgrade, though EA81 electronic distibutors can be had to find, all EA82's came with them and they can easily be adapted to the EA81.
Cost: ~$50
More spark:
Use higher powered coil such as the "MSD Blaster 2" and increase the spark plug gap to 1.1-1.2mm.
Cost: MSD Blaster $120
Carburetor upgrade:
The most common upgrade is a weber 32/36 DGV (manual choke), DGEV (electric choke), DGAV (water choke) or a 180 holley, they're all essentially the same carb, you'll need to buy or build an adaptor plate.
Cost: Carb $50, rebuild kit $50, adaptor plate $50
Exhaust upgrades:
Replace everything after the Y pipes with 2-2 1/4 inch pipe, a hotdog and a straight through/high flow muffler.
Cost: hotdog $50, lukey turbo muffler $100, whole setup supplied and fitted $220
Pro's: No compliance or legal issues, relatively simple.
Con's: Only goes so far, relies on current engine being healthy...ish
* 98RON and 12 BTDC - Cheapest and easiest upgrade. You should start your grounds of performance improvement RIGHT HERE.
* The EA82 motor came with a factory electronic dizzy. Ask baron von chickenpants about his explorations into electronic dizzy conversions for the EA81. From memory, he reccomended it. Im not 100% sure if there were any EA81's that came with a factory electronic dizzy. If they did, change to it.
* MSD Blaster 2 Coil is the ducks guts. Definately more go from this, as the standard coil puts out 30,000 volts, as the MSD puts out 42,000 volts. With this upgraded coil, and running 98RON, 12 degrees of timing (12 BTDC) ONLY THEN increase your spark plug gaps to 1~1.2 mm. I also highly reccomend upgrading your spark plugs to NGK ones. (irridiums are best, but this is open to discussion elsewhere).
* Weber - Best to get it reconditioned and rejetted for an 1800 motor. Probably the best bolt-on upgrade available to the NA carb'd motors. (make sure you've done the associated mods above, to reap maximum benefits of the weber). Note - economy will suffer.
* Exhaust - I had a full lukey y pipe (without catalytic converter) and 2" exhaust installed, one hotdog installed (to keep noise down from obscenely loud) and one lukey sports muffler. headers cost me $250 installed, and exhaust was approx. $220. gains again, were very good over original exhaust. i reccomend doing the exhaust before getting the weber, as the air jets need to be calibrated to suit the flow level of your exhaust, and there is no point in getting your carby rejetted after you install your exhaust.
All of these mods were initially reccomended to me on these forums. You'd be silly not to take heed to any advice given here, as mostly everyone that can reccomend them, has been there, done that, many a time. Im sorry I can't give you any specific details and "seat of pants" scale of improvements, as I have modified my touring wagon from a bog stock standard tired and asthmatic touring wagon, to a capable and relatively powerful offroad vehicle which was about as capable as the next stock pajero or landcruiser (if not, more capable in some instances) over the course of three years.
The reason people are perhaps reluctant to answer your specific questions, is because, they have been asked rather frequently.
For this reason, we have established a guide to tuning and improving the performance of the older carby'd subarus, as a reference point for people wanting more pep from these cars.
please don't be disheartened by people's reluctance to answer your questions. just make sure that you do read the guides, and search the forums (ie using the seach button, next to forum FAQ) because chances are, there have been people asking the very same question you have. if you cannot find the information you are looking for, im sure people could either point you into the right direction, or give you advice.
use the forums as an archive, as it does contain a wealth of information. if you do not find what you are looking for, feel free to ask, and add to it.
cheers
alex
1998 Subaru Legacy GTB
-
tim_81coupe
- General Member
- Posts: 1693
- Joined: Tue Oct 04, 2005 10:00 am
- Location: Perth
I agree almost totally with smoov. The only thing I don't agree with is re-gapping Iridium plugs (well he didn't exactly say to do that). I have to warn, the minor force applied to the iridium tip of the plug in the action of sliding in feeler gauges is enough to break it off. If you must run a 1.1 gap on Iridiums, buy the -11 variant (factory pre-gapped to 1.1).
82 MY Wagon, EJ20G
87 RX, EJ20G
89 Brumby, EA81
12 BRZ, FA20
87 RX, EJ20G
89 Brumby, EA81
12 BRZ, FA20
-
BaronVonChickenPants
- General Member
- Posts: 1187
- Joined: Tue Oct 04, 2005 10:00 am
- Location: Nowra, NSW
There was an electronic dizzy available for EA81's after 1983-84, you best source would be later brumby's but they're not real easy to come by in good condition, all the ones I found had a fair bit of horizontal and/or vertical shaft slop, you can adapt the dizzy from a carb'ed EA82, you just need to lop off one of the "ears" and fit the drive cog from an EA81 dizzy, it's out by a couple of teeth compared to the EA81 dizzy but works perfectly and your timing marks still line up correctly.
As far as reluctance to post I think the main reason is that it's difficult to say modification X gave Y% or Zkw increase in performance as most of us have done them a while ago and/or did a few things at once.
All we can confidently say is that these mod's are worth doing and are the best bang for (minimal) bucks things you can do to your suby short of an engine upgrade.
Jordan.
As far as reluctance to post I think the main reason is that it's difficult to say modification X gave Y% or Zkw increase in performance as most of us have done them a while ago and/or did a few things at once.
All we can confidently say is that these mod's are worth doing and are the best bang for (minimal) bucks things you can do to your suby short of an engine upgrade.
Jordan.
To become old and wise, first you must survive being young and dumb.
