ea81 gutless and not very good on fuel :(

Poug-Roodriver · Post by **Poug-Roodriver** » Sun May 24, 2009 12:56 pm

Hi All,

I've owned my 1990 Brumby for about 4 months now and I put 14" sunraisers on it. It averages around 380km to a tank and is totally gutless. To be honest I'm not a fan of the 4sp. Ive read a bit about the ea81 to EJ22 conversion. But how much more power will this give me and would it offer better economy. I'm a complete novice in the mechanic side of things and would have to get a mechanic to do the conversion, would anyone have a ballpark figure to get the conversion done?

AlpineRaven · Post by **AlpineRaven** » Sun May 24, 2009 1:50 pm

Have you checked the timing/distributor?
Cheers
AP

Poug-Roodriver · Post by **Poug-Roodriver** » Sun May 24, 2009 1:52 pm

No not lately, Im willing to put some money into it to get a better performing engine. Or should I just do some work to the ea81 like Webber carby, extractors etc...

BaronVonChickenPants · Post by **BaronVonChickenPants** » Sun May 24, 2009 2:12 pm

Sounds like it could do with a good service, that would be my first step.

Jordan.

Poug-Roodriver · Post by **Poug-Roodriver** » Sun May 24, 2009 3:00 pm

Its recently had an oil and lube. So new plugs and possibly leads?
If I put a webber carby on it would this improve power and economy?

BaronVonChickenPants · Post by **BaronVonChickenPants** » Sun May 24, 2009 3:29 pm

Yeah plugs, leads and timing, a healthy well tuned EA81 should do about 10L/100km.

I wouldn't go out of you way to do a weber conversion, they will give you a little more power on demand at the sacrifice of economy.

Power and economy rarely go hand in hand.

Jordan.

Poug-Roodriver · Post by **Poug-Roodriver** » Sun May 24, 2009 3:47 pm

I still think I wont be totally happy with the power of the engine. Just thought there would be someone that has done an ej conversion that could list a rough figure it cost them. Would you be able to do a ej20g conversion for say under $3k?

BaronVonChickenPants · Post by **BaronVonChickenPants** » Sun May 24, 2009 3:58 pm

For a basic EJ18-22 conversion your looking at a bare minimum cost of about $1500 if you get some good deals and do all the work yourself.

Highly unlikely to do a turbo conversion for under $3k.

There's a few places around that do drive in, drive out conversions but you can usually count on ~$3k just in labour plus the cost of your front cut of choice.

Jordan.

Matt · Post by **Matt** » Sun May 24, 2009 8:21 pm

second that a standard EA81 should get 10L/100km or below. I would be looking at that carbie and maybe getting it turned, also look at the distributor / timing you would want around 10 degrees BTC to give some more poke....

ian059 · Post by **ian059** » Sun May 24, 2009 8:59 pm

Much cheaper to get the existing carby overhauled and properly tuned. Get the right spark plugs and have a competent professional tune the car with regards to timing. The trick is to get the right company to do it. I could recommend someone in Kipparing QLD but NSW I don't know.

openflame06 · Post by **openflame06** » Sun May 24, 2009 9:00 pm

yeah, EA81's usually arent that bad. What were you driving before though?

Poug-Roodriver · Post by **Poug-Roodriver** » Sun May 24, 2009 9:07 pm

Ive been driving an e36 325i and a 94 rodeo. I also try to run the ea81 effeciently, I dont thrash it. I know a good mob that should be able to get it running right.

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Mon May 25, 2009 10:19 am

get a bigger 'tank' grrrrr

how many litres per kilometres? I ran my EA81 Brumby down to run out of petrol and had 609 km on the odo . Should have been 55 litres to refill from there.

In NSW if you go for an upgrade on 1.8l you can go up to 15% greater capacity NA without eng cert or even notification other than change of engine number as far as RTA concerned.
It is not just an engine swap if you go EJ.

I spent $1000 doing a proper rebuild rebore etc on my EA81 and it goes bloody good with the above economy.

Poug-Roodriver · Post by **Poug-Roodriver** » Mon May 25, 2009 6:18 pm

380km to about 45ltrs

the gumbi brumby · Post by **the gumbi brumby** » Tue May 26, 2009 8:33 pm

what size tires are you using now?...

AlpineRaven · Post by **AlpineRaven** » Tue May 26, 2009 8:39 pm

Poug-Roodriver wrote:380km to about 45ltrs

That works out to be 11.84litres per 100kms.
Cheers
AP

Post by **TOONGA** » Wed Jun 03, 2009 11:40 am

the ea81 motor is notorious for needing valve timing on a regular basis when I got my brumby it was rattley and nad no power the first thing i did was the valve timing (to specs in gregorys manual or from subaru) some of the valves had nearly 2 mm between the valve and the rocker arm and i was amazed it still ran. once i did that i put in a new set of plugs and did the oil and filter she runs fantastically now ( lifter quietener can help as well)

TOONGA

Gremlins · Post by **Gremlins** » Wed Jun 03, 2009 4:37 pm

the gumbi brumby wrote:what size tires are you using now?...

Yeah, second that question. If you have 14's with high profile rubber you're changing the effective gearing of the vehicle enough to be noticeable and it will result in a loss of acceleration and speed up hills as it will be like driving one gear higher than what you really are. eg Starting in 1st will be like starting in 2nd with the stock 13's and cruising in 4th will be like being in 5th if you had that gear.

The above example is obviously a bit exagerated but hopefully you get the idea. Also the larger diameter will make your odometer (and speedo for that matter) read less. If you have a 10% increase in diameter over the 13's (easiliy possible depending on tyre size fitment) your km's reading on the odometer will also be down 10% so your 380km might be nearer 418km in reality which will probably make the fuel consumption look a bit better.

Please ignore all the above if your 14's have low profile rubber resulting in not much different diameter to the standard 13's.