El_Freddo

So here we are, a good year later and I’m finally getting stuff done - namely due to Subinats coming up in October.

I got her fired up after a jump start with a dodgy battery, pumped up some tyres to road pressure and took her out for a quick spin. Gave her a bit of a flogging (as much as you can with one of these) and she took it in her stride as usual.

After that I assessed the exhaust situation - a dodgy joint after the cat that was a patch job when M&D were borrowing her after the gen1 Y pipe fell apart somewhere on the Hume several years ago. Sounded a bit Honda spec and I didn’t like it. So I got a set of these and wrapped them:



While everything was cooling down, I took the old crusty roof rack off that was used when 4wdn - awesome for that, but not the current look I’m after. I put the original rhibo roof bars that came with Ruby Scoo that she used to rock for a very long time before the full roof rack came about to help accommodate the family.



I managed to get the UELs fitted after dinner and too her for a quick run. She’s got her old rhythm and beat back. Stoked!

I reckon I’ll get a new battery and a jerry can of fuel then start dailying my driving her - and do some cleaning. Inside, out and under the engine bay are terrible. I’m not proud, but she’s still here which is the main thing.

And she’ll get us to Subinats this year - bit of a big one from what I can gather - The legendary Hatchie and Settlement Creek Racing’s desert racing Brumby will be there. I’m hoping Lucky Phil can make it again. I believe the dark blue roll racing brumby will be there as will Tony with his show pony (non-offensive use!) EJ turbo converted brumby with the jump seats in the back.

Then there will be Ruby Scoo, “pre-rat rod”…

What is this EJ from, never seen a sohc with coilpacks on the plug ?
Has someone done a NA to turbo conversion on this EJ ?
Good luck with the conversion

G’day Beckers!

First up, sort of the old NA-t conversion but not really too. It’s a GD era setup (block and engine management) with EJ202 SOHC heads to fit in between the brumby chassis rails.

The coil on plug arrangement comes from the last iteration of the EJ253 which I believe was in the 2008-2010 era. I need to sort out a retainer bolt setup. I should mention for anyone that wants to look into this as well, the plugs on the engine harness need to be repinned for the NA coil on plug packs. If you don’t do this, something gets fried, I can’t remember if it’s the ECU or the coil packs…

It runs, idles, revs etc. I just need to get it sorted to drop it in the brumby and get a load on it so I know it will work with these heads. I’ll be running the NA cams for now and hope there’s no issue there. If it doesn’t run well I’ll be pulling the drivetrain out and swapping back to EA81 spec to get me to Subinats this year.

Time is flying sadly. It’s all the little things adding up atm that are chewing my time, but it’s progressing forward little by little.

It’s the most action moving forward it’s seen since initially putting it in the halfcut and getting it running about four years ago.

Cheers

Finally managed to drag out the halfcut project from the lean to it was under.

This is happening!



Aim is to drive this to Subinats in Redback Brumby. And Ruby Scoo will be along for the trip after a five year hiatus sitting around…

Lots going on and little time to do it in!

^ posting after this one, bit of a theme going on here as you’ll see below:

The last two weeks were pretty big for Redback - an overnight trip to Melbourne with Mrs El_Freddo where we fluked seeing and hearing the Steam Rail “Snow Train” pass through Flinders St Station in the CBD. Pure fluke, and the steam whistle is not the same in the city as the country. I couldn’t imagine steam engines working throughout the day whistling all the time!

The next day we cruised around town a bit, checked out some shops etc before heading to the appointment we were down there for:



^ parked on Little Collins St.

Before leaving the multi-storey carpark we headed to the top level for some pics because why not? This one is my favourite, it was a bit hairy leaning out over the edge to take it…



During this trip I realised what a bastard my clutch was to use. I drove her to work one day again, once home I pulled the old cable out which seemed fine. Subarino guaranteed me the cable was the issue and when not under load they seem fine - but they’re not.

I put a new one in that was earmarked for Sunnie the Brumby (waiting in the wings to be sorted out for club rego). What a difference! It was like driving with a power assisted clutch compared to what it was before! No groaning clutch pedal either. This is what I used to change the clutch cable over with the old cable in the pic:



The rest of the week was spent getting used to the lightness of my new clutch feel.

The following weekend, the one that’s about to end at the time of writing this, I headed to Bairnsdale to catch up with an old forum friend and for my son to attend his child’s birthday party. It was a good catch up! We camped out last night in the swag then took off for home this morning.

I decided the night before that I’d look into darting up to the Dargo Pub for some pics and a drink. Sadly we were there too early for a drink or a sticker purchase but we enjoyed breakfast from the general store across the road. Little El_Freedo #2 and I sat out on their verandah in 7°C with the crisp alpine cold air to eat breakfast, don’t want crumbs in the brumby where possible! I do miss being in the snow (up higher than Dargo) so I really enjoy that crisp cold fresh air when I am in it.



^ I don’t think I need to say where this is - it’s probably the most photographed pub in Australia I reckon.

I heard it’s rare to get a pic with only you or your group out the front of the pub. My trick was to rock up before open time on a Sunday morning. Worked a treat for me!

For the most part the drive home was pretty uneventful which is good. There was a road from Dargo rd to Briagalong rd (Brenda rd I think) that was fun to drive. It was twisty and up and downy with lots of on and off throttle and some high speed flows. Very fun. The city driving was busy but flowing well.

On the northern side of the city when we hit the Hume (another detour) the wind was horrendous! We were buffered around as the wind came from the NE with some rain and really low cloud. It was proper winter weather with a bit of an alpine touch to it - bit of a theme of the day weather wise.

I haven’t added up all the kms done or the amount spent on fuel. The latter I don’t really want to know. It was cheaper than driving the Pajero by a long km.

I’m keen to work out my L/100km - at one point I reckon I got close to under 9L/100km.
But she’s also using some oil in there too which sadly is standard these days.

The most we paid for 98ron was $2.40/L and the least $2.12 (sadly a good score at the moment). Bring back fuel prices from three weeks ago pls!

Overall an awesome trip with lots of kms, a variety of roads and loads of tunes and convos with LEF#2. The brumby, as usual, didn’t miss a beat!

Cheers

Still doing it soon I guess.

That or it was posted on bookface and I missed it, wouldn’t be surprised at that - I always miss the end of year bbq because of this.