Corvair Forum

My corvair experience is limited, but I've been wrenching on air cooled VW's for a couple of decades, and they share a lot of the same problems when it comes to performance limitations. I'll go a step beyond what others have written and say that before you plan your build, before you even decide you...

I'd say you lucked out. It happens like that sometimes, but more often you get to fight with them. My best "lucky fix" consisted of running the car up to speed on the freeway then double clutching and downshifting two gears and immediately getting off the throttle to create an abnormally h...

Thanks guys... Oil cooler seals were always a trouble spot on the VW's I owned as well. There was a non-stock paper gasket available For VW's that worked better than the rubber o-rings depending on which cooler you had. Anything like that for the corvair, or are the stock seals generally the way to ...

Great article! I know it wasn't the primary scope of the article, but I wonder if you can address the effects of high temperature on various grades of oil or oil bases as it ages? Since air cooled engines tend to run higher oil temperatures than other engines, that might be a factor in oil choice as...

Since I've started driving my transvair more, I'm developing an ever worsening oil leak. It seems to leak as much when not run for extended periods of time (weeks) as when driven regularly, and it seems to be leaking from the driver side. It's bad enough that in a couple weeks it'll probably lose a ...

OK, so my plan with the "transvair" was to maintain the original patina, which is light enough that it mostly consists of heavily oxidized paint with no real rust or damage.... I just noticed that the last time I was underneath, I must have grabbed the bumper (which is painted white) as I ...

I do have the helper springs. Didn't float the floats, but I did feel them for the weight of gas inside, visually inspect for cracks, and shake to listen for fuel in the floats. They're fine. BTW, When I first fired the engine up after all the leakage, it smoked like a mother since the gas filled oi...

In my case Marty, the lines and in line filter were clear. All the "grunk" was in the carbs. So far it hasn't come back, but it's only been a few days. I was parked on a slight slope (nose up by maybe 4" vs tail), but with the tank above the carbs I could be getting leakage even when ...

Thanks Ted. I couldn't think of anything but the float bowl vent as the leakage point, unless fuel soaked through the gasket and flowed directly down the throat of the carb, but I didn't see any sign of either.... I'll keep an eye on things but I'm really hoping that cleaning out the carbs has resol...

I heard a guy in my club say if you rebuild a carb, run the engine, and let it sit for three months, you will need to tear the carb down and rebuild again. The problem is the gas we get these days, particularly the alcohol gas. For mine, I use gas with no alcohol, very expensive, but seems to help....

Nope Dave, no dribble. Like I said though, looking down the carbs is tough due to the low overhead in the VW engine compartment. I've got a low pressure electronic fuel pump mounted below the tank (right in front of the engine) Haven't checked pressure since I don't have a convenient in line gauge, ...

Guarantee the fuel pump isnt the problem. I don't have a mechanical pump ;)

Anybody have suggestions for sources of fuel dripping into the engine when the vehicle is off. I just found 1-2 qt of gas in my crankcase. Carbs are newly rebuilt, and I had them apart yesterday to clean some mysteriously gelled gas out of them, but the problem predates me tearing them down to clean...

Similar looking Marty, but mine was a little more brown colored. Also no globs that big (BTW isn't that on the fuel line side of the filter? Mine was all in the float bowl, the lines were clean.) Anyway, I have the carbs pretty well tuned. It's a little choppy at idle, (dunno if that's normal or not...

Well.... I found the problem, but this really confuses me. Something caused the fuel in the float bowls to gel. The fuel in the lines is good, no gel upstream of the sintered brass filters. but in the float bowls, and throughout the passages, there were globs of gelled fuel. This isn't contamination...

You mean when the engine isn't running right? I've looked down the passages to confirm acc pump operation. Didn't see any drips or signs of dripping then, but I admit it wasn't my primary focus. I can't look down the carbs with the engine running due to the configuration of the VW engine compartment...