New partially Corvair owner

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genderen
Posts: 6
Joined: Wed Dec 20, 2017 11:36 am

New partially Corvair owner

Post by genderen »

Hi,

A small introduction from me, I'm Patrick and I live in the Netherlands. I bought a Corvair engine in parts. It the 80Hp version. I know the least desirable version.....
The engine isn't complete so I need a lot of parts to get up and running. Once that has been done I would like to install it into my VW T2 1973 camper. Which has 1700cc engine.

But to introduce myself a little, I'm originally a mechanic in the agriculture, work that I have done for almost 20 years. Then I stopped getting my hands dirty and got a job to sort our warranty and technical problems at a factory from construction equipment. Did this for about 5 years. Nowadays I work at a company who designs/develops, fabricates and installs electrical powersteering units for mostly classic cars.

As a hobby I still have a couple Airooled Deutz Diesel oldtimer tractors and a 1973 VW camper and an 1956 Oval beetle.

I have converted the camper so it runs on LPG, it tuns perfectly, but is has it limits for being a 1700cc engine with approx 60hp,
That's when the idea came to go for the corvair option, nothing beats the sound of an flat 6.
The idea is to use an subaru gearbox with this conversion,by doing this I'll have a 5 speed and due the opposite rotation from the engine and the subaru gearbox. It will still have 5 speed forwards and 1 reverse, discussed the idea with Subarugears.com. He didn't forsee any problem with the gearbox runing the opposite direction.

The idea is to run the corvair on LPG also just like my VW aircooled engine. It will become an LPG injection system controlled by an megasquirt ECU. I have converted my daily Audi 5000TQ with this system, with great result! It was my daily for over 4 years, without any problems!

I'll start a topic once I'm going to start with the build...

I already did a parts request through the wanted section:
https://www.corvairforum.com/forum/view ... 20&t=13882

Thanks,

Regards,

Patrick
66vairguy
Posts: 4531
Joined: Tue Dec 21, 2010 3:44 pm

Re: New partially Corvair owner

Post by 66vairguy »

You are ambitions, but it's doable.

While I think the Corvair engine will offer more low RPM torque, Covair engines in general are more expensive to rebuild compared to VW's. The other issue is the huge support for VW engine modifications that might be less expensive. Just my opinion, not being negative.

If you don't get any more comments here check on the Corvair Center forum. I met a fellow in S. Calif that installed a Subaru transaxle in the back of a 65 Corvair convertible and hooked up a Nissan four cylinder to it. He has put a few hundred miles on it going to shows and it runs reliably.
genderen
Posts: 6
Joined: Wed Dec 20, 2017 11:36 am

Re: New partially Corvair owner

Post by genderen »

Hi,

Thanks for your reply, nothing beats the sound of a flat 6, rebuilding a VW with an higher performance also costs enough money.
but it's the challenge that counts, so would like to go for the corvair setup......... A porsche flat 6 is out of budget, so the corvair is the next best thing.

Thanks,

Patrick


You are ambitions, but it's doable.

While I think the Corvair engine will offer more low RPM torque, Covair engines in general are more expensive to rebuild compared to VW's. The other issue is the huge support for VW engine modifications that might be less expensive. Just my opinion, not being negative.

If you don't get any more comments here check on the Corvair Center forum. I met a fellow in S. Calif that installed a Subaru transaxle in the back of a 65 Corvair convertible and hooked up a Nissan four cylinder to it. He has put a few hundred miles on it going to shows and it runs reliably.
66vairguy
Posts: 4531
Joined: Tue Dec 21, 2010 3:44 pm

Re: New partially Corvair owner

Post by 66vairguy »

Yes I agree the flat six sounds good.

Locate and post the case number of your Corvair engine. Over the years engine revisions were made so it's good to know where you are starting from.

LPG tends to work better with higher compression, if you can control pre-ignition and detonation. The base (80HP) engine was low compression, the others were higher compression except for the turbo engines.

Compression variations were basically in the head designs.
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