I always thought Corvairs were cool looking cars. I was first exposed to them when a buddy in high school had one. Kinda funky, kinda cool, kinda odd. Kind of sums me up as well.
I've been a Datsun guy for close to 30 years, but decided in the last couple of years that I needed something bigger so my family could enjoy cars with me. I started looking for a 60's American "compact" car. In all honesty, 63.5 Falcon hardtops where at the top of the list, but I was also considering Novas, Corvairs, Barracudas and anything else in between. My Dad has a 64 Impala SS that he's had since buying it for my older brothers back in the mid 80s. One of my brothers has a 61 Buick LeSabre bubbletop.
I've been searching in earnest for a little over a year, after selling my Datsun 510. Went to the Mecum auction this past weekend in Portland and had a few cars in mind, including a 65 Corvair Corsa in "resale red". When it came up on the block, I had already passed on several other cars, mostly because they went higher than I anticipated. A buddy of mine was also at the auction who buys and sells cars regularly. I followed the car up on stage and it sounded great - in fact, my buddy ran up and told me the same. Trigger auction fever.
I won the auction, paid for it, and started the journey home. My dad and uncle had joined me at the show, so they followed "just in case". I noticed right off the bat that something was amiss. It felt under powered. I had driven a 140 a couple months ago so I had a reference point. It wouldn't accelerate past 3500 rpms. Figured maybe it was just cold. Stopped at a gas station right outside the venue and put $20 of super in. Got about 2 miles away and the Cyl Temp light started flashing (even though the gauge read about 300) so I immediately pulled over. The car was HOT and burnt oil smoke was coming out the top of the engine. As you could imagine, I was livid. I immediately called AAA for a tow and let the car (and myself) cool down for a bit.
Once we both cooled down, we started poking around to see if there was anything obvious going on. Well, we found the distributor was very loose but had no idea where it should be, so we waited for the tow truck (almost 2 hours!) and brought it home. After a brief conversation with the owner (found his number on some paperwork in the car and he admitted he must have forgotten to tighten the distributor), he told me the timing should be 24 degrees at 850rpm. It is 8:30PM at this point and I rush out to the FLAPS and get a timing light and try to time the car. Unfortunately, not being familiar with Corvairs, we struggled to get the timing correct - at least what we assumed would be correct. I'll be researching that more in the immediate future. I also discovered gas leaking from the bowl of the carburetor after a brief drive and was then able to replicate it by pushing the throttle a couple times. Oil is leaking from somewhere because after a short drive burnt oil smoke comes up through the fan. I just need to get the pans off to see. I had pulled off the pan under the right exhaust manifold because I could see/feel oil on the inside bottom. There didn't seem to be any obvious signs of a leak, so I will have to investigate more.
So, I am now in research mode to see what I need to be looking for, how to set the timing, etc. and contacted the local CORSA group to get acquainted with them.
Summary of known issues:
- Timing is WAY off
- Oil leak
- Fuel leak
- Electrical - backup lights come on and off randomly when driving.
Looks like I will be learning A LOT about Corvairs in the very near future.
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I would like to encourage you to expand on your first post and tell us more about yourself, as well as about your Corvair. Your personal assessment of your mechanical skills and abilities helps a lot. Members of the Corvair Forum love to be helpful in assisting other Corvair owners with technical support and advice, but it helps a lot if we have some understanding of your technical background and mechanical abilities, your Corvair-related knowledge, etc. Helping us to know more about you, your Corvair, and your plans for your Corvair will help us to write comments to you that are tailored to your needs and experience.
The Corvairs are vintage 1960s technology and design — easy to learn and easy to maintain. I would say that learning to work on a Corvair is analogous to an experienced home DIY "shade tree" car mechanic learning to work on a motorcycle. The concepts and procedures are very similar, but the details and the way it is put together is a little different. With the Corvair engine (like a motorcycle) you are dealing with a lot of aluminum. The metal is soft when compared to steel and cast iron, so the use of a torque wrench, anti-seize compound and carefully avoiding cross-threading becomes more important. Also, (like some motorcycles) you are dealing with multiple carburetors so tuning procedures are a little different. The use of Corvair shop manuals and supplements, other technical guides, and information sources like the Corvair Forum, and perhaps joining a CORSA (Corvair Society of America) club chapter can help you to quickly learn about Corvairs. Information resources, like good Corvair parts suppliers, are plentiful if you know where to look. Suppliers like Clark's Corvair Parts have been well-respected and extremely supportive since 1973, and suppliers like that make Corvair ownership more practical and much-more possible.
1966 Corvair Corsa Convertible
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