Today was the big day...

[acarlson]

Well, I've been slowly rebuilding my '65 Corsa turbo engine. I pulled the engine in February and over the last 6 months I broke it down, completely restored it and reassembled it. New cylinders, forged pistons, rings, connecting rods, bearings, seals, ground & polished crank, cut and polished heads, new valves, valve springs, installed time-serts in all spark plug holes, rebuilt the turbo, new flywheel, pressure plate, alternator, starter, ... you get the picture. After all this work, today was the day I finished the build and decided to see if it would actually start and run. I recorded the event for posterity and I figured I'd share it with ya'll. Many of you helped get me to this point by answering questions and providing opinions on problems I've had over the last 6 months. You can view the birth of my new Corsa engine here: http://www.cincotek.com/corvair/rebuild.m4v I''ve cut the running time down to about 5 minutes but you'll see what happens when I pull the trigger...

Alec

[bbodie52]

CONGRATULATIONS! After all those months of hard work, research, and careful planning, there is nothing like the feeling of hearing that engine run for the first time!


Now for part two…

I am sure that I speak for many in the Corvair Forum when I say we are looking forward to hearing how it runs when you get it installed in your Corvair and get to drive it for the first time!

[64powerglide]

Fantastic job, she sounds real good.

[toytron]

Awesome! Congratulations Alec.[emoji106]

Ed Stevenson

[acarlson]

Well, it surprised the hell out of me. I wasn’t expecting it to be so easy. I just needed to adjust the timing after it started. I ran it for about 18 minutes at 1500 RPM. Oil pressure was 40-50 psi. Electric choke worked perfectly. Cooling damper doors opened correctly. Oil was pumping through the turbo as it should. Only problem was I have 1/2 size valve covers installed so I can adjust the lifters while the engine is running. The pushrods were spitting oil out over the top of the covers which is why there was an oil puddle under the engine. I may actually have the car back on the road in a week or two - looking forward to that !!!

[viewmaster]

Congrats!!!! Ill bet that is one of the greatest feelings...almost up there with a child being born. (kinda similar too) Anyways, build looks great! I can only hope that mine turns out as nice, and it starts as well as yours.

Noticed the downstream port in the exhaust. Must be plans for a fuel/air ratio sensor, in the works. Awesome job.

-m

[acarlson]

Congrats!!!! Ill bet that is one of the greatest feelings...almost up there with a child being born. (kinda similar too) Anyways, build looks great! I can only hope that mine turns out as nice, and it starts as well as yours.

Noticed the downstream port in the exhaust. Must be plans for a fuel/air ratio sensor, in the works. Awesome job.

-m

I have an Innovate MTX-L Plus O2 sensor and gauge kit. I'm not running the sensor right now. I want to put a few hours on the engine to break things in. The sensor is really so I can track the fuel flow through the Carter and make adjustments. Can't do much with the timing unless I install a digital ignition system - I'm not really ready for that. However, if I have detonation issues I may be forced into that direction. I have Clarks turbo advance/retard unit installed. That'll at least give me some timing adjustment on the vacuum side of things.

On another note, I got the lifters adjusted and put the valve covers on today. I was going to run it for another hour or so, but I ran out of gas !!!! I guess my little 1 gallon container wasn't big enough...

Alec

[GasDaddy140]

What a nice job you did!
I like the way you wiped your greasy fingers on your blue shorts too-that's what I do.

[acarlson]

What a nice job you did!
I like the way you wiped your greasy fingers on your blue shorts too-that's what I do.

Hah ! Those are my working-on-my-engine clothes. Black shorts and black tee. What you see me wiping on my shorts is a couple drops of gas. When the fuel pump pressurized the lines a couple drops came out of the fitting before the overflow line sent the excess back to the gas container. If it had kept leaking I'd have fixed it but no more leak - so I started it up.

Alec

[Steve62]

Very nicely done! It is quite a nice feeling when they come to life after all that work. Congrats, and enjoy many miles with it!