Corvair Forum

I taught myself to overhaul my first Corvair engine and Powerglide transmission during my high school summer vacation in 1969. The tips in this link should be helpful...
NEW MECHANICS: Engine Rebuilding & Maintenance Tips
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Joefarmer-You can do it! I was the same way and stalled getting started. Label the nuts and bolts in plastic bags, they're a lot of them. Keep parts for right-side and left-side of engine labeled. You'll feel real good about it. This was my first air cooled engine except for lawn-mower types and a Harley Sportster engine.

I have the blower housing cleaned and a new fat bearing that I purchased a few years back to install. I'm doing it DaveMotoHead style with a frozen bearing and a blue flame heated up housing. Pull one out and slip one back in with stand-offs. He has a great video on YouTube. The head-temperature-switch was easily repaired with a soldiered tab and tested with a soldiering iron and a multi-meter set on conductivity. Switch gets hot and makes contact. The starters were very ugly and rebuilt by Andy atop his yard waste recycling bin. Both test good! It's all about having fun with classic American exotic car ownership. I should have my carburetors back in hand at the end of March.

Test fitting engine sheet metal while awaiting arrival of more parts this week.

Wow! After looking at the engine sheet-metal pieces, manuals, diagrams, online pictures, and test fitting, and moving them all around I finally figured how they go! I've installed the new Clark's U-Pipes, ordered an alternator, regulator, and blower bearing, plug wires, and a bunch of other stuff. Soon I'm going to have to stop all work and clean and organize my garage, because I'm going crazy...in a good way.

The question is not how to get the motor off the work-table, but attaching the trans-axle on the motor up there too! Then it can even be test run. I have a lot of swell ideas.

So from what you started with, what parts are original and what has been replaced?

HI was just wondering what part OF California are you IN

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I was fortunate that there were a lot of good parts inside the engine when I dropped it out and took it apart. The Crank, camshaft, pistons, and heads were all reused. They were in surprisingly good shape, someone was working on this engine. The suspension and everything else was shot! I redid the entire front end. I've replaced the rear torque-arm bushings and am having the rear wheel hubs rebuilt, all new bushings, shocks, brakes, and brake lines (I'm bending my own, and upgraded to a dual master cylinder). I redid all the glass. A lot of work, but...fun. I'm a car hobbyist and do all that I can in my garage. I'm going to drive the piss out of this thing...if it runs :)

I'm in Northern California, near Santa Rosa, 45 miles from San Francisco.

Actually, I'm at work and hurrying a little here. I did break a very large triangular piece out of one cylinder with a hammer and replaced it with a good used one, honed, from a Corvair vendor in So Cal. I also broke the skirt off one piston that I dropped on the garage floor, ditto. Taking my engine apart, especially the heads was a bear. Someone had used an aircraft sealer around fitments and it practically crystallized after years and years of sitting in a field. What fun.

Aircraft sealer - ouch! I thought mine was tough to break apart but geez.... I guess I had it easy! I had no idea there was so many little sheet metal pieces that surround corvair engines. Did you sand blast all of your components (including heads, jugs, etc), or just soak in degreaser? Got it looking good so far, excited to see a video of that thing firing up!

So as far as the engine rebuild itself (aside from your piston and cylinder incident ), you've just cleaned and gone back in with new lifters, new seals, all new gaskets, new rings, and all else is original components? Did you source your internal parts from Clarks or elsewhere?

Sorry for all the questioning, but I'm about to be entering the stage that you're coming out of and I would like to be prepared!

No problem, Joe Farmer. I sourced parts from a few different vendors including Clark's and yes all those normal rebuild items were replaced. I blasted nothing. I used automotive chemical cleaners, wire brushes, and assorted sandpapers. Parts that looked good after cleaning were left in their natural state, and those that were rusty were repainted. I wasn't into a complete car restoration, but a good looking functional rebuild. I'm convinced that Corvair engines have more nuts, bolts, and screws than most engines! Keep track of them. At the end of this month I should have my rebuilt like-new four carburetors back. The guy doing the work is down in Southern California and when I go down for the VARA historic racing and West Coast Trans-Am Series at Willow Springs International Raceway, we'll meet again. I'm really looking forward to posting a video of it running too! Not at first, but I've grown fond of all the engine sheet metal, and fasteners because I understand them now. You have to do it yourself, like you are! Hey, I may compression check it this weekend. That will tell one a lot about an engine's health. Talk to you! There was even aircraft sealer underneath the head gaskets around the valves. Who knows why? But I painstakingly scraped it all off.

An engine I took apart recently had RTV of some sort on virtually every gasket. Someone had also sealed every sheet metal seam with liberal beads of silicone sealants (sealing air leaks between the bottom and top of the engine). This sealing may have had some merit perhaps, but, removing it was a time consuming project. Scrape, scrape, scrape, brush, brush, brush, and then hopefully I didn't screw up the blast cabinet with too much silicone glass beading off the remnants:)

SUPER impressive resume you have there terribleted! The 63 vert is a real eye catcher.

joefarmer wrote: ↑Fri Mar 10, 2017 12:37 pm SUPER impressive resume you have there terribleted! The 63 vert is a real eye catcher.

Thx.

Hello Corvairs! Just sharing a few happy and depressing Corsa heap pictures this Saturday morning! The incidentally hammered cylinder, surprises of clean engine insides, bolted flywheel, and new clutch disc, and when it was outside of my garage the last time about 3 years ago. I'm ready for more action today. I have an exotic American sports-car to reanimate damn-it!