new member from central illinois

[1222corvair]

Hi everyone, I bought my first corvair when I was 18. it was a van. sent the motor to heaven two months later. now I am 65 and bought a 61 500, 3 speed. I believe it has 1 maybe 2 options. passenger sun visor, and seat belts. it has only 5230 miles on it. it is a blast to drive. slight ticking after sitting for a few days. I will be showing it, at some corvair meets. It is arbor green, with green cloth. They just don't make them like they used to. Hope to meet some of you soon. Doug

[toytron]

Welcome from northwestern illinois

Ed Stevenson

[DAVECS1]

Guy from Peoria IL right here. Hope to see you out and about.

[bbodie52]

Hi Doug! Welcome to the Corvair Forum!!!

My first Corvair was also a 1961 — a brand new Monza 4-speed coupe. In 1961 I was only 8 years old, but I loved our family's white coupe with its red interior. That interior color remains my favorite in the Early Model Corvairs to this day. I still have fond memories of my little sister and I getting down on the rear seat floor area of the Corvair to warm our hands on the heat output of the rear heater vents on cold evenings as our parents drove to our destination in the San Francisco/San Jose Bay Area.

...slight ticking after sitting for a few days...

This is a somewhat normal "flaw" in the Corvair. The hydraulic lifters used in the Corvair are the same design used in the V8 Chevrolet engine. However, in the V8 the lifter orientation is somewhat more vertical, with its center-mounted camshaft and the heads above the lifters. In the Corvair, the orientation between the camshaft and the heads is horizontal, which means that the 12 lifters are all laying on their side. The lifters also rotate in their bore in normal operation, and randomly the oil hole in the side of each lifter may end up oriented downward when the engine is shut off. Time and gravity may allow some of the lifters to permit their oil reservoir to drain. When the engine is later restarted, one or more lifters may not be able to hydraulically take up the gap between the rocker arm and valve head until the engine oil pressure refills the oil reservoir in the lifter. Until that happens the engine will emit a tapping sound from each portion of the valve train that has been drained of the oil in its hydraulic lifter.









The websites listed in the following link may be useful to you...

Common and Useful Corvair Websites

Corvair Forum viewtopic.php?f=225&t=6007

I would like to encourage you to expand on your initial post and tell us more about yourself, your Corvair, and your goals for your Corvair. If you can describe your personal assessment of your mechanical skills and abilities, that would help 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, Corvair-related knowledge, etc. Helping us to know more about you and your Corvair will help us to write comments to you that are tailored to your needs and experience. Pictures are great too, because pictures of your Corvair will help us to visualize where you are with your Corvair and its condition at the present time. Knowing your location is also useful, because knowing where you live can sometimes suggest possibilities to resolve some issues or problems.

[1222corvair]

hi everyone, thanks for the welcome. I will have to wait till a grandkid comes over to post some pictures. I don't even have a cell phone! yes iam the only one in America. as far as working skills, I do have some. iam trying a frame off on a 67 impala. the problem iam seeing with the corvair is its so low to the ground. I hope to make it to Missouri this year and enter it in the original class. I need to find some original style tires and an original style battery. every thing else looks original. the body isn't perfect, but would like to have it judged before fixing it. to the guy in Peoria. I have seen some out and about. every time I get into it , it makes me smile. jee, whats THAT worth! the car does have undercoating on it. how can you tell if it was factory? doug