Marcus' Corvair conversion, 914-C6 Options

[r3dplanet]

A few years back I got all excited about doing a Corvair engine conversion for my 1971 car. The project waffled. Numbers were crunched and chewed. Thought and diagrams and opinions were drawn out over long winter evenings.

One particularly rainy winter evening, I found an ad on Craigslist advertising a warehouse full of Corvair parts including engines. So my pal Rory and I drove a hundred miles into the boonies late one rainy night to what turned out to be an unmarked, geographically isolated, former slaughterhouse illuminated by a single 60 watt light bulb. No cell phone reception, no escape. We were met by a couple of toothless brothers who couldn't stop talking about Daddy. Seemingly they only did what Daddy wanted them to do. Daddy wanted them to sell the stash of Corvair parts. Daddy wanted them to steal my Toyota cargo van. Daddy needed to approve the transaction of cash for an engine. Daddy, it turned out, was long dead. The two brothers kept trying to separate Rory and I, and the creepier of the two brothers kept demanding my car keys so he could test drive my van, despite my insistence that it wasn't for sale. For the first time in a long time, I wish I had a tazer gun on me. The brothers eventually showed us exactly what I wanted - an RD code 1965 110HP engine. Fearing for our lives, Rory and I muscled the engine into the van while the brothers went to find more stuff for Daddy to sell to us, or you know, maybe a club or some rope or a ball gag or something.

I left the $100 on the bench and tore the hell out. Rory and I laughed all the way back to town, ever so pleased that we were neither killed, nor raped, nor eaten. Plus, we were one up on a Corvair engine.

So with a provenance like this, and seeing JRust's new car, Dr. Evil's project, and 914coops Nader's Nightmare all take shape I've finally decided to get serious about my own project: the VW-Porsche 914-C6.

The "C" stands for Corvair.

[r3dplanet]

Right. My goals are straightforward. Since my 914 is essentially a weekend fun car, and thanks to the Portland weather, it means that the car is only driven for a few warm months of the year for fun weekend drives. The key word there is fun. Primarily I'm after reliability, very low maintenance, silent valve train noise, and excellent power. All in that order.

To that end I'm going with the VW Type-1 94mm piston and cylinder "big bore" conversion that takes the displacement from a stock 2.7 liters to 3.1 liters. The Type-1 cylinders are much better than the stock Corvair cylinders given the better construction, cooling, and floating pin arrangement. The engine will be rebuilt as a reverse rotation "140" motor meaning that I'll ditch the 110 heads for the better 140 heads. I'll use ARP studs and bolts for the case hemispheres and connecting rods for better strength. I'm also using a hardened and nitrided crank from the turbo motor. I haven't decided on a fuel system just yet, but I know I'll start with a four-into-one intake and single carburetor which is just fine for warm weather driving. Eventually there will be an EFI system, but first things first. I'm hoping for a true brake horsepower of 130-150. I may go nuts with headers and a roller rocker assembly. I'll skip the turbo. For reasons outlined elsewhere, I just don't think that the primitive turbo with its ponderous lag is a good match for a 901 gearbox.

The plan is to build up the motor, mount it on a frame and get all of the adjustments and initial tuning before installing it in the car. Like all of my projects, this will take forever. Patience, patience.