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]

For your viewing pleasure, some barfy pics of the tear down so far.

Here's part of the reverse rotation assembly. A custom 130 tooth flywheel, an engine to gearbox adapter plate, and an Otto-20 reverse rotation hot cam. Needed still are the reverse distributor gearset and alternator pulley.



And here's the engine as-is, right from the bottom of the Black Lagoon.





The first thing to do is to gather 25 bins from Ikea for $4.99 each to separate and label everything. Then disassembly. To start, the magnesium fan and pulley is removed, followed by the top cover.



Under the cover is another cover, or really a very big gasket.



Under that gasket is another gasket, which when removed reveals the slimy innards of the crank case.



Note. Since I'm reversing the motor and mounting in "backwards" into the car, for the sake of 914 terminology I'll henceforth switch the terms "front" and "back" from what GM people would use. On the front of the engine there's a aluminum assembly that houses the oil filter, oil pressure sender, and speedo cable. Six bolts and it pops off easily.



Then the oil cooler.



And finally the front engine cover which is held in with seven bolts and several nuts holding the bottom plate / front engine mount.