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]

I've taken the past couple of evenings to do some cleanup and hit the reset button on my work area. I douched the tools with WD-40, cleaned the parts I've removed with my ultrasonic cleaner and then coated them with Boeshield, and finally bagged and tagged them. There are a large number of parts that won't be re-used for this application: flywheel, pressure plate, valve covers, bell housing, heads, cylinders, etc. It feels weird tossing that stuff aside. From an existential point of view it's really thought provoking to think that at this moment the engine does not actually exist. Instead, it's just several bins holding a bunch of constituent parts in a garage explosion. Leaving and returning. Chaos and Cosmos. Big Bangs and Brahma years. Hey, I was an academic for a long time so this is where my brain goes when I'm in the shop. Inner space. Besides, Carl Sagan is my spirit animal.

So here's the detail on the final stages of disassembly. After removing the engine from the stand and setting aside the bell housing, this lovely creature now graces my workbench. One might wonder why it looks like a robotic pin cushion. This is because the head studs are not to be removed from the case unless it's absolutely necessary. There's a test to torque them down to 30 or 40 lbs (depending on which manual you read) and see if they hold their torque. If they do, then it's smooth sailing. If not, then it's time for creative machining.



Here's a front view for no reason.



This part is the oil cooler adapter. I could have taken it off at any point during the disassembly, but both the 1965 Corvair Chassis Shop Manual and Bob Helt's The Classic Corvair say to leave this connected until this point. By the way, these manuals are fabulous. For dolts like myself they're really a fantastic resource. If you do a Corvair conversion yourself, be absolutely sure to get them. They're both in print.



And .. removed.



Now it's time to split the case. Here's a side view clearly showing the eight through-studs and corresponding nuts that hold the hemispheres together. Four on top, four sort of in the middle. Just before removing them I made sure to remove the bottom bolt that holds the oil pickup to the case.



Having the motor on the bench sure makes this part straightforward. Using a ratchet and a long socket wrench, each comes off in turn with a little effort. No crazy stuck nuts like the ones holding the head.



Now the big moment. A slight tap with a rubber mallet along the top edge of the inside of the case and it just pops apart. It took very little effort.



In fact, it popped apart a little too readily. The manual says to prop the bottom of one half of the case with a 2x4 to push one side of the engine higher than the other. That way you lift the free half and leave the crank and cam in place on the other side. This is to prevent the crank and cam from just spilling out onto the floor. Just as I reached for the wood, it split right open. Whoops.



Yeach. This crank bearing is scored all to hell. The opposite side is also. The rest of them look like they have normal wear.