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]

Some minor progress happening today. The machinist cleaned and bead-blasted all of the aluminum and magnesium parts and they look super.



He ran the case halves through the parts washer but we opted not to bead blast the case hemispheres until we know for certain that the case tests out okay. He inspected for cracks and deformations and none were found. So I cleaned and very lightly polished the cam and crank journals to get some clean readings. I'm also having the old cylinders cleaned up so I can run a head stud torque test and then sell them off.



The engine build process requires bolting up and then disassembling the case hemispheres many times, and this is the first. Using the old case studs I torqued them ogether and made sure all was even:



Then I used a pair of dial bore gauges to see how much variance there was in terms of side-to-side distance and out-of-roundness. Since the cam rolls directly in the journals without the aid of bearings, I thought for sure these would be way off. It turns out that there was less than half a thousandth deformation, which is right in spec. I'm a touch amazed by that. The crank journals also measured no more than a half thousandth, so I'm super lucky. For a moment I thought about having the case insides lapped, but figuring that it might throw off the crank bearing clearance I'll just clean them with a razor blade and leave them be.





Next up is the head stud torque test. If the case can pass that, then it's a good donor. More on that when the cylinders return.

[gf4c]

Hello Marcus

you wrote: He ran the case halves through the parts washer but we opted not to bead blast the case hemispheres until we know for certain that the case tests out okay.

I have seen several Corvair engines ruined by bead blasting the engine case. No matter how clean you think you might have it, there are often bits of glass beads hiding and waiting to kiss your crank (IMG:style_emoticons/default/mad.gif) You can get the case very clean with some simple green and some elbow grease, lots of hot soapy water works wonders.

you also wrote: I'm also having the old cylinders cleaned up so I can run a head stud torque test and then sell them off.

You can also run a head stud torque test with an appropriate length (and diameter) of tubing or pipe. Just slip the tubing/pipe over the head stud, add nut and torque away.

Also, Lon Wall at Corvair Underground is buying late model cylinders, he is not far from your location.

Marty