Corvair Boxer Build

[Shaker455]

wow! they don't exactly give those away!

[wyrmrider]

if you watched the video you see how little room there is between the studs even with 94 mm
IMHO case can distorted with 94 mm but I've never gone bigger than 3 liters- 92 mm
we could get them most long pul power with the AL finned 88 mm stuff
best case is thin skivvied AL fins bigger on bottom than on top- whatever gives equal temps all the way around, otherwise top runs colder than bottom
OTTO parts pan had aluminum studs into the oil- he was right down the street from me in So El Monte
I have not seen him since the 70's, AS noted Crown did some nice adapters like backseat BBC and SBC
There used to be lots of Corvair activity here in SGV

[Shaker455]

I'm actually in touch with one featured in Hot rod....great engineering!

http://www.hotrod.com/cars/featured/hrd ... corvin8er/

[wyrmrider]

good
not that you are going mid engine
but Corvairs (and the later Chevy II clone) front suspension does have bump steer
which has to be fixed if you want it to handle and be safe (er)
do not be a pioneer
pioneers are the ones with arrows in their backs
Those barrels are aircraft quality
speed costs money- how fast do you want to go?
if you are not restricted by some club rules turbo is the least expensive way to go fast

[wyrmrider]

shaker
do you have a copy of the "corvair performance" book
or at least the How to Hotrod corvair engines book

[Dan Timberlake]

One source for OTTO parts. Clark's, here in Massachusetts.
http://www.corvair.com/user-cgi/search. ... ction=OTTO

Without some modern controls a turbo engine may not have the consistent, predictable throttle response necessary for real fancy driving.

Danny Ongais ( earned nick name was "on-the-gas" ) was a driver who enjoyed success in a wide variety of motorsports.
Drag racing champ in the 60s, through the 70s and 90s he competed in open wheel racing like CART, USAC, INdy RacingLeague, Indianapolis 500, and even dabbled in Formula 1 for a few years.

One of his last rides was at Indy in 96 ( he was 54) where he took the (stock block) Buick Menard Lola from last place to 7th overall. Various years turbo'd stock blocks were allowed up 55 inches of boost.

I believe one of his street cars of choice back then was a Porsche 911 Turbo (930). The controls available to broaden and smooth the power back then were a bit limited compared to today, as is described in this 2013 refresher road test -
http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/1978-porsche-9... ,
Others are a bit more blunt -
" Legendary turbo lag and an associated reputation as the scariest handling Porsche 911 of all have made the 911 Turbo into a legend."
http://www.historicracer.com/driving-reports/911-t...

Not too surprising then Danny Ongais comment back then to one of the car mags was " nobody can drive those things fast ."

Compare that to the computer generated flat torque curve and resulting progressive power everybody enjoys today.
http://giantmaw.com/Photo%20Album/Image%20Library/...

Or, the hard hitting jump in power of a peaky piston port mx bike on page 52/7 here -
http://honda-elsinore.alp-sys.com/publications/mag...
The sharp throttle response of this bike would only add (significantly) to the feeling of acceleration, but would would have some semblance of throttle control.

[wyrmrider]

WE ran 50 POUNDS + of boost at Indy 210 cu in stock block

[Shaker455]

shaker
do you have a copy of the "corvair performance" book
or at least the How to Hotrod corvair engines book

No I don't but I will get one of each & read up!

[wyrmrider]

just get the performance book- by same author (Posthumius with a co-author) and contains the info from the HOw to Hotrod book- of which there are 4 editions- most sellers do not say which one
I'm going into the "library" and see which version I wore out

[dieselgeek]

There are quite a few Corvair engines in amateur-built aircraft. You see them all over the place at Oshkosh, Sun-N-Fun events. So there is a community of people who build those engines out there...

[wyrmrider]

those are the guys running the $3,000 barrels

[Shaker455]

There are quite a few Corvair engines in amateur-built aircraft. You see them all over the place at Oshkosh, Sun-N-Fun events. So there is a community of people who build those engines out there...

Yes I saw a youtube video of family's & people learning how to build a Corvair aircraft engine.. very neat!

[jsgarage]

Back in the day I built quite a few CA 'performance' Corvairs out of 140s for roadracers & autocrossers. First step was to hacksaw the integral intake manifolds off and TIG-weld stubs on for 40IDA3c Porsche 3-bbl Webers. Then the exhaust tubes come out and you slant-mill the openings for slightly larger tubes that come in at an odd angle. This allows an exhaust tube with no notch to miss the pushrod tube. I used 1.25"OD u-bends so ground clearance was not an issue. A tuned-extractor exhaust & single turbo muffler had the same ground clearance as stock but much better flow. Next is to go over the whole head casting with a hammer & long screwdriver and clear all the flashing out for a tiny bit more cooling airflow. Also staked the intake seats and cut the step out of the combustion chamber. Used 327 Chevy oil pump gears with a recessed billet aluminum cap so the longer gears fit. A large external oil cooler replaced the stock cooler. Stainless roller rockers at the time were made for 110 heads with different valve angles. I ground the tip-rollers on an angle so they contacted 140 valve stem tips flat. Isky ground decent flat tappet cams at the time. Lock-tited setscrews in the cam gear & crank gear (half thread in the gears & half in the shafts) were necessary to keep the gears from moving and a spring-loaded idler pulley kept the fanbelt on. All this effort may have given us 180-200 real horses with 7000 rpm capability.

I built one street engine with Porsche 2-liter barrels but the crankcase locating spigot needed to be cut paper-thin and nearly all the cylinder fin sides cut away to fit. The Porsche head spigot was too shallow for 140 heads so that got trimmed too. Lots of trouble but otherwise the cylinder studs need to be relocated- like the sand-drag builders did that used cast iron sewer pipe for cylinders and BBC pistons for over 4 liters. Good luck with your build.

[Dan Timberlake]

There are quite a few Corvair engines in amateur-built aircraft. You see them all over the place at Oshkosh, Sun-N-Fun events. So there is a community of people who build those engines out there...

I don't think They don't rev much past 3000 rpm in aircraft service

[jacksoni]

I sent this thread to a friend who road races Corvairs. He had this comment:
Thanks. These guys ought to do a search outside the V8 world... There is a site called fastvair@yahoogroups.com . Another called Corvair Center. A gazillion folks who have built untold numbers of the engines incl with EFI. http://corvaircenter.com/phorum/list.php?1

This is the best head builder right now... Tom Knoblauch . http://www.americanflat6.com/

Aircraft are great for care and precision building but constant low rpm...totally different animal from a racing engine.

Finally, Clarks Corvairs with a huge catalog for everything.. http://www.corvair.com/user-cgi/main