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30 m.p.g. Corvair

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September 15, 2017, 09:01 AM
JimTheo
30 m.p.g. Corvair
quote:
Originally posted by egregore:
Back in the day, my brother got a Corvair engine swap for his Volkswagen Beetle. It would bolt up with an adapter plate to mate it to the bellhousing and a few other parts, including a fiberglass hood to accommodate the engine's extra length. The car would scoot, all right, but he had problems with, IIRC, the timing gears and valve seats.

GM was trying all kinds of new technologies back then, including a turbo Oldsmobile, Buick/Olds all-aluminum V8, and the Pontiac Tempest. This was an odd one, with a 195 four-cylinder that was half of a 389 and a flexible wire rope drive shaft. The Buick version of the aluminum V8 was bought by Rover, who used a derivation of it in Land Rovers up to 2004.


As I recall, JC Whitney had a conversion kit that was needed to swap in a Corvair engine into a VW. Lots of stuff had to be done as the rotation of the engine was different AFAIK or remember.



I should be tall and rich too; That ain't gonna happen either
September 15, 2017, 09:48 AM
pbslinger
quote:
Originally posted by JimTheo:
quote:
Originally posted by egregore:
Back in the day, my brother got a Corvair engine swap for his Volkswagen Beetle. It would bolt up with an adapter plate to mate it to the bellhousing and a few other parts, including a fiberglass hood to accommodate the engine's extra length. The car would scoot, all right, but he had problems with, IIRC, the timing gears and valve seats.

GM was trying all kinds of new technologies back then, including a turbo Oldsmobile, Buick/Olds all-aluminum V8, and the Pontiac Tempest. This was an odd one, with a 195 four-cylinder that was half of a 389 and a flexible wire rope drive shaft. The Buick version of the aluminum V8 was bought by Rover, who used a derivation of it in Land Rovers up to 2004.


As I recall, JC Whitney had a conversion kit that was needed to swap in a Corvair engine into a VW. Lots of stuff had to be done as the rotation of the engine was different AFAIK or remember.


You are right about different rotation of Corvair vs VW engines. This company sells kits to change the rotation of Corvair engines.

http://www.corvair.com/user-cgi/pages.cgi?category=vw
September 15, 2017, 11:46 AM
GWbiker
quote:
Originally posted by pbslinger:
quote:
Originally posted by JimTheo:
quote:
Originally posted by egregore:
Back in the day, my brother got a Corvair engine swap for his Volkswagen Beetle. It would bolt up with an adapter plate to mate it to the bellhousing and a few other parts, including a fiberglass hood to accommodate the engine's extra length. The car would scoot, all right, but he had problems with, IIRC, the timing gears and valve seats.

GM was trying all kinds of new technologies back then, including a turbo Oldsmobile, Buick/Olds all-aluminum V8, and the Pontiac Tempest. This was an odd one, with a 195 four-cylinder that was half of a 389 and a flexible wire rope drive shaft. The Buick version of the aluminum V8 was bought by Rover, who used a derivation of it in Land Rovers up to 2004.


As I recall, JC Whitney had a conversion kit that was needed to swap in a Corvair engine into a VW. Lots of stuff had to be done as the rotation of the engine was different AFAIK or remember.


You are right about different rotation of Corvair vs VW engines. This company sells kits to change the rotation of Corvair engines.

http://www.corvair.com/user-cgi/pages.cgi?category=vw


The Corvair motor rotation remained the same the ring gear in the VW transmission was easily moved to the other side of the pinion gear in the transaxle.

There was more available room in the VW Karmann Ghia for this conversion.

An early VW type 1 with a Porsche Super 90 motor was a much better handling conversion.


*********
"Some people are alive today because it's against the law to kill them".