my motor is the turbo 150hp.... gonna stick with it cause i am getting it for the best price


If you are using the old Hadley Engineering kit, then you will need to use the Corvair engine, trans, diff, swingaxles, rear brakes and shifter.crack monkey wrote:so i am getting a corvair conversion for my next project. the conversion uses both corvair motor and trans.
it is currently on a swing axle chassis. rear suspension and all the brackets are part of the kit it seems
what do i need to do to put this in an irs chassis? do i need to switch the spring plates or is it a possible that it just bolts right in?
any info on this one would be killer.
thanks
Valve seats drop in the 140's because of heat issues, the aluminum heads expand and contract at much quicker rates than the seats do, when you get into the 450F to 550F heat range, the seats can and do fall out, the cure for this problem is a tighter interference fit with new valve seats, the stock fit is .002 to .003, when installing new seats have the machine shop heat the cylinder head(s), chill the seats and press fit them at .005, this will prevent such occurances from happening.Hey Corvairguy. Slick install. I particularly like the way you've painted the Corvair tin to match your bus.
What more can I say about valve seat issues? You were lucky. Not the most scientific sample here - one person says they had no trouble, one says it's a regular problem. Maybe you live in a warmer climate than I did when I ran Corvairs. My 1966 Corsa originally had the 180 hp turbo engine, which could not be started in winter except in a heated garage. It was so useless, the previous owner (a pretty 'vair-savvy guy) swapped it for a 140 hp engine, which promptly dropped a seat. I bought it, put new heads on it, and crossed my fingers.
My kludge fix for this well-known problem was to take a screwdriver and hammer to squish the aluminum all around the seats on the inside surface of the head, in an effort to get a tighter fit between the head material and seat. I can't say if it worked or not - I didn't have any seat problems for 30,000 miles or so, but I spun a rod bearing at that point, took the plates off it and caught a Greyhound, so no further data acquisition was possible.
If somebody has the wherewithall to swap in a Corvair engine to a VW, then I say that person has what it takes to go to EFI at the same time. Around +/- 1986, the Corsa magazine featured an article by a guy who had ripped the EFI from a 280ZX, I think, and put it on his Corvair. I'm sure that article is still floating around. But these days, Megasquirt would be the way to go, giving you unlimited power to tune your fuel supply.
The Rochesters can be made to work, but the factory linkage is cheap, and the wear and slop that develops makes it very hard to balance the carbs. I noticed from your photos that you appear to have the stock throttle linkage. I think you'd pretty much have to replace all that with ball bearing fittings to make it work right. And it still wouldn't be as effective as EFI.
It's not like you could be worried about finding parts for the "complicated" EFI at Pep Boys or something. There's nothing available now for these engines anyway unless you go to a specialty place like Clarks.
Oh, and I think Clark's used to sell 4.11 rear end for these cars, so if you're determined to have lower gears than 3.89, it should still be possible.
Each to their own. Cool to see the 'vair projects still being used.