Corvair conversion

I had the chance to ride in a VW bug with Corvair 140 hp engine yesterday. Plenty of power and torque. The sound was great too.
Anyway will the engine fit in a speedster? The guy can get me a rebuild engine very cheap. I know the "originality" will be gone but I like the way it sound and run. So will the engine fit in my speedster?

One MAJOR problem. Watch the corvair mill. It turns the opposite direction of a VW. Suppose you could turn the ring/pinion - though I am unfamiliar with how that will effect longevity for the VW transaxle.

The corvair is a six, so length will be a problem. Anything is possible, it's just that for 110, 140 or 180 w/turbo hp, not sure I would bother with the aggravation, given how amendable say a type IV is to hop-ups. The 110 motors are the two carburetor engines, the 140's have four carbs - must be synched, but they seem to stay in good tune after that (at least ours always did).

Oh, the heater would COOK you out of the car.

angela

There are a couple of locals that have Corvair engines in their VW Busses and love them. Met a guy this Summer with one in his Dune Buggy and my buddy had one in his Beetle.

Everyone LOVED the pull and power, but they run out of revs WAY before a built type I or IV does. These motors really don't want to breathe past 3,000 rpm.

For the transaxle, most used the tail shift 914 in a rear wheel drive configuration, that way it's all set to go. Turns the correct way and you can use a 911 shifter. However he stock Corvair trans is the ONLY choice if you want a reasonable top speed.

Honestly, not worth the effort. Too little usable power, too little top end, NO upper rev range, too long, too heavy, too old, too rare, too much trouble, too . . .

If someone who had or has Corvair engines in their car offers you a lesser engine and some extra "stuff" to help get you started on YOUR conversion, it's only 'cause misery loves company.

Luck,

TC

The heater will STINK you outa the car if there are any case oil leaks. The main blower cooling IS your heat (vs the VW exhaust exchangers).
Aaah, my first car. A free (no wonder!) '61 .

I like Corvairs, I think they were ahead of their time. I like the styling too; it's too bad they're as rare as hens' teeth nowadays.

This is an excellant site and the catalogs are full of info...

http://www.corvair.com/user-cgi/main

I once looked at it too for a VW but in the end I felt it was just too much trouble and $$ for what you would gain.

Yep; those conversions were fairly popular in the '60's when Corvairs and parts were much more plentiful and affordable and the high performance VW industry was in its infancy with not too much to offer; hence the advantage. You'd gain a lot in terms of power by just bolting on a stock Corvair engine; sort of like what's happening nowadays with the Type IV.

Corvairs offered a reverse rotation camshaft if I recall. Makes reversing the pinion not required. Clark's Corvairs still have parts galore for them.

If I recall they even had a turbocharged Corvair...is that correct? I know they had a twin carb model but I think the turbo put out a fair amount of power for a realtively small engine.

The turbo made 180hp.

angela

...ah, the notorious Corvair Spyder!

Reversing the ring and pinion in a VW tranny is pretty easy.....they were designed to work both ways.....VW bus transmissions had reduction gears that reversed direction, so bus trannys have the flipped ring gear.

I had a friend with a '63 turbo convertible and I had a '65 Monza. They were pretty darned quick (not to be confused with really fast) and more than one hot rodder suffered some embarrasment to get trounced by a Corvair...very quick off the line and the Spyder would pull decently right up to about 120 mph. As I remember my best quarter mile time was in the 16's.....not good by todays standard, but there were a lot of cars that could not do that....the Spyder would run decently up to at least 5500 rpm while the Monza didn't accelerate much after 4500. So yes, I suspect you would need to gear a Corvair engine pretty high.... the engines have 2 problems, 1) hard to keep fan belts on, and 2) main seal at the back of the engine tends to leak readily....

Back in my younger, more adventurous days, I had a 140 Spyder mounted to a vw transaxle dunebuggy. It really had impressive power, but the thing I remember most is the ratio of driving to wrenching was about 1:3. For every hour of driving, you wrenched for 3, if you were lucky enough to find parts.

Corvairs are coming out of the woodwork here in the midwest. Seen more for sale this summer than the last ten years combined.

Hey Warren -

We may have crossed paths in either Pismo (before 75% of it was closed by BLM) or Glamis (before it was over-run by drunken maroons) or Dumont Dunes (before I figured it was TOO dang hot to go there).

As you mentioned, back in the day (70's) my buddies powered their sandrails with various Corvair-powered configurations. They looked great all chromed-up and could shoot up Competition hill (or Oldsmobile hill) like a rocket. I'd bring up the rear with my 40hp 1200cc sandrail. However, like your experience, while my buddies spent a LOT OF TIME back at camp fixing this-n-that on their rigs, I was out tooling around in my 40hp sandrail without skipping a beat!

SOOOOO, Lambros, are you getting a picture of the general consensus about Corvair transplants?

Peace - Out!

10-4 Jim.
It was just a thought. I don't think they will fit in a speedster anyway.
Thanks to all.

A Subaru would be a better bet.
More power, modern, same size package, water cooled, cheap, reliable, Kennedy adaptor kit, and even twin turbos if you want to fly.

Robert

How much for that kind of conversion (labor)? Plus where do you mound the radiator? I have thought about it before,but they told me is not a good idea for a pan based speedster.

At least on SAWs the engine is located right behind the front seats so, in essence, the rear bench seat disappears. You do get an extra trunk under the decklid.

Some months ago in Hot VWs magazine there was a Karmann Ghia retrofitted with a Subaru engine so I guess it can be done to a pan based car.