Corvair engine swap, Tell me why this isn't popular Options

[914rat]

I saw a car in the classifieds that has a Corvair 6 engine swap with the engine set up to run in the correct dirrection.I was wondering why we don't see this conversion very often.Seems like a pretty straight forward conversion.
http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=114974

[gandalf_025]

I started driving Corvair turbo's in the mid 70's. Put the 6 up for the winters and drove the Corvair
.060 forged pistons and a Chevy 409 Oil Pump. Total Seal Rings and a big E-Flow turbo, Weber 2 barrel 40DCOE Carb, Water Injection.. Fun highway car.

They are known for dropping valve seats and beating them into the Piston tops and spitting the pieces down the exhaust, into the turbo. makes quite a mess.
I have seen a fix where they "stake " the valve seats into the heads though.

Stock, I don't think they turn any serious revs, around 5500 RPM.. I'm sure that could be addressed.. An upright 911 type fan would be help keep the belt on.

The setup the DR. has with the big bore VW P/C's sounds like the way to go.

Also, the 3 barrel Weber setup used 140HP big Valve heads. You machine off the existing manifolds from the heads and buy adapters. Not cheap to buy, But the machining work is nothing beyond what I have seen some members here do on a daily basis.

Cheap to buy and build compared to Porsche Engines and many parts available, including roller rockers and big turbo's.

I'm just finishing selling off the last of my Corvair Stuff.. Been holding on to it for years and I just came to the point where i'm never going to build another one.

[jd74914]

They are known for dropping valve seats and beating them into the Piston tops and spitting the pieces down the exhaust, into the turbo. makes quite a mess.
I have seen a fix where they "stake " the valve seats into the heads though.

Stock, I don't think they turn any serious revs, around 5500 RPM.. I'm sure that could be addressed.. An upright 911 type fan would be help keep the belt on.

A friend of mine has a Monza with a built motor, and had the same seat issues until rebuilding both heads "correctly." The cool part is that pretty much all of the parts are dirt cheap and readily available. The motors are super easy to build as well.

He used to run around with IROC wheels and headers with short glasspacks; it turns lots of heads, but is a super obnoxious car and you need earplugs after any amount of time. Not too bad for a bunch of college kids! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)