Marcus' Corvair conversion, 914-C6 Options

[r3dplanet]

A few years back I got all excited about doing a Corvair engine conversion for my 1971 car. The project waffled. Numbers were crunched and chewed. Thought and diagrams and opinions were drawn out over long winter evenings.

One particularly rainy winter evening, I found an ad on Craigslist advertising a warehouse full of Corvair parts including engines. So my pal Rory and I drove a hundred miles into the boonies late one rainy night to what turned out to be an unmarked, geographically isolated, former slaughterhouse illuminated by a single 60 watt light bulb. No cell phone reception, no escape. We were met by a couple of toothless brothers who couldn't stop talking about Daddy. Seemingly they only did what Daddy wanted them to do. Daddy wanted them to sell the stash of Corvair parts. Daddy wanted them to steal my Toyota cargo van. Daddy needed to approve the transaction of cash for an engine. Daddy, it turned out, was long dead. The two brothers kept trying to separate Rory and I, and the creepier of the two brothers kept demanding my car keys so he could test drive my van, despite my insistence that it wasn't for sale. For the first time in a long time, I wish I had a tazer gun on me. The brothers eventually showed us exactly what I wanted - an RD code 1965 110HP engine. Fearing for our lives, Rory and I muscled the engine into the van while the brothers went to find more stuff for Daddy to sell to us, or you know, maybe a club or some rope or a ball gag or something.

I left the $100 on the bench and tore the hell out. Rory and I laughed all the way back to town, ever so pleased that we were neither killed, nor raped, nor eaten. Plus, we were one up on a Corvair engine.

So with a provenance like this, and seeing JRust's new car, Dr. Evil's project, and 914coops Nader's Nightmare all take shape I've finally decided to get serious about my own project: the VW-Porsche 914-C6.

The "C" stands for Corvair.

[r3dplanet]

I want to tell everyone that this is my favorite automotive forum. We keep it technical and rarely do threads devolve into shouting matches. That's pretty much the norm for the classic Chrysler forums I belong to. I don't even post there anymore. Even my thread over at corvair central was accosted within minutes by a single assclown. One of the things I love about 914world (and BMWMOA) is how we manage to keep it clean, providing a sandbox for whomever to sling whatever. Compared to other forums I belong this, this place is an oasis. For example, when conversions are brought up nobody starts a flamewar about who's the idiot. Any conversion - Wankel, Subaru, SBC, etc., is going to be in some minor way controversial. For my own, I think it's low stakes. One day I'll build up a race car and throw the Corvair engine into it. Short story long, I welcome both past and current experiences with those who are Corvair knowledgeable (Relentless) as well as peer review (Dr. Evil). That is the path to factual knowledge. Ultimately the 914 attracts a certain crowd, and they are efficiency-loving gearheads with panache and good attitudes. So, hooray for us.

So far I found a few surprising items in this adventure: Corvair forum "experts" bicker a great deal. There has been so much time and so much development over the years that trying to find the one right way to accomplish any specific task is immediately grounds for argument. Sorting out what's right for me has taken far more time than I had expected. For example, with rockers. There are a myriad of ways to do this and it doesn't help that GM doesn't make them anymore. So there are dozen solutions for replacement, each of which has it's own believers who think the others are stupid. I mean, seriously, rockers.

Another surprising item is there are very, very few washers as far as fasteners go. I'm used to finding lock washers everywhere I look. On this engine I've found only a few. The nuts all seem to be nuts + flange to make a ... nutwasher.

As far as machine work goes: the case prep, crank regrind/polish, balancing of rods, flywheel, etc., is all done by my friend and machinist Gary who's a super genius.

For the specialty stuff like the head, rod, and case work for the 3.1 conversion is (hopefully) going to be done by American-pi. Their work appears stellar and I think the most economical way to go.

Dr. Evil, you hit the nail about Star Cooke. I'm buying my 140 heads from him. Expensive, but absolutely rebuilt correctly by a guy with an excellent reputation and spends his days doing this exact work. It's worth the money for the piece of mind.

[JRust]

As far as machine work goes: the case prep, crank regrind/polish, balancing of rods, flywheel, etc., is all done by my friend and machinist Gary who's a super genius.

For the specialty stuff like the head, rod, and case work for the 3.1 conversion is (hopefully) going to be done by American-pi. Their work appears stellar and I think the most economical way to go.

Dr. Evil, you hit the nail about Star Cooke. I'm buying my 140 heads from him. Expensive, but absolutely rebuilt correctly by a guy with an excellent reputation and spends his days doing this exact work. It's worth the money for the piece of mind.

Man I need to pick up another motor. Maybe I can do my stuff at the same time & we can get a discount (IMG:style_emoticons/default/confused24.gif) Much easier on a machine shop to do 2 of the same right?

[r3dplanet]

Wait, what? What's wrong with your motor?

I know a couple of banjo-playing brothers with a domineering dead father who could probably make you a deal. Just bring a pistol, give GPS directions to your loved ones, and bring some friends. Or it will be more like Kalifornia than Deliverance.

You bring up a point that I should probably have made earlier. I know that my project won't be inexpensive. But luckily the nature of the work is that I can pay as I go. I like that. I think that a properly stock 140 with good head work would be more than enough power for the 914. I'm going a little nuts with my engine (a) because I want to see where this goes and (b) I'm secretly trying to show that even with all of the big modifications this motor will get, it can still be done for about 1/3 of the cost of the Porsche six. I think the -6 is the coolest motor (except that POLO motor). But absurdly expensive. I'm showing an alternative. I also have a sneaking suspicion that for what I spent on my motor, it will be about the same as a souped up Type-4. Last, for what I'm spending on the monster 3.1 liter, I could have spent less than half and built up a stock 140. That's where the smart money is.

So - yes! Maybe we can double up on some machine work. We also need to develop a nice cradle for the engine.

I've already learned that if I were doing this again I wouldn't even bother with a donor motor. At the end of the day I'm only using the major pieces from the donor, and I'm sure I could have found cleaned and prepped bits for about what I spent ($100) on the motor.

As of today, here's the bucket of reusable parts:



Aside from the engine case and crankshaft, this bin includes the top cover, front cover, oil filter assembly, fan (and bearing), and pushrod tubes. Everything else is scrap.

As far as machine work goes: the case prep, crank regrind/polish, balancing of rods, flywheel, etc., is all done by my friend and machinist Gary who's a super genius.

For the specialty stuff like the head, rod, and case work for the 3.1 conversion is (hopefully) going to be done by American-pi. Their work appears stellar and I think the most economical way to go.

Dr. Evil, you hit the nail about Star Cooke. I'm buying my 140 heads from him. Expensive, but absolutely rebuilt correctly by a guy with an excellent reputation and spends his days doing this exact work. It's worth the money for the piece of mind.

Man I need to pick up another motor. Maybe I can do my stuff at the same time & we can get a discount (IMG:style_emoticons/default/confused24.gif) Much easier on a machine shop to do 2 of the same right?