A Corvair 160hp 6cyl ?, Just curious Options

[Jerry]

I talked to a guy that had a Corvair 6 cyl in his bus, it worked good and was fast. He claimed parts were no problem and were not expensive. Has anyone put a Corvair 6 cyl in their 914?? Any advantages or disadvantages??

[r_towle]

I believe that the corvair engine spins the wrong direction and you need a special camshaft...not completely certain of that though..

Many have done it, do a bit of google to find out.

There is a pretty strong corvair support group out there, and there were turbo setups also.

Rich

[Todd Enlund]

I believe that the corvair engine spins the wrong direction and you need a special camshaft...not completely certain of that though..

Many have done it, do a bit of google to find out.

There is a pretty strong corvair support group out there, and there were turbo setups also.

Rich

Yes, the Corvair spins the wrong way, and reverse rotation cams are available.

Dr. Evil is putting one in his bus. I hope he's got the right cam (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Don Yenko Chevy produced the Yenko Stinger Corvair, with up to 240 HP from a turbo.

[Spoke]

This engine is destined for a 914 by a friend of mine. He already has the tranny adapter plate and engine mount.

[sbonthemesa]

110 to 140hp, 180 with a turbo, if I remember right. Mostly used in converted VWs but they can fit in a 914, reverse cam or flip the ring gear in the trans.

[davep]

I saw a turbo Corvair engine that came out of a 356. There was some talk that the Porsche factory had installed it as a test subject. It was being delivered to Canada by the owner, and dropped on its ass by the crew unloading the car. I was appalled by the 90º bends in the exhaust manifolds; it looked very restricted.

[Katmanken]

Hey, we gots 90 degree bends in our exhaust manifolds too... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif)

Sometimes more with a tuned exhaust.... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

[jim912928]

hmmm...rotates the wrong way...bolt up a stock 915 tranny to it!

[jjs3rd914]

Years ago I put a 1965 corvair motor in my 1970 VW camper that I used to tow my Formula Vee to the race tracks. We actually installed the whole drive train, transmission and rear-end so rotation was not an issue. OTTO parts and So. Ca. made a complete adapter kit. I do not know if they are still in business. Yes there were other kits available that used the VW tranny and you did have to reverse the direction of the motor. Unlike early beetle trannys, I do not believe you could flip the pinion on the second and later generation bus transmissions.

The corvair motor was very smooth and had a great sound. After the first few years of the corvair GM really had the bugs worked out of the motor. If you can rebuild a VW type 4 motor, you can rebuild a corvair. We rebuilt the corvair motor before installing. The drive train never let us down in 5 or 6 season of racing all over the northeast.

But I am not sure it belongs in a 914. Just my opinion. However it would be an interesting project and certainly would give any 4 cylinder 914 a whole new feel and sound. The whole drive train was about 500 lbs, so I would guess the motor alone would be about half of that. Not sure how that compares to the 4 and 6 cylinder Porsche motors.

[davep]

Hey, we gots 90 degree bends in our exhaust manifolds too.

What I saw was a tight L as compared to the wide sweeping bends in the 914 heat exchangers; almost no radius whatsoever.

[ClayPerrine]

110 to 140hp, 180 with a turbo, if I remember right. Mostly used in converted VWs but they can fit in a 914, reverse cam or flip the ring gear in the trans.

hmmm...rotates the wrong way...bolt up a stock 915 tranny to it!

Both these are a bad idea.

Flipping the ring gear or using a stock 911 tranny (either 901 or 915) will spin the transmission backwards and shorten the life of the transmission. This is because our transmissions use helical cut gears, as as they engage, they put some thrust on the shafts. The thrust is taken against a thrust bearing. When you spin the transmission backwards, you reverse the thrust and place it against a surface without a thrust bearing, thus causing excessive transmission wear. You also make it harder to shift... the syncros were designed to work in one direction, and you are spinning them in the other direction.