Board Logo

Are Corvair engines any good?
Marz - November 30th, 2004 at 10:04 PM

I just bought a camper and it has a corvair engine and I was wondering if there any good? is it worth fixing up?

twoguns - November 30th, 2004 at 10:05 PM

nice. i wouldnt minda corvair 2.8l 6 cylinder... from what i have read, they make a good conversion.

Andy - November 30th, 2004 at 11:10 PM

Only ever heard about them, but they sound good.
Good power/torque for a bus and no water cooling to worry about. Like the VW motor they are getting old and heads are prone to problems when they've been re-built a few times. Parts may be a little scarce in Oz, but they still have a good following in the US.
If it's a neat job and the motor runs well, just enjoy it.
If it needs a re-build, there are a few good US sites with all the info you need and get pricing and see if it's worth doing it up, or replacing.
;)

kombibob - December 1st, 2004 at 04:47 PM

all parts can be bought fom clarks corvair in the states i built a motor about 5 years back orderd parts on a monday got them the same week and it worked out about the same price as you would pay for vw motor parts in australia

squizy - December 1st, 2004 at 09:33 PM

I've only seen / been in one install. It went and sounded great. Went even better when the fan belt slips off as it apparently takes some of the power off the engine. But well worth keeping it in for sure.

The guy was look at ways of turning the fan without the twisted pulley setup so that he could gain access to the extra power. Not sure how he ever went with it.

Squiz....

11CAB - December 2nd, 2004 at 08:37 PM

How does 180 horsepower sound??? Not bad from a turbo 6 from the 60's.......

HP Books does a book "How to Hotrod the Corvair Motor" might be worth a read.

[Edited on 2-12-2004 by 11CAB]

Marz - December 3rd, 2004 at 02:06 PM

Thanks guys i got the engine going and it runs sweet, it packs a bit of punch to. so think its gonna stay. I think the engine has a reverse kit on so it still has a kimbi gearbox so this will be handy if i ever decide to change it back.

pete wood - December 3rd, 2004 at 04:50 PM

what does the reverse kit do again?

run the motor backwards? and if so why?

11CAB - December 3rd, 2004 at 04:58 PM

The corvair motor runs backwards compared to the VW motor, so the reverse kit is different cams from memory that allows the corvair motor to run in the same direction as the VW

Marz - December 5th, 2004 at 12:03 PM

yeah it makes the corvair engine run the same way as a vw engine so that the Vw gearbox dosnt have to be changed.