Date: Wed, 16 May 2001 14:50:12 -0400
Reply-To: Jay L Snyder <Jay.L.Snyder@usa.dupont.com>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Jay L Snyder <Jay.L.Snyder@usa.dupont.com>
Subject: Re: Corvair and Porsche 914 Engines (Was: Towing!!!)
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There are tons of Corvair parts around, cheap. The bus kits I saw used the
entire Corvair drivetrain. Adapters were supplied to go from the Corvair
diff, which used u-joints, to the VW axles, which used CV joints. The kit
was these adapters, plus the engine mounts and assorted adapters for the
shifter and clutch hook-ups. You can still find running Corvairs for dirt
because they rusted out pretty quickly. The engines were well preserved
because they were usually covered with oil! Too bad GM didn't have Viton
o-rings back in the 60's. I still have a nice '65 Corsa convertible 140
HP, with 4 speed and 4 carbs stored in my garage. Starts everytime and
simple to work on. The convertible is the last of about 6 or 7 my family
has owned over the last 25 years.
Jay
Aristotle Sagan <killer_jupiter@hotmail.com> on 05/16/2001 02:05:35 PM
Please respond to Aristotle Sagan <killer_jupiter@hotmail.com>
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
cc: (bcc: Jay L Snyder/AE/DuPont)
Subject: Re: Corvair and Porsche 914 Engines (Was: Towing!!!)
>I contacted Clarks Corvair parts yesterday and got a very prompt reply
>that was depressing :)
>
>They said that their engine swap kits worked on 68 to 79 busses, but
>they have nothing for vanagons. I looked at their website briefly and
>they inferred that they modify their engines for such swaps, to turn in
>the other direction (the right way for VW), which I found fascinating.
>
>They don't know what VW did differently when they went to the vanagon,
>so they didn't expect that their kits would work.
>
>A giant "awww rats" from this part of the valley.
>
>John
That's pretty scarey. Not a whole lot of difference between a 79(bus) 1.8
Aircooled and an 80 (vanagon) 2.0 Aircooled. Mounting brackets?
Transmission? I would think other than modifying the length of the input
shaft from the transmission and a thousand other minor details, it would
drop right in. Of course, thinking about pulling out a 20 year old engine
(that there are lots of spares of) and putting in a 35 year old engine that
there aren't many left of... doesn't compute. And then having to change the
camshaft anyhowz... If you're gonna do a swap....
Perhaps "RoadCow" is the way you want to go.
Just my opinion,
tim o'brien
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