Date: Thu, 16 May 96 12:24 CDT
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: khooper@wsp1.wspice.com (Ken Hooper)
Subject: Yet more on the Corvair engines...
Several people have asked me about the feasibility of the Corvair
conversion, and I know very little (like none) about this. I had Eudora
chug through the last few months' worth of V@L messages and she turned up
these two suspects:
>I'll be there either in my 84 Vanagon or my 60 (Corvair powered) Dbl Cab!
>
>Jon Christensen /V\ Membership Coordinator for the
>~Certified VW Nut \W/ Vintage VW Club of America
>vvwca@primenet.com Co-Editor of the VVWCA Newsletter
>http://www.sky.net/~rmk/vvwca/ KC Kombis' NEATO Co-Rep
>From: Austin Silvester <austins@ix13.ix.netcom.com>
>I installed a 110 hp corvair *and* transaxle in a '70 bus back in '76 so I
>could tow a racecar. It was a four-sp w/3.89 gears and a positraction; it
>was dead slug reliable, bulletproof, 2.8 litres, flat-six smooth (ask Bob
>Hoover about flat sixes in aircraft as opposed to flat fours).
Maybe one of these gentlemen will talk about the conversion.
>From what I understand, the conversion can either be done with the Corvair
engine and the VW transaxle, or there's another version that uses the Chevy
transaxle as well. Hoover says that the early Corvairs (these are all
early) came in at 80 horsepower stock and could be bumped to 90 with only
the addition of a hotter cam. (And up from there if you put something
called "four-carb heads" on it, if you want to eat Porsches.)
Somebody here wrote a long message two or three days ago about how far you
could go when stroking and boring a Type IV, and I think he concluded that
100 horse was about as far as you could take one; so, it looks like the
Corvair starts to climb right about where the Type IV plateaus.
Hopefuly somebody will correct me where I'm wrong, this is not my area.
They should have put me in charge of something I'm capable of managing
well, like refreshments. ;) More later.
--Ken
68 Westy, 71 Bus
