Date:         Thu, 16 May 96 18:33 CDT
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         khooper@wsp1.wspice.com (Ken Hooper)
Subject:      Even more on the Corvair engines...


In which Hooper goes to examine the eight Corvairs:

The cars are about 45 minutes from me in an area of North Mississippi that
manages to be pretty in the spring, enabling me to gracefully overlook the
tar-paper shacks. The Corvairs are scattered about and overgrown with grape
vine and honeysuckle. These cars have been here for decades. Some of them
are almost completley occluded by vigorous Magnolia State vegetation.
Cripes, wouldja look at this mess? My cortex is thinking "poison oak," and
my mammal brain is screaming "SNAKE BITE."

The condition of the cars varies from deplorable to appalling. Detailed notes:

Corvair #1--No engine or transmission. Completely stripped inside and out.

#2--"TURBO" medallion on deck lid. No engine or trans. Stripped. Sigh.

#3--No engine or transmission. Stripped except for Schlitz cans.

#4--There's an engine in here but I can't see much of anything because the
engine compartment is completely filled with shredded leaves. I mean
completely. Varmints. I poke around with a stick. Engine seems to be
complete, single air cleaner. Extant fan belt. Two carbs.

Interior is mostly there. Clock shows 60250 miles. And something
interesting: there's a lever on the dash marked P-N-D-2-1. On the dash! I
thought it was the heater at first. Well, now. An automatic with a
dash-mounted shift lever. This bears some thinking about...

#5--An engine, more shredded leaves. No fan belt. 2 carbs. Clock says
33180, she died young. Manual shift on floor.

#6--Engine. Fan belt. 2 carbs. 77225. Manual.

#7--Medallion on deck lid says "110". No engine or trans. Engine on ground
beside car is missing carbs, intakes open to the rain. Valve covers still
on, engine seems otherwise complete. Single intake on either side, and they
don't look any bigger than the intakes on my 1600s. I doubt these could
aspirate 110 horses. I have no way of knowing whether this engine came out
of that car or even what that "110" means...

I lift the engine over, have a look at it. Almost perfectly rectangular,
surprisingly compact. Doesn't look too corroded on from the outside, but I
bet it's ruined inside...

#8--Engine. 2 carbs. No fan belt. I can't see the clock from where I am but
I can see a dried-up snake carcass in the car. Big one. Can't see any
shifter anywhere either. I am not putting my head in this car. Not today.
We'll call it a standard.

The guy hovers over me while I look at car #8. Excited about the dead
snake. Reminds me several times that this one is a four-door. Four-doors
are rare, or he thinks they are. He knows perfectly well all I'm interested
in are the drivetrains. If it's so rare, why's it out here going to ruin?

-------------

Not counting the engine that was on the ground, there are four of them.
Three standards and an auto. Here's what we're gonna do, boys:

Nobody is going to pay the $350 he's asking for any of these cars, not even
the ones that are reasonably complete. Even the best ones were moldy and
thrashed, would need complete body-off restos, it's not worth it for an
early Corvair hardtop. I think all we have to compete with is the shredder.
Fifty bucks, *maybe*.

Tomorrow or the next day I'll call and offer him a pittance for the
engines. If anybody wants transmissions let me know. I think I'm gonna take
that auto. He'll wait as long as he can, but I can tell they need the cars
disposed of because they're doing construction on the property right now. I
expect he'll come around. If not, let them go to the shredder. The thought
of crawling underneath one of these cars does not appeal to me one bit.
It'd have to be a very good deal.

What's this about a ring gear? What does it take to make it run backwards?

--Ken
  68 Westy, 71 Bus