Make a trip to www.corvair.org.

They have all sort of solutions for that fan belt sucker.

As for the limited availability of parts - - buy two or three core engines and put them on the shelf. They can be bought cheaper than a VW engine ($150 or so) and that should be all the engines you need for a Vanagon lifetime. They are not cheap to build either. Much of the wear out items can be bought new still.

Be sure to run the Corvair tranny too - it comes in many different gearing packages - all higher than the VW variety and better built to deal with 110HP than a VW built to deal with 70 HP. This way you won't have to build a reverse rotation and deal with a few problems that can come up with that.

Corvairs came in many flavors - Early Models and Late Models (pre 1965 and then 65 and up models). 80HP up to 180 HP turbo. The recommended engine is a 95 or 110 HP engine with a 3.55 gearbox. The 95 is about as fast but deals with the heat better due to the lower compression.There is also a 5 speed conversion available - it's basically a Corvair differential and a T-5 Borg-Warner mated. They have had great success wit it but the test goat with many, many miles on it recently got crashed in traffic (other guy's fault).

Buy a late model engine they were better designs. You'll hate the heat - it the same heating system as the early VW stale air systems. You could recreate the VW style heater boxes easily though.

Read up on it in the Type2.com archives.

Good cheap solutions to the too small VW engine but they aren't plug and play. You can do it several different ways. There are good ways and better ways.

At 02:48 PM 5/16/01, you wrote:

If you use the corvair drive train and a smallblock chevy you can Call
Harvey Crane at Crane cams, he'll grind you a backwards cam and you'll be
in business. We built one of these for Sears to run in Baha about fifteen
years ago. He's already got the profile and can furnish backwards
distributor grears. The starter also has to turn backwards (no great
feat, any good generator shop can make that happen)

Corvair isn't the way for more HP. I'd shoot for the little 3.6 Buick,
Olds, Chevy or Cadillac V6 and use their automatic tranny. And the
trannys suck.

I've had Corvairs (1962 4 carb 180 HP, 1965 two carb 110 Hp. 1966 Turbo
180 HP.) and living with that one fanbelt as the weakest link is like
russian roulette. You can't turn them 5000 rpm or you shuck your belt and
very soon blow an engine.

On Wed, 16 May 2001 13:44:47 -0400 Jay L Snyder
<Jay.L.Snyder@usa.dupont.com> writes:
> The beauty of the Corvair conversion (at least in the buses) was that
> you
> used the entire Corvair drivetrain. I have seen V-8s run through
> these
> transaxles. They were made for Corvair trucks until '65. Then they
> beefed
> them up even more in '66 using off the shelf GM tranny parts. If I
> had an
> air-cooled Vanagon, it would be Corvair powered!
>
>
>
>
> Larry Hamm <ldhamm@xmission.com> on 05/16/2001 01:20:55 PM
>
> Please respond to Larry Hamm <ldhamm@xmission.com>
>
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> cc: (bcc: Jay L Snyder/AE/DuPont)
> Subject: Re: Corvair and Porsche 914 Engines (Was: Towing!!!)
>
>
>
>
> '80 Westy Pokey wrote:
> >
> > The Brooklands Volkswagen Bus-Camper-Van Performance Portfolio
> 1968-1979
> has an article that originally appeared in the February 1973 issue
> of
> "PV4". That details several engine swaps for the bay window bus.
> There are
> a ton of engine swap possibilities but the Corvair and 914 engines
> wouldn't
> require radiator work.
> Keep in mind that the Corvair crank turns in the wrong direction, so
> that little fact has to be dealt with. Unless you like having four
> reverse gears and one forward!
> Larry

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Chris in Mid-TN

ICQ# 5944649

1978 Volkswagen Westfalia
1965 VW Beetle with a Type IV power    (perpetual project)
1999 Honda CR-V                 (wife's ride)
1981 Honda CB900 Custom moto-sickle     FOR SALE $2250
several used felines (2 shiny black, one in primer)
1997 Wife named Holly
2000 model son named Zane

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