Corvair Corsa Turbo - Tell Me More!

Corvair weight < Honda weight

Why not get an adapter fabbed up for a backwards rotating Honda 4-banger, I mean besides the sacrilege?

Corvairs are great projects and not hard to work on. I've owned more than a dozen of them "back in the day" before I graduated to my first 911. I built and modified many. Autocrossed a few, etc. The turbos invented the term "turbo lag" - both the Spyders and 180 Corsas. They had more hp than "in theory" but not in practice. Boost didn't come in until about 3500 and below that totally gutless. The 140 4-carb Corsa is the fastest and best driving. A Holley or Carter 4bbl carb on runners was a popular Corsa conversion. BUT - ask the man who owned one- the carb would freeze into a solid block of ice in cool moist weather because it was located directly over the fan. Both early and late chassis can be made to handle well. The 65 and newer best obviously. Quick steering arms are a "must have". Rust is the fatal flaw of many cars of this era. Look at the base of the windshield, rear fenders, and floorboards in the trunk and passenger compartment. Just about anything you need is still available from aftermarket. Jay Leno has a 66 Corsa 140. You can watch the video on his site.

In reply to Argo1:

Do you know of a good buyers guide? I've been looking for a '64 or later Corsa and seeing what looks like pretty good deals, but don't know enough to evaluate.

Some possibilities:

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/cto/2746964974.html

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/cto/2750358609.html

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/cto/2783288171.html

In reply to kreb:

there was a good buyers guide in Classic a few years ago, written by Jim Pettengill who posts on this board as Jim Pettengill.

i like that '65 corsa for $5k. it looks nice and has been serviced by a corvair specialist.

that '62 looks like a bit of a turd in comparison, but the "180hp" engine might actually make 180hp. it appears to be the '65 - '66 spec engine (judging by the alternator, anyway) and note it has a weber DCOE in place of the OE single-throat Carter YH. and the '64 rear suspension has a transverse leaf under the LCAs that limits droop on the inside rear wheel.

AutoXR wrote:

It mind boggling......

In reply to kerb: If you go to Amazon and search Corvair books you will find a number of really informative books for less than $20. Start there. I agree with Angry that the Corsa for $5k looks pretty good. That is about what you will have to pay for a nice car. There are a few unrestored original cars out there for as low as $3K so shop. There are currently 12 Corsas for sale on Craigslist nationwide. Watch for rust and body repairs. I don't really know how much of a project you are looking for or what your use. My two favorite Corvairs were my '65 Corsa coupe (modded 140, Corvette rims, etc) and my '63 Spyder Coupe (150 turbo, rare LSD, Kesley Hayes knock offs, etc). Both were a lot of fun. Don't discount the early cars. Several other models are fun and becoming collectable as well: The Rampside pickups, the Lakewood wagons, and the '65 and newer no post 4 door Monzas. Buy now, keep for 10 years, double your money.

I had a 63 vert, monza spyder turbo in the early 90's, never drove it as i bought and sold it before getting around to sourcing a turbo for it (no interweb back then.) it remains one of my automotive regrets that i didn't at least fix it drive it for a year... I still want another one, but if that ever happens itll be a coupe, and a late model, with a subie power plant and 944 suspension ;)

Kerb- This one is pretty close to you. Might be worth a trip to the lake to see. http://reno.craigslist.org/cto/2728602954.html

If you do wind up getting a turbo car and it has the original sidedraft Carter carb, you will need to add a vent loop to the fuel bowl or it will flood out in hard right hand turns. (Something I learned in an embarrassing fashion at an auto-x)

+1 on Angry's thing about the transverse leaf spring to stop jacking on swing axle cars. JC Whitney had something similar for VW's. I'm told it straightens out the handling quite nicely.

FYI, the 8 1/2-page Corvair buyer's guide was in the Sept. 2006 issue of Classic Motorsports (also known as issue 122). Check to see if back issues are still available, there's a lot of info in there. If you're also diehard Chevy folks, or just like innovative cars, I also have a 4-page photofeature in that issue on the Chaparral museum in Midland, Texas.

Jim P

Jim Pettengill wrote: FYI, the 8 1/2-page Corvair buyer's guide was in the Sept. 2006 issue of Classic Motorsports (also known as issue 122). Check to see if back issues are still available, there's a lot of info in there. If you're also diehard Chevy folks, or just like innovative cars, I also have a 4-page photofeature in that issue on the Chaparral museum in Midland, Texas. Jim P

that buyer's guide is perhaps the best Corvair primer i've ever read.

(blushes) (does his bad Elvis impression) thankewvurramuch.

LS in the back??? Not this one.

Check again.... LS engine cover on 110hp motor. Maybe not a performer, but certainly a looker

That's pretty silly. The motor would fail nice and quick if you actually ran it with that cover on. Besides, if you're going to pimp it out to that extent , why not put a V8 in?

Zombie thread! I've got a line on a very reasonably priced '66 turbo. Wasn't really planning on going that route, but when opportunity knocks...

I'm a winding road kinda guy and like to do rallies up to 3 days. I know that the turbo isn't the best choice for this sort of action in stock form. But I wonder what a basic recipe for making the turbo more usable would be? I'm thinking

Stage 1:

-Electronic ignition with boost retard

-Water injection 

-Would it be worthwhile to do a Mikuni HSR45 at this point, or wait?

Stage 2: 

-A quicker spooling turbo with bigger piping, waste gate and improved fuel delivery - Maybe Megasquirt it? But I don't want to go too far with that motor. Doubt that it'll support much over 200 HP on the bottom end -  and then there's the tendency to drop valves....

Corvair gurus, whatcha think?

In reply to Kreb (Forum Supporter) :

I think the answer is going to depend quite a bit on how one-off you're OK with. The stock setup draws through a 1-barrel carb, so not enough airflow to make more than about 7psi. and there's about 2 feet of piping, plus a turbo, between the gas pedal and the pistons. Wet turbo means no BOV, so your control options are kinda limited.

some guys made adapters to install a quadrajet in place of stock carb. Plenty of airflow. That setup would need a wastegate for sure.

Id like to see you blow through a set of throttle bodies from a 6-cyl gold wing (or were they only on the Valkyrie?), on megasquirt or other diy EFI.

For turbos, SafeGuard is sold by one of the big Turbo guys in the Corvair space:   https://www.american-pi.com/safeguard/safeguard2.html

Here are the other mods he suggests:  https://www.american-pi.com/corvair/corvhome.html

Stock turbos are pretty basic (literally almost the first mass produced turbo car) and don't even have waste gates, so upgrading the turbo is certainly a consideration.

Water injection does not seem to be a thing anymore, taken over by ignition controls.

Fuel injection would likely be a better way to go than switching carbs (unless you want the look), especially if you have already swapping the ignition, which you will likely need to do if you go with more boost.

If you end up with a quick revving engine, we may need to talk about fan belt control...

Pictures, or it didn't happen.

And since Corvair engines rotate in the same direction as older Honda engines, why not a B-series swap?

Just don't cut up the car if possible.

Not sure if anyone has mentioned but you should look up John Fitch.

His prepped Corvairs would take on 911's back in their day.

Sadly I got snaked on the Turbo. When I see something like that I need to tell my boss (me) "drop everything! There's a good deal to be had!"

My ultimate plan is to take a Porsche transaxle that i have and use that in conjunction with a rear-mounted 3.6 Chevy. But that's 2.5  projects away. I'm looking for a Corvair that is reliable enough for use till I have the opportunity to go the whole 9 yards with it.

Kreb (Forum Supporter) said:

I'm looking for a Corvair that is reliable enough for use till I have the opportunity to go the whole 9 yards with it.

So, the most reliable will be non turbo.  your choices then are either 110 hp (1 carb per head, small valves) or 140 hp (2 carb per head, large valves, a little more cam).

110's don't drop valve seats like the 140's, because the smaller valves have more material retaining the seats.  and some would suggest that the heads don't run as hot because they make less power.

if you want a little more grunt, there are aftermarket cams, and you can get a little compression bump by machining away the head gasket step in the head. this also improves combustion efficiency by reducing quench area IIRC.  ideally, you would also use shorter pushrods to keep rocker-to-valve geometry happy with larger cam or gasket step removal.

i'm pretty sure i have a copy of "How To Hotrod Corvair Engines" at home.  if i can find it, i'd be happy to loan it to you.  it's a pretty old book, so doesn't have much (if anything, i can't remember) to say about fuel injection or modern engine controls.

oh yeah, there is also an adapter to put a 2bbl weber side draft on the corvair turbo, which is probably a more elegant solution than the Q-jet.  I've never done either.

the term "turbo lag" was invented because of the Corvair intake plumbing.  i had a bone-stock 63 turbo (145 cubes, 150 hp) and it was a dog. i mean, the accelerator pump is something like 2 feet from the intake valves. so you whack the throttle and the engine gets a big gulp of air and has to wait a few revs before the pump shot arrives.  it was cool if you had enough road to let it get into boost in 3rd gear, but the 110 would probably beat it 0-60.  the turbo engines in 65 and 66 were 164 cubes, and had a bigger turbo.  they were rated at 180 hp.  i've never driven one of those.  a stock non-turbo neon eats their lunch, so maybe drive a couple cars before you decide this is the path you want to be on.

Stupid question, but  is there a reason that someone couldn't take a TIG welder and add little retainer tabs keeping the valve seats in place? 

Someone mentioned taking an old reverse-rotation Honda motor and bolting it in a Corvair. That would certainly relieve the hassle of redoing the rear suspension to accommodate the Porsche transmission. But aren't all the older motors smaller and low-torque? 

In reply to Kreb (Forum Supporter) :

In the cylinder head?  Can you Tig hardened steel to aluminum?  Or do you mean little "teeth" when you sit them in?

The current solution, which is pretty solid from what I know (as in, once fixed, I don't think there is ever an issue again) is to put slightly oversized seats in the heads with an interference fit (heat and cold assembly).  Old school was to "stake" the aluminum towards the seats to tighten them, which helped, but was not as good I believe.

As far as modifying outside of the stock engine, I like the Porsche transaxle idea, but I think the more elegant, and likely cheaper option, is to find your favorite FWD drivetrain and plop it in (obviously rebuilding the rear suspension, which will be required with a Porsche tranaxle anyway).  As I have noted before, the Speed3 has almost exactly the same wheel track as a Corvair (!)