Hooniverse Weekend Edition: Corvair Display Engines via Hemmings

Jim Brennan

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Friend of Hooniverse, Dan Strohl, ran this posting on Hemmings a few days ago. With the (limited) success of my Corvair at the 24 hours of LeMons, I just had to share it with the Hooniverse fans. Read more after the jump!


According to Dan:

The Corvair folks made an excellent showing at this year’s New England Concours d’Elegance, which you’ll be able to read about in the October issue of Hemmings Motor News. Included in that excellent showing was a group of three Corvair display engines, each with a unique history. The cutaway engine was pretty self-explanatory, and the prototype fuel-injected engine with its stacks and finned rocker covers showed that the hot-rodders were plenty active at GM in the 1960s. However, it was the modular engine, proposed for 1964, that was the most interesting.


I’m now having a Corvairgasm……. Thanks Dan. Read the article at Hemmings Blog.
All Images are courtesy of Hemmings.

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Jim Brennan

Jim Brennan

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  1. FЯeeMan Avatar
    FЯeeMan

    Fan belt around the corner????

    Reply
    1. Hopman Avatar
      Hopman

      The crankshaft (horizontal pulley) drives the fan belt. The big fan (vertical pulley) is the cooling fan. (In case you didn't know, all Corvairs are air cooled like a VW Beetle & Bus.) It makes the 90 degree turn at the generator and on an idle pulley.
      Kind of ingenius actually. A true example of K.I.S.S. engineering.

      Reply
      1. FuzzyPlushroom Avatar
        FuzzyPlushroom

        Indeed. I'd forgotten about this design and was amazed at its simplicity each time I saw it.

        Reply
  2. Joe Dunlap Avatar
    Joe Dunlap

    Yep, just dont try to spin em over about 4K. The belt gets kind of angry when you do that and will usually try to leave you. An autocrosser friend of mine replaced his charging systme indicator light with a huge trailer brake light on the dash to let him know if the belt pulled that stunt. Saved him a cooked engine on more than one occasion.

    Reply
    1. dukeisduke Avatar
      dukeisduke

      The factory belt guides (like in the first picture) actually do a pretty good job of keeping the belt in place. Also, I've seen people add a spring to the idler pulley bracket, to make it into an automatic tensioner. Of course you always carry a spare belt just in case.
      That injected engine also has the right-angle oil filter adapter that's used on air-conditioned Corvairs, to clear the crank pulley for the compressor. On the modular engine, see how close the oil filter is? I've seen the ring on a harmonic balancer (some Corvair engines use a balancer) loosen up and slip forward enough to cut open the filter. Big mess, not to mention, no more oil pressure.

      Reply