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Fri Aug 06, 2004 11:17 am

:shock:
Hello all!,

I am looking at buying a westy with a corvair 110hp convertion. Can anyone tell me about the pros/cons of this type of convertion. Also i would like to know how difficult it is to go back to a vw engine.

Fri Aug 06, 2004 11:22 am

Run away.

Run away now.

Run fast and far.

Don't look back.

All cons. No pros.

Fri Aug 06, 2004 11:28 am

Randy, you post whore. That's not very constructive.

The engine is far more powerful than a stock bus engine. Far more VWs were made than Corvairs so consider that it's a collector car and parts are going to be harder to find. That said, clubs exist so you won't find yourself the last people on the road with that engine.

Converting back depends on how the PO butchered the body:

http://type2.com/library/enginem/busvair.htm

Search their archives witht the keyword transvair for installation details. Chris Mills is the resident expert on the conversion:

http://www.type2.com/archive/search-type2.html

Fri Aug 06, 2004 12:18 pm

Richard you are right that was not constructive help.

There was nothing good about the Corvair. Litterally nothing. My father's 62 Greenbriar van broke the crankshaft on the way home from the dealer when it was brand new. The 3 speed that came in it was just a four speed with no 3rd gear. My dad ended up buying a car hauler trailer just to get it back to the one dealer in the state who would work on it for repairs during the year he owned it. The engine had to come up to be removed 7 times in one year.

To this day my father has never owned another GM car. They deserve the market share they have now earned. The "Lemon Law" was enacted because of the Corvair.

The Corvair is the only reason I would even entertain the idea of voting for Ralph Nader for anything. "Unsafe at Any Speed" became "Unsafe Standing Still."

OK, I have just had my medication. I am back to normal, whatever that is. :wink:

Fri Aug 06, 2004 12:26 pm

Thanks guys,

I suppose i will continue my search for a westy with some sufficient power. I have been looking around my area #-o with very bad results. ( rusty p.o.s. with single port 1600's.) oh well.

Fri Aug 06, 2004 1:25 pm

Keep looking around. Be choosey since you will be the one fixing it. Taking a potential bus to someone who knows buses is a good idea because they can look for rust where it happens, and can usually figure out the status of the front end and the drive train - all areas where you can spend real money making them right. If this is a first one for you, get something that does not need a lot of work even if you have to pay more for a good one. There will be plenty for you to do anyway, including enjoying it right now.

There actaully are a fair number of very nice buses out there that are structurally sound. They might need some cosmetics or an engine rebuild or some tweaking to get them to be pretty roadworthy. A well cared for one is more important than the miles that are on them in general. Ratwells website has a discussion on what to look for and about what it costs for you or someone else to fix it as does the Split Window bus forum.

If there is a VW club around you (where ever that is), go to the shows or put the word out that you are looking for a nice bus. Lot of potential ones here on the samba classifieds also, especially if you like the color green. Hard top or "day campers" are also sometimes overlooked because a lot of people want pop tops. Some deals are out there waiting to be found.

A 1600 single port is actually a pretty much bullet proof engine. Adquate power and pretty relaible if you are not in a big hurry. Don't be afraid of a type 4 engine, which is also very reliable and durable over the long run.

You will find your bus. Don't be afraid to travel a ways to get a good one.

Fri Aug 06, 2004 8:20 pm

I have a 74 that I bought with a 1600 transplanted into it. It's not super fast, but it is pretty reliable, we cruise at about 60 mph on the highway on trips. In comparison, I had a bus with a 2 litre in it that cruised easily at 75 mph, and had a lot more pep! A plus to the 1600 is that the parts are a bit more common, and therefore a wee bit cheaper than type 4 parts.

Jeremy

Sun Aug 08, 2004 7:48 am

This one's apparently reliable: http://www.mcn.org/b/roadcow/picts.html

Sun Aug 08, 2004 8:27 am

hmmm...

Sun Aug 08, 2004 8:34 am

http://www.roadcow.com/

I searched it out. I'll change my "favorites"

Thanks

Sun Aug 08, 2004 8:41 am

:shock: So that's where he got the idea from!

I went up to Barrie area to buy some parts off an advertiser here, he had a '69 with an OHC Toyota engine in it. Rad was on the luggage rack. He had a friend cast the adaptor plate at a foundry. I never heard it run. Interesting...

Mon Jul 09, 2007 4:22 am

i have a 1970 camper with all the assceries , i bought it from the orignal owner about 8 years ago, with a 110 horse pwer 6 cylinder corvair engine. iin those 8 yrs i have had little trouble with it, you just have to rember to use a higher octain fuel in the summer time when temps are high 90`s . if not the motor will start vapor locking on you, . its not a fun experience if your not femiluar with this kinda problem either. it took me almost a week to find out . other than that its a 5 star moter , and im still everywhere in that bus all the time , thanks be well........jerry pinon [/youtube]

Mon Jul 09, 2007 2:54 pm

Only 'vair-powered VW bus I've personally driven was a '67 Westy splittie. It seemed quite powerful & solid, with a broad torque range; the owner said it was very reliable and returned about the same fuel mileage as the original VW flat four cylinder had. An electrical contractor friend had several Corvair Greenbrier(?) pickups(with PowerGlide automatics, no less!) as his & crew's work vehicles, and he praised them for their reliability, and of course, their ease of loading.

Several contributors at the thesamba.com & type2.com seem to have/have had Corvair-powered buses that they claim to be quite reliable. You might want to contact Mike Hill, whose current bay has 2.7L Corvair power. A pic of his ride & his PM & e-address are obtainable from his post here: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=240777&start=20

Kinda depends on who builds & maintains the engine and how well the conversion job was accomplished. Not all news is bad!

J.R.
68 Westy
(+ others)

Mon Jul 09, 2007 5:58 pm

I saw a guy in litchfield a month ago at the show that had done a corvair coversion. Was really well done. He even went with the power glide tranny. In fact, I believe he posted it on here some time ago.

Asked him about parts and he said they were not that hard to find.

Craig

Mon Jul 09, 2007 6:03 pm

I was hesitant to comment to this post lest I draw the wrath of Randy, but I decided to chance it. Randy stopped by to say hello at the Litchfield Bug-In in Conn in June and he wasn't all that scary, opinionated yes, but scary no.

I have a TransVair engine conversion that was completed in the summer of 2005. I finished putting the bus together in June this year. To date my experience has been all positive. But there are some steps I took that yielded the positive experience. First of all I started with a new rebuilt engine with all new stuff in and out. The engine was built by Ron Moller, the Jake Raby of Corvair builders in the Maine Corvair club. Ron has been a mechanic all his life and a Corvair engine builder the last 25 years. (Special note to Randy: he lives down the street from you in Cape Neddick). Secondly I used the entire Corvair drive train with a stock 110 hp engine and 2 speed PowerGlide transmission. So there was no need to mate a Corvair engine to VW transmission. Everything was made to work together. All that was needed for the install was a front transmission mount adapter, axle adapters and a motor mount fabricated from a vanagon bar. Corvair parts are as easy to find as VW parts thanks to Clark’s Corvair here in MA and Larrys Corvair Parts in SoCal. The actual install took about 3 days. I like the conversion and I'm very happy with it.
Conversion pictures here: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=239103&highlight=

But in the spirit of fair and balanced reporting, there are some down sides. A fresh rebuild with all new stuff was pricey, about what it would cost to have Jake Raby build you a motor. The transaxle and transmission adapters you need are getting more difficult to find, although I found everything I needed in 2005 at Clark's Corvair. There seems to be a pretty active Corvair scene here in New England so there are a few Corvair mechanics around, but that may not be true where you live. I had the help and encouragement of Bill Cline (VW Bus Heaven), who had done this install before in his own vehicle. He was an invaluable resource and I wouldn’t have attempted it without him. Last but not least there’s the real downside of driving a vehicle that’s not all VW, but a VW “perversion”. I'll admit it; I succumbed to the lure of fast, powerful and different. Hopefully my friends on The Samba won’t drive me over to the dark side, you know, the “VolksRod” crew, cuz I’m still a VW guy deep down…..

Mon Jul 09, 2007 7:11 pm

Hey Marsip,

If the Westy isn't cut up around the engine too bad and isn't rusty it might be one to consider even if you do end up converting back. I would have taken a clean bus with a crap engine any day over the rusty "deal" I picked up.

As far as good engine vs bad engine there are opinions every way depending on the person. A year ago I wouldn't have given you $1 for a type 4 motor. 1st one burned oil so bad I got pulled over by the cops. Second one dropped a valve seat. Third one has been a real champ so far. Good milage and decent power. But that said if someone showed up with a Corvair motor for sale I don't know if I would say "no thanks" quite yet though.

If the body's good and the price is right- go for it.

Where in Ontario are you located?
Dan

Tue Jul 10, 2007 1:53 pm

Thought I'd chime in here as well. I also had a 71 Bus with a 140 Hp Transvair kit in it and it was great. It only had the 2 primary carbs hooked up and would walk away from my dad's 912 uphill coming out of Lake Tahoe. With the Corvair trans 70 mph in 3rd gear merging onto the freeway was the norm. It got 20 mpg usually and once got 22 mpg when a CHP followed me for almost 50 miles on I-5 after I was chasing a 240Z. Everybody has an opinion and I had good luck with my Transvair conversion.

Tue Jul 10, 2007 7:12 pm

Roadcow wrote: With the corvair trans 70 mph in 3rd gear merging onto the freeway was the norm.

I kinda glossed over the power and speed aspect of this conversion. I re-adjusted the carbs 3 or 4 weeks ago when the engine turned about 5K miles. I took it out on the highway and accelerated up to 90 mph. The engine was still pulling when I decided that was fast enough and let off the gas. I wasn't sure what would happen to the speedometer needle when it hit the stop peg.