<VV> Evil doth come

Tony Underwood tonyu@roava.net
Thu, 19 Aug 2004 11:46:11 -0700


At 04:22 hours 08/18/2004 -0500, Mike Kost wrote:
>Tony Underwood wrote:
>
>>
>>Maybe the seat did suddenly come out, break,  and jam a piston against a
>>cylinder or something similar... either way, I'm bummed.    I'd hoped the
>>old engine would make 200k...   but I guess 44 years without an overhaul is
>>sufficient service for it to have earned its keep many times over.   
>_______________________________________________
>>  
>>
>That sounds like a shattered seat to me! Try turning it the other 
>direction. You likely have pieces in all three cylinders on that side.
>


Been there done that, no good.   I tried prying with a pry bar against the
converter ring gear teeth in both directions and it won't budge a bit.   I
was worried that I'd break a tooth off the starter ring gear if I put my
entire 250 lbs against it.     Whatever happened has stuck the engine
solid.   

It's stripped down and ready to drop out of the car, got that far yesterday
when I ran out of daylight, after work today it comes out, the replacement
engine will be picked up and hung back in the engine bay etc and then I'll
determine which head to yank (still don't know which head was the culprit)
and find out just what happened... be a lot easier to do this with the
engine on a bench rather than crawling around under the car.    

Then, I'll either fix it or store it until I accumulate the parts to fix
it.    Depending on how the replacement 110 engine works out, the original
80hp engine may or may not go back into the car.    


This is the first time the '60 4-door has ever failed to get me back to
where it left from.   The saving grace is that the last mile anna half to
the driveway was still covered with me behind the wheel, towed by my
brothers pickup ('69 Ford XLT 302-automatic) with the time honored method
of two yellow 12 foot 6500 lb test nylon tow straps and a doubled inner
tube between the two straps.   He was the power source and the 4-door was
the brakes for the whole shebangs.   Done it before, know how it's done.     

This is also the first time I ever had a Corvair engine fail in any Corvair
I was driving.   I've had seats come out and even had a piston crack along
the oil ring grooves and come in half, left the crown stuck in the chamber,
but nothing ever actually killed the engine dead... they always made it
back home and were quickly repaired usually by that same day or the next.
  On one occasion my Spyder spun a rod bearing and began knocking about one
mile from home... I shut it down, called a buddy who came and towed me back
home although the engine started easily and likely would have run the car
home with no troubles since the knock wasn't bad and the crank was
hardened... would probably have made it home without further incident and
it was still in running condition, started right up and drove up the
driveway once we got to the house with it, crank wasn't hurt much at all
and the rod was still solid, bearing was wallowed out and spun  inside the
rod journal and showing steel under the remains of the copper, babbitt was
gone.  It would have run on for miles yet before anything really bad would
have happened   But this time with the 4-door it was final, down for the
count, boat anchor, diddly, game over, concluded, terminated with extreme
prejudice, done in, counted out, finished, quit, kaput, history, that's all
folks, the end, call a tow truck.  

Ahhh... things had been too tranquil around here anyway... only bad thing
to happen lately was a broken starter nose on the '62 ragtop... bad
flywheel, got a bolted one on hand to put back in THAT car when the '60 is
back together again.   


tony..