<VV> CAR UPDATES PROJECTS FOR

[Rick & Janet Norris]

Well....
I almost sold the V8 Vair.
I was contacted by an interested party who saw it on the internet and he 
contacted me by email from California.
For some time now I had been dissappointed in the degrading performance of 
the aftermarket fuel injection set up I was running. Last year I didn't 
drive it at all and the year before the only time I drove it was at the 
Convention in Lexington so I was ready to get rid of it.
I made him a good offer "as is" and I explained the problem with the fool 
injection. I also warned that this is not a car for the mechanically 
challenged.
I also explained I was thinking of removing the fool injection system and 
going to a carb and HEI ignition so it would be driveable without having to 
reprogram it every mile or two!
The potential buyer asked if I would do the conversion for an agreed on 
extra to be added to the purchase price which I agreed to.
To make a weird story short I did the conversion and it ran so nice I 
decided I liked the car again and it was not for sale...at least not at the 
price I originally offered.
What I did was, everything needed to convert to a carb without having to 
remove the intake manifold, which is a regular Weiand Team G open plenum 
with injector bungs machined in to it and four cast in mounting posts for 
the fuel rails. Also I did not want to destroy the manifold because I want 
to sell the system when I do get it all removed. The trigger wheel for the 
computer ignition is still mounted behind the crank pulley and not easily 
removed in a Crown setup.
So...I just installed a Holley Street Avenger four holer carb. Sounds like a 
bolt on deal huh? Not in my case. The carb has to be mounted 180 degrees 
from the normal position to accomodate the Morse type throttle cable which 
operates in a push mode, same as the throttle body did for the fool 
injection. A little trimming of the unwanted bell crank parts was needed and 
I had to add a 1" spacer to raise the carb above the fuel rail posts as I 
didn't want to cut them off. This was caused by the bracket I use to mount 
the Morse cable fittings. Also it would have interfered with the vacuum 
advance on the side of the HEI. Those suckers are big!
I solved the problem of plugging the injector bungs by tapping the very 
bottom of the holes for a 5/16" bolt and with a dab of RTV it worked well 
and would allow the hole to be cleaned up for later use with a drill and not 
mar the machined surface that the injector O-ring seals on.

The fuel pump needed to be changed from the high pressure injection unit to 
something a carb would like. I happen to still have the electric Holley Red 
pump I bought years ago when I first started the V8 project. I tried to sell 
it several times over the years. It is finally doing it's thing on the V8 
Vair.

For the ignition I chose a D.U.I or Davis Unified Ignition from Performance 
Distributors. It has a hotter coil and was custom curved for my 
engine/trans/cam and car weight. They also offer a set of Live Wires killer 
plug wires which I had to have. They are color matched to the blue HEI cap!
I think that's worth ten more HP!
I will say this about the Holley Street Avenger carb. Except for bolting it 
on, I did not make any adjustments to it. The engine fired right up and 
after warm up and setting the timing it idled perfectly and runs very well. 
Truly as advertised.
I had not set a distributor in a small block Chevy for longer than I care to 
admit but I hadn't lost my touch. When I put the timing light on it I was 
off by three degrees! And I got all the plug wires on the right terminals!

It really sounded good sitting there just ticking over with that nice 
Flowmaster sound eminating from the twice pipes.

I will chose a good dual plane intake to install later on and remove the 
rest of the hardware from the fool injection system plus some other mods I 
have in mind but at the present time the shop is occupied by the S/A/T 
Corvair project.
What is that you ask? You'll just have to wait to see.
Dontcha just love Corvair intregue??

Rick Norris
First President CORSA 1971
Email rickjanet at charter.net
Web Site http://webpages.charter.net/corvairalley
V8 Vairs Web Site http://www.v8vairs.com