Corvair Fires?? Re: <VV> And today's newb question is.......
FrankCB at aol.com
FrankCB at aol.com
Sat Jun 9 20:35:48 EDT 2007
Mel,
With the passage of time, memories grow fragmentary. Your doctor is
probably confusing the Corvair with the Ford Pinto. The Pinto suffered from a
great many fatal fires starting with rear end hits while the Pinto was stopped
at a light. The gas tank was situated in the rear and relatively
unprotected from rear end hits. The Corvair, on the other hand, has its gas tank
situated BEHIND the heavy front crossmember and is relatively immune to front end
damage. In fact, I have seen Corvairs that have taken MAJOR front end hits
with the gas tanks still intact.
The Corvair WAS/IS somewhat notorious for leaking OIL, not gas. These
leaks were originally caused by overheating the engine due to continuing to
drive the car without a functioning fanbelt (despite the "fan/gen" light
blazing on the dash). Now after 40+ years the leaks are caused by deteriorating
seals. Most of these leaks can be solved by replacing the leaking pushrod tube
O-rings by VITON O-rings that will take the hgih temps. of an air-cooled
engine.
If you want to update your Corvair, add a CHT (cylinder head
temperature) gauge similar to what the LM Corvair Corsa high performance engines (the
140 and 180) have to alert the driver to approaching overheat conditions BEFORE
damage (or oil leakage) is caused.
Enjoy your Corvair,
Frank "every Corvair needs a CHT gauge" Burkhard
In a message dated 6/9/2007 6:10:51 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
melissa_layman at hotmail.com writes:
One of my favorite doctors at work thinks my car is great, but is worried.
Apparently he remembers the Corvair as a car that caught on fire. I assume
it was because of the hotter engine/oil leak issue. What were the most
common areas that the engine leaked from? What does one need to do to
update it? Does anyone know the statistics on these supposed fires?
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