<VV> Covair engine restoration - Any Opinions?

[Arlette Carl]

Hi everyone,

 

I live in Australia and own one of probably less 40 Corvairs in Australia! Corvairs are largely unknown vehicles here in  Australia.

 

Anyway I am progress through an extensive ground restoration of a 1965 Monza Convertible which has also being converted to right hand drive.

 

Currently I am working on the engine, which the former owner from Wheeling West Virginia claimed had only done 31,000 miles from brand new.

 

Having removed the engine from the car and removed all the metal covers and after steam cleaning I notice that the cooling fins have worked to remove excess metal from between the cooling fins. This suggests to me that the engine has been out of the car at some point in the past but it must have been a very long time ago because rusted bolts were everywhere to be found when removing the engine.

 

My plan is have all the tin wear sand blasted and powder coated satin black, remove the sump cover and rocker covers then clean powder coat them flat silver, replace front and rear crankshaft oil seals and associated gaskets, replace the top cover and fan bearing. In short tidy up the exterior of what I understand to be a low mileage engine.

 

Before steam cleaning the engine, I noticed most of the really 'wet' heavy oil deposits were inside the rear bell housing and around the area where the crankshaft pulleys, fuel pump and distributor are.

 

This suggests to me that the major oil leaks have been at both ends of the crankshaft and of course it's my intention to replace these oils seals with the best available.

 

My expectation is that with the above work and rebuilt carburettors than this low mileage engine should perform very well and I guess if it does not then removing a nice clean engine with no rusted bolts to deal with should not be a lot easier than it was the first time around!

 

However I am starting to wonder if I should, or if I have to remove the 'heads' so that the Push Rod Tubes can be removed and the 'O' rings replaced as I understand oil can leak from these.

 

Any comments or advice would very much appreciated, as there are not Corvair experts in Australia.

 

Regards 

 

Carl L. Kelsen 

 

 

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