<VV> 102 engine advice

[Michael Kovacs]

Mark a lot of good questions.ANSWERS BELOW. I'LL FOWARD THIS TO COREY.


From: Mark Durham <62vair at gmail.com>
To: Michael Kovacs <kovacsmj at yahoo.com> 
Cc: VV <virtualvairs at corvair.org> 
Sent: Tuesday, May 21, 2013 5:34 PM
Subject: Re: <VV> 102 engine advice



Michael, even though the 62 102 is a "performance" engine, it takes RPM's to make that happen. Its hard to get the RPM's up when teamed with a powerglide. However, performance should be only slightly less than the 110 engine in your tired 69.  I've put 180K miles on a 62 102 but it was teamed with a 4 speed. Even at that. I advanced the timing a bit at a time until it didn't want to run well at the top end, then backed it off a couple of degrees. You can usually get an extra 4 degrees or so, and if that causes other concerns, like backfiring, etc., I might suspect a cam gear off a tooth. The engine would need to come out and the bell housing removed to verify cam to crank gear timing. 
 
OWNER DID HIS OWN REBUILD RECENTLY. HE IS NOT A CORVAIR PERSON , BUT STILL VERY ENGINE SAVVY

Other things to check: Does the car tend to hesitate or stall when you advance the gas pedal in gear from a stop?NONO 
Does it accelerate better if  you pump the gas and you try to go? When you rev the motor in neutral, does the engine respond quickly to throttle inputs? Or is there hesitation at first, then it catches up ?NO
 Does it backfire or hesitate when you do this?NO
Have you put a timing light on it and watched the vacuum advance work in its curve by watching the timing mark, with vacuum hooked up, then vacuum plugged? NOT YET
Does the motor repsond better to throttle movements with the vacuum advance hose plugged?NO
Do you have good streams of gas shooting into each carb throat from the accelerator pumps when you move the throttle ? YES
How does the engine respond to adjusting the idle mixture? DIDNT DO YET
If  you put your hand over one carb opening at a time, air cleaners off, to shut off the air to one, does the engine respond the same way on both sides?  NOT TRIED

Regards

Mark Durham

On Tue, May 21, 2013 at 10:23 AM, Michael Kovacs <kovacsmj at yahoo.com> wrote:

 Is the 102 PG in  1962 convertible known to be a doggy combination. A friend of mine has a particularly underpowered one that has been rebuilt ( I assume correctly). He test drove my very tired  (110 PG 180K miles)  '69 coupe that has not been rebuilt and we agree the '69 is so much faster then his '62.
> 
> We checked the dwell and timing and it is to spec, carbs go to full throttle etc. It idles very smoothly and does not burn oil. Carbs balanced etc.
> 
> Any body have a suggestion as how to get this 102 to perform better?
>