Picked up a corvair engine today. Has SOLAR on the cast aluminum valve covers also a cast aluminum oil pan cover with fins. The odd thing bout the engine is, it has a box that a Holley 4 bbl carb that sits in for a pressurized induction. Googled corvair solar and didnt get much engine info. Where might I look for numbers on the block or heads? Any info would be nice. Thanks in advance.
Solar Aircraft in San Diego built rail frame midget race cars after WWII. I have one. They also did a variety of other stuff and later I think got into industrial engine filtration/filters etc. I think they may have actually been bought out by Catipillar ??? I have never seen any aluminum speed parts or anything else other than the post war midgets. Offenhauser made finned aluminum oil pans for the Corvairs.
It's some kind of hot rod but not an airplane. The sheet metal has been made to fit into some kit car body not Corvair or VW. In the sixties there were a lot of different people making Corvair accessories. They were considered a poor man's Porsche and a lot of sports car fans bought them. I'm sure I have seen the valve covers and intake manifold before. The supercharger carb box is a new one. Could be for a Paxton but I don't see a drive pulley or mounting brackets. Whatever it is somebody went to a lot of trouble and expense building it up.
It's definitely not for an aircraft, so it's nothing to do with 'Solar Aircraft Co.' and the other 'Solar' company that someone mentioned here, as being now owned by Caterpillar, makes (and I think, has always made) - industrial gas turbines, so it's probably nothing to do with them either. Most likely, it's somebody's fairly well-thought-out and somewhat "bucks-up" home-built engine project, dating from the late-60's or early-to-mid-'70's, and likely for a dune buggy or a sand-rail. Offy made cast aluminum finned valve covers and finned - stock and deep-sump - cast aluminum oil pans for Corvairs. Another company, IECO, circa late-60's-early-'70's, made steel-tube 4-bbl manifolds for Corvairs, very smiler to what you've got. If you check out the list number stamped on the Holley carb choke tower, I'll bet it deciphers out to a 390 CFM carb - which is what IECO used and recommended with their manifolds. The box around the carb is for a either a centrifugal supercharger set-up - probably a Paxton - or for use with a home-brew turbocharger set-up. It's kind of cool but I'm not sure what you'd do with it - other then maybe buy a Corvair to stick it in, or build yourself a 'late-60's-style' glass-bodied dune buggy, that were all the rage for a while back then. But neither - with the slight, possible exception of an early-model Corvair maybe - are really "HAMB friendly" Still 'kinda' cool' though.
I still say it was for a kit car. Someone has gone to the trouble to make shrouding to fit to the body which is necessary to keep an air cooled engine from overheating. They made heater ducts to feed heat to the body too. Neither of these things would be necessary on a dune buggy. The engine would be out in the open and there would be no heater. There were a lot of sports car kit cars based on VW pans that had room for a Corvair engine.
it's junk!!!! send all parts to. chuck parmer 3407 w 24.......... oh never mind,if i got any corvair parts that would mean i have to work on my son car!
Anyone have any specs on what these engines were capable of producing for horsepower? Where and what are the strong and and weak parts of these engines?
What an interesting unit. The big circular connector & carb box scream aircraft, but the rest of it does not. The heads are the 140 horsepower units, which originally had 2 single throat carbs on each bank. More than one aftermarket company made a plenum & chrome runners to mount a Holley carb. The OEM oil filter mount has been cut off & tapped for a remote filter. Not a common mod even in a buggy or kit car - it was not usually in the way. The two fittings on the valve covers & the elaborate hard lines plumbed to them are again aircraft like, except for the rubber hose at the head. The large vertical loop in the lines rules them out for turbocharger oil returns - unless the turbos were a foot above the carb. With all of those mods, they kept the stock fuel pump? And a more or less stock ignition? It would be interesting to see closeups of whatever that circular connector is wired to. What does the warning sticker say on it? One thing does come to mind. In the sixties, car parts were fair game for aircraft ground support and military prototypes. The SR71 aircraft ground starting cart was built around a pair of badass Buick V8's. There were experimental vehicles as well, like the Gamma Goat. This engine could have been part of some prototype, and modified later. The military looking airbox may have simply been a way to connect that carb to a donaldson type air cleaner - dirt proofing the entire holley. Keep in mind is that the stock Corvair engine rotates "backwards". There are cams made to make it rotate the "right" way. This was common when putting one on a VW transaxle. The 140 heads are desirable to Corvair people With those heads, headers & a stock cam, probably good for 150 - 160 hp. Thanks for the pics. B.
This find is getting more and more interesting per post. Thanks to all for the info. Don't quite know yet my plans for it. I did know enough that when I saw it, it was different. Bump for the morning crowd
Yes, 140 horse heads used in Corvairs from 1965 to 1969. The valve covers and oil pan are Otto parts which you can still get from Clarks Corvair. If built right they will run like crazy.
These were also very popular with the "Florida Air Boat" crowd. A small 2 to 1 ratio box screwed to the output side of the engine would have driven the prop. A lot of Corvair engines were used in agriculture as well. If it could talk it might have some interesting stories to tell.
Im no expert in Corvair parts, but doesnt it say Offenhaser on the oil pan?? Firengine my man, that 'vair is simply beautiful. One of my all time favorite car. The only way i will never own a Corvair is if i die b4 i get the chance to buy one.
Ok, after the morning coffee, and the re-post of that pic... That flywheel & pressure plate appears to be a VW adaptor flywheel. The OEM corvair had a flat flywheel like any other GM car of the era. The ring gear was welded to the pressure plate, not on the flywheel The two studs hanging out on the bottom are VW style too. I believe it is already set up for the VW, so it may have the "reverse" cam in it too. B.
It has a VW adapter on the back. So it could have a reverse rotation cam or the transaxle it was in had the ring gear flipped. Corvair and VWs spun opposite directions Ron
Never heard of a reverse rotation Corvair. When you put one in a VW you have to take the differential apart and put the ring gear on the other side. This is what VW did on the vans with the reduction gears in the hubs (1967 and older). For aircraft or air boat use, you can dispense with the shrouding and cooling fan. This motor was built for use in a street driven car with heater, or something like a hovercraft with the engine enclosed in the body. Stock engines max HP, 140HP with 4 carbs (the heads on the engine above are the 4 carb heads) or in turbocharged form, 180HP. I expect you could get over 200HP today without the supercharger.
Someone asked what the warning sticker said. Here are a few pics. and a pic of the fuel pressure and Im guessing boost gauge.
You never heard of one because they don't have sandrails in the great white north. VW swapped the ring gear because of a gearbox. You can swap the ring gear in a mid engine layout with a VW engine just fine. The input shaft still turns the same way. If you hook a Corvair up to the VW gearbox, the input shaft turns the wrong way This will blow the transaxle up in short order. All of those parts were designed for load from the helical gears under power. At the height of the corvair sandrail craze, there were several makers doing reverse rotation cams. B.
If it has the early vanes on the blower that come out at an angle it is NOT reverse rotation. If it has a later fan with straight vanes it could go either way. the alternator fan could tell also. Or you could look in the distributor hole at the cam to see if the dist drive gear is for rev rotation. There is a guy that puts type 4 VW barrels on the Corvair and makes them 3.4 litres. My brother has a road race Corvair. I run one in my sandrail but most people dont like them cause its old school (thats what I LIKE about it). A relatively stock 110 corvair can easily make 220 ft lbs of torque.
Above: Back in '78 my Dad and I, plus brothers built and raced a Corvair powered LTC midget. The motor featured TRW forged pistons and internals, a Crower reverse-rotation cam, Hilborn-style constant flow fuel injection (made by dad), and a dry-sump oil pump (also made by dad). It was turbine smooth and pretty quick, but we didn't set the world on fire, so to speak. It was a father and sons project, built on a low buck budget. After a few seasons it was sold and we moved on to other midgets and racing endeavours.('nuther story) Years later many parts were located by Tony Putt who retrieved them and the car was rebuilt as a show-only vintage midget. Above: The Corvair midget on display after rebuild by Tony Putt. After a few years Tony Putt sold the car to Dave Henderson who recently got hold of dad to help him get the car going again. Dad's 80 now but still active so jumped at the chance to "lend a hand'... Above: Here's a shot of the motor. Above: Side shot of engine. It used to Have Offenhauser valve covers but they're "someplace unknown" today. Above: You can see the injector stacks here. The original intake manifold is easily machined away and Aluminum blocks welded at the port opening to mount the stacks. Butterflys and shafts were all custom-made by hand by dad. Hilborn nozzles were used. Above: Here's dad (Bryan Grace) sitting in the midget at a recent vintage midget display at Western Springs Speedway, Auckland New Zealand.....grinning form ear-to-ear!!! Above: Start-up day: two guys 80-years young and still having fun! Dad in the car with owner Dave Henderson on the Quad pushing.
Sorta sounds like Art Hershberger's Solar Automotive in Princeton, Wisconsin from the 70s for the valve covers. Flywheel does not look to be Corvair.
There was a company that modified Corvairs that were sold as "Solar" Corvairs. They may have produced some fancy parts like those valve covers.
Solar was a company in the 70s that completely reconditioned Corvairs and sold them as new cars. That air box most likely was connected to a Paxton supercharger.Corvair from day 1 had a 3 piece riveted flywheel that almost every Corvair restorer replaces the rivets with grade 8 bolts the damn rivets loosen up and the fly wheels rattle like crazy. all the finned goodies might have been cast by Otto but they clearly say Solar My guess is they Had their own castings done Reverse rotation cams were common during Corvairs hey day they are still available. on road courses Corvair not only competed real well with Porshe but beat them as well it still happens.65 - 69 Corvair handle surprisingly well stock and you can build a real good road carver with a few suspension mods they do very well in slolum(even spell check is stumped ) events. Corvair only came with a flat 6 aircooled engine but with different carburation and Horsepower factory rated from 80 to 180 they only had single barrel carbs for the non turbo engines 1 or 2 per side depending on HP ratings the turbo had a side draft mounted before the turbo. VW Big bore kits can be used on a Corvair but you need 2 kits (6 cylinders not 4!) there are Corvair engines built over 3 litres. Corvairs got hot rodded a lot! You can find most anything mounted on a Corvair 6 and most anything done to modify one! They are converted for aircraft use a lot and were used in air boats as well as original equipment in some run a bouts and some stationary power units.
Here are some pics of a Corvair "Military" motor. We restored this a few years ago and it is on display at the Buffalo transportation Museum. This was used for the Canadair Personnel Carrier, that never got into large production.
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