Projects Looking for 'new' car - how is heat in Corvairs??

If you are looking at a Powereglide, drive it first. What a turd! I loved my 4spd variety but my buddy had a 64 automatic coupe. with the gear selector on the dash. As far as I'm concerned automatics are good for parts cars. I must admit that there were 4 people in the car but I would be scared to drive it in today's traffic. I always remember rolling my eyes when he was trying to keep up in traffic. Highways are one thing but stop and go commuter traffic is a completely different thing. JMHO

 

he must have had a bad one, mine was zippy and fun to drive. shifter reminded me of the lever on an old style toaster

 

a buddy of mine has a convertible for sale, a project. 800.00 o.b.o.

 

No this guy is a perfectionist and was the one to turn me onto the tube seals. He would get pissed at us for calling them slingers. His was always clean underneath. This was the heart of the muscle car era. If you went from a 421sd 4 spd Pontiac into an auto. Corvair, zippy was never and adjective to come to mind. A 4spd model will allow you to stay in the rather small power band. Those are fun to drive!. No competition for my Pontiac but fun to run around in the proper gear.

 

A 67 has been my DD for 4 years and I never turn on the heater because of the fumes, working on an out of the box solution to continue driving it...

 

Could always tell the VW driver cause he (me) was the guy with the ice scraper inside the car working on the windshield as he drove.

 

Hmm, maybe that's the special Corvair smell.

 

I was just thinking about this the other day and it seems to me the VW/Corvair engineers missed the obvious solution. A liquid heat exchanger close to the exhaust manifolds/ports with a small pump to circulate. Aid in cooling and give you heat without the fumes or a heater that burns more gas than the engine. I think they made such a big deal about air cooling that even a heater full of anti-freeze would have made them look like they were giving in to the liquid cool crowd.

 

Guy I work with is doing that right now with a 69 Corvair with a 392 Hemi!
He's got it mostly apart now> Build should start soon.

 

out of the box thinking: bigger alternator and a pair of seat heaters.

the engineers were trying to keep the car as mechanically simple as possible, or they might have devised a fluid heat transfer system back then. there's loads of european air cooled cars, and europe isn't known for balmy winters, so there must be more than one way to skin a frozen cat.

 

And one of these, which I guess is actually in the box thinking

http://www.google.com/shopping/prod...a=X&ei=0AxsUa3XOIafiAKx2IGYBA&ved=0CHYQ8wIwAA

 

Had a 65 dont remember have a heater problem. Keep 2 concrete blocks up front and a full tank a gas and that thing would handle like it was on rails.

 

Air cooled cars, VW / Corvair can put out some heat. One winter day is Oregon driving my V-dub with my golden retriever in the back seat when all of a sudden there was a loud bang. Looked back and saw my golden covered in what looked like blood, I thought someone had taken a shot at us and hit Cody. Turns out an aerosol can of red paint had been next to the rear floor heater vent and exploded. What a mess!

 

My 65 is my daily driver out here in Denver and it gets pretty toasty inside but they do have a distinct smell to them and some people can't handle it but like a lot of people are saying as long as all your heater ducting is good they do fine when it's cold out


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If you've ever had an old vw, you'll know exactly what the heat system is all about. If not, just make sure all the heat tubes and ducts are sealed up well and you will get heat.

 

I have a nice, running '63 2-door, 4-speed car you can buy. I'll include the factory-optional gas heater along with it in case the engine heat isn't enough for you. It's fun to drive.

 

The gas heaters only dropped MPG by 1-2 gallons IIRC, and everyone says you can't run them for very long anyway because they get so hot. I think the Corvair cars get about 25-27 MPG without the heater

 

One of my friends had a '60 Monza with the gas heater....he'd turn the key to ACC, turn on the heater, and go back inside to eat breakfast. By the time he came back out, the car would be so hot that the snow would be melting off of it.

 

If I was going to buy one I would go with a 65 or newer thay have a much better rear suspension JMHO.

 

probably no worse than most VW Beetles..thats not saying much

 

best car I ever drove to handle the PA snow...would go anywhere....on the heat issue....what heat? Never got anything but oil smell cause the pushrod tube seals leaked constantly. Got so bad that when the defrosters were on the oil residue would liquify and run down the inside of the windshield

 

A friend had a 65 Corsa with the 180 horse turbo engine. The heat was almost non-existant. It would however blow any stray smoke into the interior nicely. Cough, cough

 

Run bean oil, that stuff smells great!

 

I had a sign made for mine for when it hits the street the next time it's the little guy pissing on Ralph Nader

 

Here you go.

http://www.kaiserwillys.com/category/willys-jeep-heater-parts-accessories

Used to have a '65 myself.

 

If you replace all the seals with new Viton seals, and replace the relevant gaskets, you shouldn't get any smoke. You also shouldn't get any smells. These things would noot have sold so well if that's how they were from the factory. You'll have to do some restoration work to get it back to those conditions though. As with VWs, the heat travels through channels in/near the rockers, so if your channels are in bad shape and/ore aren't well-insulated, all the heat will escape. I would, however, wear thicker socks, or get a plug-in accessory heater if you don't go with a factory gas heater.