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EXPERIMENTAL AIRCRAFT AND POWERPLANT NEWSFORUM FOR DESIGNERS AND BUILDERS

CONTACT! ISSUE 75 PAGE 2

William Wynne is an Embry-Riddle Aeronautical Uni-versity trained A&P mechanic. He is a columnist for EAA Publications, and is past president of EAA Chapter 288 in Daytona Beach, Fla. His ongoing re-search and development of the Corvair powerplant is chronicled at www.FlyCorvair.com. William has au-thored another CONTACT! article in the past, dealing with the Corvair engine. See issue #54. In issue #67, Grace Ellen Korosec wrote an article on Carb ice, which featured some of the details of William’s acci-dent which resulted in the total loss of his plane. Months before the loss, KR2 builder Mark Langford was able to take the photo of William’s plane, which is featured on the front cover of this issue. William has made a full recovery, and is now more than ever enthusiastic about the Corvair engine. His current project, a Zenair 601XL will soon take to the skies, being pulled by a 100 hp Corvair conversion. For those who don’t have internet access, William can be reached by phone, (386) 451-3676 or by snail mail: P.O. Box 290802 Port Orange, Fl 32129-0802

The Corvair engine is arguably the center of the most diverse and accessible experimental aircraft conversion movement of all time. A bold statement, perhaps, but let me share my thinking on the subject and you'll probably come to the same conclusion. While the Corvair motor has been flying for 43 years, most of the people involved today have been brought into the movement by our unending efforts in the past 10 years to bring the engine back to mainstream ac-ceptance, evolve it into a more efficient and user friendly engine, and teach as many people as possible how to build their own motor. This issue of CONTACT! Maga-zine highlights the craftsmanship and efforts of many different people. Contrast this with the story of any facto-ry-built aircraft engine. That aircraft engine story would be all about the people who manufactured it. The people who flew it would essentially only be consumers. Howev-er, with the Corvair, builders are given an opportunity to learn, develop skills, have the pride of building it them-selves, and experience the core of aviation that has been around since the Wright brothers.

Story and photos by William Wynne, The Corvair Authority ~ [email protected]

All necessary Corvair conversion parts are readily available for purchase or can be built from plans in the Cor-vair Conversion Manual. Supplements like The Corvair Flyer newsletter and William's Corvair Engine Assem-bly Video Series aid greatly in the building process. William also spends a great deal of time answering tech-nical questions, and more than 500 of these are logged at the Daily Question and Answer pages on his www.FlyCorvair.com Web site.


My original goal of developing a low cost, reliable, 100hp flight engine and sharing this with the maximum amount of aviators dictated a plans built engine. Strong growth through the past decade has allowed me to develop, test and offer numerous conversion components. These components have greatly simplified the job of building your own engine, while operating from my Conversion Manual. My focus in the past has been to provide my manual and support the owners of it, but things have evolved to where now, in addition to some specialty parts such as the prop hub and starter kit, I offer completely built, test run and zero-timed engines. This allows me to serve the whole spectrum of hopeful Corvair flyers, each of whom have a varying mixture of time, money and skill. This is a very different business philosophy than large aircraft engine companies such as Rotax, Jabiru, Bom-bardier, etc. companies only geared to serve people with a minimum of $10,000 to spend in one chunk on an en-gine. Even other conversion engines like the Subaru, once thought of as an affordable entry route to aircraft powerplants, have changed. The Subaru market (as well as many other conversions) are dominated by expensive firewall forward packages featuring an array of proprie-tary parts fabricated by machinery out of the reach of homebuilders. Perhaps only the direct drive VW is clos-est to the Corvair's philosophy, but even the VW is sub-ject to being marketed solely as a kit engine. Although less expensive than a Rotax, many of these engines ex-clude participation by those on a seriously tight budget. Additionally, these engines are typically a product; while their literature may tell you how to assemble it, there's a wide gulf between this and an educational manual that discusses why a process is done in a particular way. In the final analysis, the Corvair engine certainly serves the needs of a far wider array of builders. Its educational nature and its availability from plans to parts to complete engines assures this. My goal today remains the same as 10 years ago: to encourage people of all backgrounds to participate in one of the greatest adventures of all time, building and flying airplanes.

William Wynne, [email protected]

By William Wynne In the following pages of this magazine, you'll see pic-tures of Corvair engines and installations which reflect the personal taste, skills and innovations of their build-ers. While virtually all of the builders own a copy of my Corvair Conversion Manual, some of them choose to add a particular personal touch to their own engine, as experimental aircraft builders will sometime do. This engine project is no different. It has long been my standing that if a builder wishes to test a new idea, the engine itself needs to be fully prov-en and very rugged. For example, you might not want to test a new type of fuel injection on an engine that has never flown before and may have other teething problems. From this perspective, the Corvair motor is an excellent foundation to work from. On the other hand, many builders wish to incorporate modifications which my experience indicates have little chance of achieving their creators' goals without signif-icant sacrifices in reliability, economy or simplicity of operation. People who choose to deviate from the plans will inevitably take longer to build, spend more money on materials, labor and parts, and rarely achieve something that standard conversions don't offer. It has also been my observation that the people mak-ing the largest deviation from the plans invariably have the least experience with aircraft engines, and have rarely considered all the ramifications of their deviation. We've heard this same discussion about plans built airframes many times, and I submit that it's even more applicable to plans built aircraft engines. In recent years, I've found that the majority of Corvair engine builders enjoy the learning process, and pride of craftsmanship in building a conversion directly from the Manual. In the future, this may become even more important as these builders could enjoy the additional benefit of being able to attain hull insurance, as op-posed to those who choose to build innovative but un-proven engines.

William Wynne, [email protected]


The Corvair engine brings together many desirable fea-tures of the most popular engine conversions: the good power output of larger-displacement 4-strokes, the smoothness of a 6-cylinder engine, the air cooling and ease of building that make the Volkswagen so popular, the simplicity and low parts count of most automotive OHV engines, the availability of American-made family sedan engines, worldwide support for GM products, and -for aircraft design purposes- a configuration that closely resembles that of the most common certified aircraft en-gines, the horizontally-opposed Lycomings and Conti-nentals. But even in the world of auto engines the Cor-vair is unusual, as it shares its design with only a few other contemporary automotive engines. Perhaps for that reason more than any other, the engine has developed somewhat of a cult following among experimental aircraft builders. When the Corvair automobile was introduced by GM in the 1960's, war-surplus and certified aircraft engines were plentiful and inexpensive. Homebuilders of the time could obtain 100HP engines readily, so the only people looking at auto engine conversions were the true experi-menters and those with severely limited budgets. Others who used the auto engines were those who lived in rural areas where airports and airplanes were few and far be-tween but auto dealerships and garages were plentiful enough to provide good support for them. Bernard Pie-tenpol was one such experimenter, and his pioneering homebuilt design, the Air Camper, was born of many of these factors. The Air Camper was designed to be built easily and reliably in a barn, garage, or backyard work-shop using simple and readily-available materials. The engine conversion first used to power the design, the

Ford Model A engine, was to be found just about any-where in the country. Pietenpol, always experimenting and fiddling with his design, immediately took notice of the Corvair when it was introduced and he fitted one to an Air Camper and offered the new engine as an alterna-tive powerplant for his design. As such, he was one of the initiators of the Corvair phenomenon in amateur air-craft. Others took note of the Corvair and its potential for air-craft use, and examples from the recent past are not ra-re. Author and experimenter Richard Finch documented his use of the Corvair engine in a certified airframe appli-cation and has published much valuable information on the repair, maintenance, application, and conversion of the engine in both aero and auto applications. Finch and others fed information and engine conversion techniques into the experimental aviation world that bloomed and spread throughout the 60's and 70's, but again the avail-ability of good used certified engines kept attention away from the auto conversions and the Volkswagen held most homebuilders' interest for experimental light air-craft. While the VW cannot reliably deliver 100HP in its standard aero configuration, the designs using the en-gine were mostly single-place light planes that needed significantly less than 100HP for flight. When it came to the 65 to 100HP range, the small Continentals continued to be the powerplants of choice, and their availability at that time guaranteed their domination in homebuilt air-craft use. It has only been in the last two decades that the flat Continentals have finally become scarcer and more expensive to rebuild, and many of them have been run-out and rebuilt enough times to make their continued service questionable.

Story and photos by Oscar Zuniga Ever since the advent of powered flight, airplane builders and designers have searched for engines to power their creations. A few have had the resources and ability to design and build their desired powerplants from scratch, specifically and purposely built for their application, but most have had to adapt parts and technology from other areas. Reasons for this are many, but the most common are money (or lack thereof) and the unavailability of suit-able existing equipment to meet the requirements of an airplane project. Most ground-based equipment is not constrained by the weight and reliability concerns that airplanes are, so most ground-based equipment requires

extensive modification before it can be applied to aircraft. However, in a few cases there have been engines suffi-ciently light, robust, simple, and affordable that they have successfully made the crossover from earth to sky. The Corvair is one of those engines.


In the late 1980's and early 1990's William Wynne began working on converting Corvair engines to aero use. Wynne is the typical experimenter and homebuilder, hav-ing equal interests in flying and building. With a back-ground in mechanics and an interest in developing a reli-able and affordable engine, he set about installing a Cor-vair in his Pietenpol airframe and working the bugs out of it. In the process he experimented with different props, carburetion, exhaust, cams, valves, heads, assembly techniques, engine mounts, ignition, fuel supply, crank-case venting, and virtually every other aspect of the en-gine and its application. He implemented and test-flew both "tried and true" Corvair techniques and "possibly useful" techniques and began to establish factual data on things that worked and things that didn't. In all of this work no idea was rejected out of hand or accepted as fact without his personal testing of each. What Wynne retained for his present aero conversion recommendations are modifications or arrangements that he has found to be the most sound, simplest and easiest for the average homebuilder to implement, and that offered the best results for cost and effort expended. The racing world has developed many other refinements and techniques that can be applied to the Corvair engine but they are either expensive, require extensive machine work, return very little in the way of performance or relia-bility, or do not make sense in aero applications. Such things as turbocharging, fuel injection, dual ignitions, custom intake manifolds, roller rockers, race cams, elec-tronic ignitions, reduction drives, and tuned crossover exhausts all offer benefits but add to complexity and cost for minimal returns so are not included in Wynne's rec-ommendation for his standard aero Corvair conversion. The flight testing is what has made Wynne's work so val-uable to the experimental community, but it is not the only thing about him that has made him the catalyst for the current Corvair enthusiasm. It is William Wynne's energy and inspiration that are providing motive force for the Corvair growth phenomenon today. Wynne spreads information about the Corvair through three main ven-ues: his webpage, www.flycorvair.com, engine conver-

sion forums that he conducts at the larger regional fly-ins such as EAA AirVenture and Sun 'n' Fun, and hands-on workshops which he’s named "Corvair College". He first began the Corvair College concept by hosting a group of builders at his hangar near Daytona Beach one Memorial Day weekend. By opening the doors to his own workshop and hangar to those who were currently work-ing on engine conversions using his manual, he could more easily answer questions, demonstrate techniques, share specialized tools and jigging, and thus get more builders on their way to getting their engines completed and flying. He correctly deduced that more actual work and progress could be accomplished in a group work-shop setting over a long weekend than in any number of videotaped lessons, email list discussions, or telephone consultations with builders at different stages in the building process.

During these Colleges, Wynne (pictured in the center of the photo above) freely intermixes bits of lecture on en-gine conversion theory with tips, techniques, demonstra-tions, assistance in teardown and buildup of engines, and liberal doses of concentrated down-and-dirty home-building. His goal is always to see builders succeed in completing an engine, and he spares none of his person-al tools, parts stock, or time in helping individual builders finish the task.


One of the main attractions of the Colleges has been that Wynne has hosted them at no charge to holders of his conversion manual, and this pleasant change from the usual commercial approach has created loyalty and trust between he and the engine builders. The open and friendly communication has also created an environment that is conducive to sharing new developments and tech-niques without profit motives or excessive liability con-cerns. Wynne welcomes new ideas and improvements on the conversion process or the engine subsystems,. He requires that they be demonstrated and tested, and afterwards, he will update his published techniques and recommendations so that everyone benefits. A good example of a Corvair College in abbreviated form is the "Alamo City Jr. College" held in January of 2003 in San Antonio, TX. Despite the compressed schedule (1-1/2 days) the event drew more than 60 builders and in-terested attendees. Wynne and his assistant Gus War-ren drove more than 2300 miles from Florida to Texas, towing an engine test stand and bringing tools, jigs,

parts, manuals, and assembly materials to the EAA Chapter 35 home field at San Geronimo. In the EAA clubhouse the open-ing morning of the College, Wynne explained his engine conversion philosophy and in-troduced the attendees to the concepts and materials used in the process. Throughout the presentation the emphasis is on the ability of an experimenter of ordinary means and skills to convert a readily-available, do-mestic-manufactured engine into a reliable aero powerplant. In an unheated hangar with wintertime temperatures hover-ing around 40 degrees for much of the event weekend, Wynne

demonstrated and narrated techniques, tools, and mate-rials used in evaluating, cleaning, disassembling, prepar-ing, and carefully building up the engine. On hand were a grimy and dirty core engine recently pulled from a junked car, a set of clean cases ready to assemble into a short block, a completed long block awaiting fitting to an air-frame, and an engine on the test stand in ready-to-run trim. Wynne demonstrated everything from the mundane cleanup and "grunt work" to careful checking of crank-shaft journals and placing of bearing insert shells. The whole time an endless barrage of questions and answers covered carburetion, exhaust, engine mounts, propellers, conversion costs, ignition, airframes, and everything in between. Being an experimenter at heart, Wynne an-swers each question honestly and clearly, and demon-strates by his responses that he may well be "The Cor-vair Authority" as he bills himself. With a focus on get-ting engines converted and flying, rather than on selling parts and manuals, Wynne is certainly fueling the rapid growth of the Corvair phenomenon in homebuilding.

Oscar Zuniga

”Alamo City Jr. College" held in January of 2003 in San Antonio, Texas.

Grimy core engines can arrive at Corvair College looking like a total loss, and leave looking like a jewel.


Story and photos by Mark Langford Mark Langford started his career working on guided missiles while an active duty member of the USAF. Later he became an automobile mechanic, specializ-ing in German autos. Using his GI bill, he earned a BS in mechanical engineering from Auburn Universi-ty in 1988. Mark has been working as a design engi-neer in the aerospace industry for Teledyne Brown Engineering in Huntsville, Alabama ever since. He earned his private pilot certificate in 1993, and promptly started construction on a KR2S. Mark as-sisted Larry French and solid modeled the 450 horsepower Lionheart staggerwing design in the mid nineties, and published an article detailing the devel-opment of a new KR2S airfoil in Sport Aviation mag-azine in 2001. Mark is currently putting the finishing touches on his beautifully crafted and highly modi-fied Corvair powered KR2S www.home.hiwaay.net\~langford, and assists other builders by running an internet mailing list for KR builders www.krnet.org, and another devoted to the use of Corvair engines in homebuilt aircraft www.corvaircraft.com. He enjoys complete support from his wife and young children, who can't wait to fly his KR2S. I've been building a KR2S for the last 10 years, and had been planning on using a Type 4 VW engine for power. But I've never been comfortable with the track record of the VW crankshafts when subjected to aircraft use and was designing a shaft drive setup so I could extract the power from the flywheel end of the engine, rather than the alternator/cooling fan pulley end. Then I heard Wil-liam Wynne preaching the Corvair gospel at Sun ‘N Fun in 1998, and I saw the light! The Corvair had no history of crank problems in aircraft applications, and had the added benefit of 6 cylinders. Since William had already done the research on how to outfit the Corvair for aircraft use, it was a no-brainer that I would no longer have to experiment with a shaft drive setup of my own design!

One of the possibilities that William mentions in his man-ual is the 3100cc "Big Boy" conversion, which was being converted by Bob Sutcliffe of SC Performance, Ventura CA (805) 644-0006, as well as Ray Sedman at American Pi www.american-pi.com. Being a “motorhead” from way back, and former VW mechanic, the potential for more power with the same weight was very appealing. I found a web site that documents the basics of the conversion at www.corvairkid.com/MM01.htm, and I was confident that I could handle the job.

THERE’S NO SUBSTITITE FOR CUBIC INCHES The Big Boy is all about increased displacement. I'm not sure who was the first to try it, but it involves the use of forged 94mm Cima/Mahle pistons and cylinders in place of the stock Corvair's cast pistons and iron cylinders. The result is a 15% displacement increase, from 164CID to 190 cubic inches. At our low RPM range, this will trans-late almost directly to a 15% increase in power. This change requires modifications to the cylinders them-selves, as well as boring the cylinder heads and engine case. The connecting rods are also converted from the

Mark Langford, installing his engine on William Wynne’s test stand, during the 2003 Corvair College.


stock GM press fit to the VW-style "floating" wrist pin. These four changes are the heart of the upgrade. The 94mm piston and cylinder sets are relatively inexpensive, thanks to the proliferation of Type 1 VW aftermarket. Since the VW cylinder stud pattern and the cylinder length is different from the Corvair cylinder, the first order of business is to shorten the VW cylinders by about .30 inches to accommodate the Corvair's stroke and rod length. Next, new holes are drilled in the cylinders to match the Corvair bolt pattern. At this point, the cylinders are labeled for their position on the Corvair, since each cylinder is matched to a certain location due to potential fin interference between two adjacent cylinders. PISTONS AND CYLINDERS The Cima/Mahles (they are sold under both names) have thinner fins, and more of them, which should improve cooling over the stock units. An added benefit is that the 94mm VW cylinder/piston sets weigh about 7 pounds LESS than the stock Corvair cylinders (for the set of six).

CASE CLEARANCING The engine case is clearanced to accept the larger diam-eter cylinders. SC Performance uses exact GM specifi-cations for the center- to-center cylinder distance, which leaves some cylinder spigots thinner than others, but aligns the cylinders properly with the crankshaft. (See photo on opposite page.) Although Helicoils tend to un-ravel when machined in this application, Timecerts work. A case with good stud retention is very important; Time-serts are one-piece steel thread repair. When installed correctly, they are stronger than the original threads.

CONNECTING RODS Stock Corvair rods are machined to accept the VW diam-eter piston pins. No bushings are used, primarily be-cause there's not much room left for them. Stronger ARP rod bolts are also a part of the conversion. Rods can be bought in matched sets, shot-peened, and balanced end for end and overall. Since that's what the racers use, stock rods are plenty strong enough for aircraft use.

The piston skirts are clearanced to avoid contact with the rod bolts of opposing cylinder. After this machine work, they will need to be matched in weight again by removing material to match the light-est one. This is part of the blueprinting process car-ried out by the builder, or can be performed by Jeff at SC Performance.

The combustion chambers are bored out to accept the 94mm cylinders, to a depth dependent upon the customer's desired compression ratio. As you can see, the stud holes get thin or break through entirely, but that's not a concern. Copper head gaskets are used to seal the chamber and fine-tune the compres-sion ratio.

The case also needs clearancing for the piston skirts. A trial assembly is required ensure that the pistons don't contact the case. .060" clearance is usually recommended. Trial assembly is covered in excruciating detail on my Corvair website at: www.home.hiwaay.net/~langford/corvair/trial_assy.html


PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER Assembly of the aforementioned parts is the same as a stock Corvair engine. Even on the stock Corvair, the compression ratio and valve train geometry need to be checked and remedied if necessary. But it's more likely to need attention on the Big Boy due to the possibility of boring the heads deeper to clean up the chamber sealing surface, the altered cylinder length, the bored cylinder spigots, and also because the change in bore will result in a compression ratio increase by definition. The valve train geometry is also more likely to change for the same reason, so pushrods may need to be a custom length. For a detailed discussion on valve train geometry, see www.home.hiwaay.net/~langford/corvair/valve_geometry.html Bob Sutcliffe recently sold SC Performance to a very capable successor, Jeff Ballard, who’s an aerospace engineer and avid Corvair racer. Jeff performs the same “Big Boy” operation, for a package price of $1595.

SC Performance also offers other options in the big bore department. More conservative aviators can opt for the 90.5 mm Cima/Mahle cylinders, or even 88 mm Porsche cylinders which have thicker cylinder walls. The 88 mm pistons/cylinders are the same diameter as the Corvair .030” overbored cylinders, so Jeff trims a tad off of the cylinders so they bolt right in without clearancing the case or heads…a big bonus! Since pin diameter is the same as the VW cylinders, his custom rods fit this appli-cation as well, and are available for $350. The Porsche pistons/cylinders are $550, and are a high quality alter-native to 40 year-old rebored Corvair cylinders and the increasingly scarce TRW forged pistons. Another option Jeff sells is a new 4340 high performance rod set, which is longer and improves the rod angle, for $1100 per set. He’ll be the first to tell you that they are probably not necessary for aircraft applications though. He also sells a host of other goodies such as roller rock-ers and other nice to have paraphernalia, and performs custom headwork to improve susceptibility to detonation. Jeff can be reached at (805) 644-0006, and his new SC Performance web page will be operational soon at www.sc-performance.com.

My engine was run for the first time at the 2002 Corvair College on William's test stand. It was broken in for about an hour, and seems very strong. It should be fly-ing early in 2004, and I expect some impressive speeds from my KR2S. The bottom line for the 3100cc conver-sion that if you don't mind spending a little extra money, time, and effort to do it right, you'll be rewarded with a strong Corvair engine with 15% more power and seven pounds lighter than the "other" boys. See my whole Cor-vair story at: www.home.hiwaay.net/~langford/corvair. And for a load of expert assistance, join the CorvAircraft internet email list by visiting www.CorvAIRCRAFT.com and following the link to the e-mail list .

Mark Langford

Piston rod ends are machined larger to accept the bigger VW wrist pin.

Mark brought his completed engine to the 2002 Corvair College, and test ran it for the first time on William Wynne's test stand.

Note the distance of the cylinder spigot to the head stud on the left, compared to the spigot and stud on the right.


Years ago, I was deciding on which project to build. This in itself is a sizable decision requiring much considera-tion and consternation. Since I was looking primarily at high wing kit-built two-across monoplanes, I found an EA-81 Subaru engine. Eventually, I decided that I just couldn’t commit to the whole high-wing thing and decid-ed on a “Sportster” from Warner Aerocraft. I felt that the use of a liquid cooled engine would require enough cos-metic changes to fundamentally change the look and feel of the Sportster’s style. Since I liked the 1930’s Racer style of the Sportster, I had to find another powerplant. Into my life walked the 110hp Corvair. Problem was, the Corvair made its power in the 3100 RPM range and up. To reduce prop noise and improve horsepower, most are run with shorter propellers at these higher than typical (for airplane engines) RPMs. I was once again faced with the issue of retaining the airplane’s style. A Prop Speed Reduction Unit (PSRU) would allow me to use the air cooled Corvair engine running at higher RPMs while turning a large wooden disk of a prop at more typical RPMs. I began by looking at various belt drive concepts at Sun 'N Fun every year I went. Some had large ribbed pulleys supported by massive con-structs with intricate tracking adjustments. Some used

the ribbed pulleys turning a shaft running back across the engine top supported at both ends. Then there were the planetary gearbox guys. They used rear axle differ-entials or transmission gears in a wide assortment of configurations. At the top of the expense list were the custom built “production” PSRUs crafted of only the best stuff. I tried to make sense of it all. What did I really want? I decided that I wanted a self contained gearbox. I want-ed right hand rotation. I didn’t want to have a second system of lubrication to maintain, and I didn’t want belts. Bud Rinker had thought about all of this years ago. In the mid sixties, Bud Rinker tried to prove his Corvair could be every bit as viable a powerplant as any other air-cooled alternative. He developed a PSRU from readily available (circa mid-sixties) junkyard parts that became an integral part of the engine simple enough for the somewhat inclined to fashion. Better yet, it reversed the Corvair’s rotation to make a whole selection of readily available right-hand props useable.

The unit is based on a gearbox devised by Volkswagen

to make it easier for the little VW engine to push the Microbus up the European moun-tains. It was positioned on the ends of the drive shafts driving the rear wheels. (Note, not all Microbuses were made with the gear-boxes.) They came with 1.26, 1.39 and the ever-rare 1.69 to one gear ratios. The 1.69 ratio was referred to as the “Alpine Gears”. So, your first job would be to find a gearbox from a 1955 to1967 VW Microbus. You won’t need the back plate, but you will need the brake drum.

An exploded view of the Rinker Redrive, as installed on the front end of the Corvair engine

Exploded view of the VW Microbus outer axle.

By David Poirier Photos and technical contributions by David Stroud and Erik Meisterman


At this point, I need to toss out a dis-claimer. I haven’t built one myself. I was fortunate to find one for sale. I am not going to give detailed con-struction insights, but more of an over view of the redrive and the logic that goes into the decision to use it. A PSRU is not for everyone and is not a requirement for using the Corvair en-gine in an airplane. In almost all cases, the prop is fas-tened to the Corvair (‘Vair) at the transmission end. The bell housing is cut down to create a cover plate in-corporating the rear seal. In the Rink-er Redrive, the bellhousing is com-pletely replaced by machined alumi-num plates which replace the rear housing of the VW gearbox. Engine oil is tapped from a galley and sprayed over the gears in operation. The oil then simply runs into the crankcase to recalculate. This makes the redrive, for all intents and purposes, an exten-sion of the engine. The VW brake drum is cut down on a lathe to form a prop hub with doublers to strengthen it. The crankshaft needs some minor machine shop work to fit the spline which drives the lower gear. The redrive I purchased has a flange on the splined drive which allows it to be bolted to the end of the crankshaft. This negates the need for machine work. The two gear nature of the drive reverses the rotation at the prop making it right hand rotation. My thought process leading me to the use of the Rinker box came out of my love for the style and “feel” of the aircraft. The plane simply looks better with a larger, slower turning prop. I prefer to drop into grass strips owned by friends. A larger prop not only helps brake the air-craft and steepen descent, but it should also improve best angle of climb. Heck, with an open cockpit, I’m not really interest-ed in speed. Additional benefits to me are the extra space on top of the block created by the extra three inch-es of offset afforded me. I will have no issues with getting my rear starter setup on top of the block and clear of the cowling. I won’t have to carve up a forest to make a prop because the right hand rotation makes a wide variety of used props viable. On the other side of the coin, if I were building a KR2S or a small Lancair or other lightweight fast glass two seater, I would probably not even consider the Rinker box. Run-ning a smaller prop faster seems to suit these designs better. Greater ground clearance and a lower, more

streamlined cowling lend themselves to the direct drive ‘Vair like a glove. Then there’s the “tinkerer” complex. I am a consummate tinkerer. Erik Meis-terman (Who helped provide info for this article) is putting a Rinker in his Poliwagen. He cites the tinkerer com-plex as one driving factor. He also has a right hand prop, no need for it to go to waste. Although the Poliwagen falls into the lightweight fast-glass category, he feels that the extra three inches of ground clearance is appreciated. It will be interesting to see how his stacks up against other Poliwagens when fin-ished. I know some of you are wondering about weight and performance fig-ures. I have the good fortune to know a fellow who has run the same prop and airframe through a Subaru EA-81 with PSRU, Corvair with Rinker box and a Lycoming 0-235c only adjusting the pitch of the prop. Surprisingly, there weren’t great variances in

weight. The Subaru was heaviest at about 255 lbs, the Corvair at about 250 lbs and the Lyco just a few pounds less. A range of only about 10 lbs including fluids. Dave Stroud reports that he was burning 18% more fuel, but he got 18% more cruise with the Corvair over the Sub-aru. The Corvair posted the best performance numbers

for his Christavia. Dave chose the Rinker box because he wanted bet-ter torque provided by the gear ratio to turn the fan. I know someone is going to ask why he traded a Cor-vair for a Lycosaur, so here it is. His rear start setup had the ring gear mounted to the harmonic balancer. When the woodruff key sheared in the dampener, (no, not from starting the engine) it went round and round without turning the engine. At that same time, he was offered the O-

235c for a song and another man offered to buy the ‘Vair. He jumped at it. Sometimes things seem to happen for a reason. He does report that the ‘Vair and Rinker box combo was surprisingly smooth. He put 38 hours of air time on his Rinker Box. So, there you have it. Dave Stroud and I are looking for unique performance traits provided by the Rinker box for slower, grass field aircraft. Erik Meisterman is looking to save money on a prop and have the object of his handi-work to show off. I know of other folks who are putting ‘Vairs in Dragonflys and KR2Ss, even a Zenith Zodiac. Is a Rinker Box for you? Only you can say for sure, but they do work. David Poirier

Photo curtsey of William Wynne

William Wynne owned and tested a Rinker. His ultimate opinion is that the Rinker could work well for the right person. His specific concerns include: cast iron construction, the lack of torsional vibration dampen-ing, the scarcity of the 1.69:1 gears, and that in the 30+ years since Bud Rinker built the prototype, there have not been all that many flying.


Story and Photos by Wayne Burtney Acton, Ontario Canada A long time ago I met Domenic Bellissimo, the proud owner of a 140 HP Corvair Pietenpol. Many years later I tracked him down at the RAA and asked for his advice on the Corvair engine. The one thing he advised me to do was use a front thrust bearing. He drew a number of sketches of how it could be done. He said he had a front thrust bearing in his engine. Another gentleman, who was also building a Pietenpol; he too had a front thrust bearing, but his used a radial ball bearing. It must be a Canadian thing because I decided that the front thrust bearing was for me, for the following reasons. First, there is no “safety shaft” required as it is with the traditional Bernie Pietenpol or William Wynne’s conver-sions; second, the entire load of the propeller is immedi-ately at the new front thrust bearing, not through eight-een right angle bends in the crankshaft. (The stock Cor-vair thrust bearing is located at the “rear” of the engine, not up front next to the propeller); third, the propeller load is spaced between the last two bearings on a straight shaft a distance of 5.25” between bearings, allowing for greater gyroscopic loads, a heavier than recommended propeller including in flight adjustable, or a propeller ex-tension; fourth, the prop hub is 4140 hardened and tem-pered steel. Hearing that Falconar Avia, Inc., in Edmonton, Canada, was the distributor for the R.G. Huggins Corvair conver-sion, I sought them out. In the 1960’s, Huggins wrote the first manual on converting the Corvair engine for experi-mental aviation. I couldn’t get very much information on Huggins, except that he was a speaker at the Rockford EAA, wrote an article in the Sport Aviation, and was around at the time of Bud Rinker. The Huggins conver-sion plans detail the construction and installation of the front thrust bearing, as well as a dual magneto housing, and how to modify the stock Corvair heads for dual sparkplugs. I chose the thrust bearing conversion only. I phoned Falconar Avia Inc., got a price on the front plate and the left and right nose castings. A few weeks later the aluminum was poured and the castings were on their way to me. The blueprints supplied by Falconar ap-peared excellent with good detail. The conversion manu-al is old and I suspect unchanged since the 1960’s. Alt-hough I have the tools available to me at home and

through the RAA, I am not a good machinist. I elected to have the castings machined and the prop hub turned for a reasonable fee, by a local machinist. The machinist found the blueprints good with only one error (hole placement), otherwise nothing was changed. The one piece front plate casting appeared oversized at first, but after milling the casting flat, it is cut in half to form left and right halves. Two surfaces of the left and right nose casting are milled flat and drilled for shoulder bolts. The nosepieces are assembled and turned on a lathe to accommodate a stock Corvair thrust bearing. The plans did not specify the material to use for fabricat-

ing the crankshaft extension/propeller hub, so I elected to use 4140 high carbon steel alloy. The extension is hollow making it stronger and lighter than if it were solid, and is bolted to the flywheel end of the crank, using six .375” grade 8 studs. An SAE 1 prop hub pattern is incor-porated in the extension. The crankshaft and extension was ground .010 under as a complete unit, although the plans call for the extension to be ground separately and then bolted on. It just made better sense to have these pieces ground as a complete component. Assembling the unit is easy, as it just bolts together.


Snuggling the bolts and whacking the casting with a plastic hammer does the alignment. Oil for the thrust bearing is supplied via an external line; return is via gravity to the crankcase. The thrust bearing used for this conver-sion is a stock Corvair thrust bearing. The flange area of the bearing is identical to a Continental C-85 as is the propeller shaft seal. When the Corvair engine is assem-bled per the GM manual, the stock thrust bearing is located in the “rear” (# 1) loca-tion. It’s the only bearing which has flang-es for handling thrust loads. The other 3 bearings are the more traditional main bearing shells, without any flanges. To eliminate an anomaly with the crank, GM decided to offset the # 4 bearing. I re-moved the thrust bearing from the # 1 position, and in its place, use a # 2/# 3 (they are identical). I opted to not use the offset # 4 bearing, and in its place, I’ve installed a # 2/# 3 bearing. I believe the gyroscopic force of the propeller will give the crankshaft loading on one side of # 4 bearing elimi-nating the need for an offset bearing. The # 1 bearing is now located in the new thrust bearing housing, bolted to the front of the case. If I had it to do over again would I change anything? Probably not. I’m planning to use this conversion on a 3100 cc Big Boy, rear starter and an in-flight adjustable propeller, and with the added weight from the prop and the additional horsepower form the Big Boy conversion, it just makes good sense to reinforce the crank like this. The plans and castings can be purchased at Falconar

Avia Inc. www.falconaravia.com The Plans (3-24x36 blueprints plus the Huggins manual) costs $50.00 The raw (un-machined) castings kit is priced at $290.00 These prices are per their website, at the time of this writing. Falconar also offers the kit fully machined, on a quoted price basis. Machining costs for the two castings and one prop hub was $2000 Canadian (CAD), ($1500 USD) the steel 4140 was $90 CAD, ($68 USD) heat treating the steel was $45 CAD ($34 USD) Added to the cost would be one additional thrust bearing. Hardware ran about $30 Canadian. For someone to emulate what I’ve done, a good overall budget would be about $2000 CAD, $1500 USD. But remember you also eliminate the safety shaft and the associated machining to the crank, long studs and prop hub from a standard set-up, which is a good $500 USD.

Wayne Burtney

This photo shows the stock Corvair case split, with 1/2 of the new bearing housing bolted in place. Notice that the new bearing support in the thrust bearing housing is identical to what’s in the stock Cor-vair case.


Photo: Patrick Panzera © 2003

SC Performance Roller Rockers

6160 mandrill bent aluminum

tubing

Custom machining to remove stock

carb base

ARP 12pt nuts w/ special

washers

William Wynne dual points plate

William Wynne remanufactured distributor w/ custom re-curve

Small block Ford dipstick (chromed)

Titanium valve retainers

Chromemoly valve springs

Blue Max Spiral wound 9mm plug wires

Ford Probe 2.2L starter and ring gear

Aftermarket minum VWfiller extens


Performance

Horsepower 100 @ 3,150 rpm 120 @ 3,200

HP (Continuous) 90 @ 3,000 rpm 110 @ 3,000

Torque 160 ft./lbs. @ 2,800 200 ft./lbs. @ 2,800

Fuel 93 Octane Auto Gas 93 Octane Auto Gas

Fuel Flow 5.6 GPH @ 75% 7.0 GPH @ 75%

Engine Model O-164 O-190

alu-W oil

sion

Chevy Sprint 60a alternator w/ custom aluminum over-sized pulley

William Wynne prop hub assembly

Custom CNC aluminum top cover Custom cast valve covers Stainless steel valves Forged pistons Custom billet aluminum pushrod tubes Ported intake and exhaust

Engine Model O-164 O-190

Number of Cylin- Six Six

Cooling Air Air

Displacement 164cid (2,700cc) 190cid (3,100cc)

Bore 3.43 in. (87mm) 94mm

Stroke 2.94 in. (75mm) 75mm

Compression Ratio 9:1 9:1

Oil Capacity 4.5 - 7.0 quarts 4.5 - 7.0 quarts

All Up Weight Wet, with Electric Start

Approximately 220-225 lbs.

Approximately 212-217 lbs.

Length Approx. 28 in. Approx. 28 in.

Width 28.5 in. 28.5 in.

Specifications

Many of the highlighted details are specific to this particular en-gine, and are not required for a standard Corvair conversion. See “Switch on! (page 28) For more info on this engine.


Story and Photos by John P Moyle, Associate Editor Del didn’t set out to be a rebel, or a pioneer, but when the desire to build and fly his own aircraft struck, it seems his natural curiosity led him towards those ulti-mate labels. Del Magsam lives in New Richmond, a small town in western Wisconsin, not far from Minneap-olis-St. Paul. About five years ago he began to realize his life long dream of building his own aircraft, and he chose the Pietenpol Air Camper as his project. That choice naturally led him to the Corvair auto engine con-version, so popular with the Piet crowd. Del found anoth-er experimenter in Washington State with a Corvair en-gine already disassembled and cleaned up, but not yet

built. The west coast fellow sold his box of engine parts to Del, who was happy to be spared the effort of locating a satisfactory core motor. Using the William Wynne Con-version Manual as his guide, he built a standard 2700 c.c. aircraft conversion, with the intention of mounting it to his Pietenpol when he finished it. Another opportunity presented itself to Del, when one of the first five Sonex air-frames (to be completed) was of-fered for sale by the man who had nearly completed it. With only the firewall forward and canopy left to finish, it appeared to be a golden opportunity. Mr. Magsam felt pretty confident that his Corvair conversion could be made to fit, and would closely approximate the weight of the six cylinder Jabiru 3300 engine, which Sonex, Ltd. promotes as one of its factory approved power sources. WEIGHT REDUCTION To get the Corvair into light weight trim, Del had to try many tactics in the effort to bring the Chevy engine down to the 200 pound (installed) limit imposed by the design-ers, Pete Buck (August Raspet Award winner) and Homebuilt Hall of Fame member John Monnett. Neither of these gentleman wish to see Sonex builders installing engines other than the Aero Vee 2180, the Jabiru 2200, or the Jabiru 3300, since these are the engines which have been installed and flown by the factory and the only ones that they can support with experience. They also are aware that their target market is the diverse group of persons known as “Experimenters”, and that the likeli-hood that someone would take it upon themselves to try another engine installation was nearly certain. This is a difficult area for the designers, because while they main-tain a hope that they’ve offered enough power plant choices to satisfy the customer base, and thereby be able to provide support for every installation, this isn’t the case. The Corvair is believed by them to be too heavy for the Sonex, and it is, unless extraordinary steps are taken to lighten it. Del milled off the standard cast aluminum intake runners and replaced them with thin wall aluminum tubing, which is fed from the rear. The stock “log” is fed from the

Del Magsam’s Sonex debuted in

CONTACT! Magazine in issue #73, page

21, under the heading “Engine

Controversy?”

Del was able to get the Corvair engine to fit in the stock Sonex cowl. Even though the Corvair is larger in length, number of cylinders, and has more cubic inches (cc’s if you prefer), it is narrower than the VW, and can be made to fit better in some instances. The cowl cheeks in the photo above could be trimmed down or removed completely if the builder wished to take the time. One such Corvair/Sonex builder in FL started with a clean piece of paper, and designed a cowl to fit the Corvair engine, with the front starter, and with a spinner large enough to cover the Warp Drive prop hub.


middle, which necessitates an extra length of manifold tubing to reach it. Del also manufactured both a flat alu-minum top cover, to replace the cast aluminum factory blower housing, and a stamped aluminum oil pan, re-placing the stock steel unit. These mods are just a sam-ple of the dozens of weight saving tricks Del implement-ed in his plan to put the Corvair on a diet. FITTING IT IN The Sonex has an uncommonly low upper cowl line which presents a difficult challenge for the mounting of the starter motor. There appears to be no place to install the starter without destroying the factory supplied fiber-glass cowling. Bear in mind that since the Corvair engine has a high thrust line, it would fit fine once the starter location was worked out. Del determined that the 30º aft slant of the Sonex firewall provided an opportunity by leaving a significant unused space below and to the rear of the engine. Del had to design and machine some special bracketry and hardware which would allow the starter to be placed in the cantilever position. This did not necessarily add weight, as any starter location would require bracketry. Some light trimming of the rear engine case was needed to bring the new starter mount up close to the unusually compact 8.5” diameter ring gear, which Del found would just fit between the existing case studs. The ring gear is from a Ski-Doo (Rotax) engine, and tests have shown that it does, in fact, provide adequate cranking leverage, when mated to a Subaru starter, whether the engine is hot or cold. The starter motor is the geared Subaru unit, which is intended for the 1984-89 manual transmission car. This is the same unit used for the front drive starter seen in William Wynne’s conversion manual, which is set up to crank the engine in the correct counter clockwise direc-tion when the bendix is facing forward.

WEIGHT AND BALANCE There is room for the battery to be mounted in the stock location on the lower right firewall, but in this application it has been moved back behind the passenger compart-ment for weight and balance purposes. This placement also permits servicing the battery without having to re-move the cowl. Not much else was needed to get the plane within the specified limits. ENGINE MOUNT

In addition to pioneering the use of the Corvair en-gine in the Sonex, Del has had other successes with other items which are “experimental” to the Corvair conversion, such as the Aero carb and the Electro-motive electronic ignition.

Del did such a terrific job, it’s hard to tell that he milled off the stock cast intake runners, and in their place, welded a thin-walled aluminum tube system.


The most special adaptation of the “Outlaw Sonex” engine conversion is the ability to mate with the standard factory engine mount, which is in-tended to support an Aero Vee 2180. Del accomplished this feat by adding some custom hardware to the upper engine case cover and a pair of lower hard points. Now he has a Corvair that will bolt right up a typical VW engine mount while re-taining the proper prop hub location and cowl fit of most designs intend-ed to feature a Volkswagen four cyl-inder engine conversion. The fact that a Corvair conversion with 20% (or more) additional power can be built for less money than the high performance 75 or 80 horsepower VW conversion kits makes the Corvair an attractive op-tion. Numerous other designs which recommend the use of VW aircraft conversions may be able to benefit from Magsam’s engineering, although many will need to employ the more common top mount starter location. APPLES AND ORANGES With regards to comparing a ‘Vair to a ‘Vee, lets take a moment to be fair; we are comparing apples to oranges in many ways. There is a solid market place for VW parts in which every individual component may be pur-chased brand new. Many of these pieces are actually vastly improved from the factory original parts, and out-fits like Revmaster, Great Plains, and Aero Conversions offer comprehensive, all inclusive, ready to assemble kits. There is a significant comfort zone offered by these companies who sell a well developed engine package with a lot of experience behind their product.

The experimenter who has chosen to convert a Corvair for flight has more work on his hands. He will have to locate a good core engine for his project, and while this is only a minor challenge, it requires more effort than simply calling a supply house for a nice clean, spanking new engine case, crankshaft, cylinders or heads, none of which are available for the Corvair except as recy-cled, rebuildable cores, from engines GM manufactured in the 1960’s. You will be able to find sources for virtual-ly every other part though, either new or remanufac-tured. See the article elsewhere in this issue regarding the many suppliers of components for your Corvair con-version. On the plus side, the parts which there are no new replacement pieces for are top notch. Unlike the VW, the Corvair case is aluminum, not magnesium. The ‘'Vair crank is forged, not cast iron. The same for the stock Corvair connecting rods, which are forged, not cast. So although there may not be as many new parts for the ‘'Vair as there are for the VW, there is little to improve upon. BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD Del’s engine conversion was not without issues. Del experienced a problem with his engine, not one typical to the conversion, just an improperly set up oil pump which provided less than adequate oil pressure and re-sulted in bearing damage. The engine was disassem-bled and the bearings replaced, along with having the crankshaft reground. A new oil pump was installed, and all is well once again. Flight testing of Del’s Sonex has resumed and he is very pleased with the results so far. Del intends to market each of his innovative specialty parts to other builders when he is satisfied with the du-rability factor. So, from this single source we will be able to purchase engine mount adapter parts, the special low/aft starter set up, light weight oil pan and top covers. He also has some other clever ideas which may lead to additional offerings in the future.

John P Moyle

This photo shows some of the experimental features Del has incorporated. You can see the engine mount adapter block, remote oil cooler, custom exhaust clamps, and a bit of the Aero Carb.


Story and photos by Fletcher Burns My name is Fletcher Burns. I grew up in Fresno CA. Af-ter graduating High School in 1975, I got into hang glid-ing in the Pismo Beach area. I built several VW based dune buggies, with my older brother Forrest, to haul the hang glider up to the top of the dunes. That is when I started to get interested in the Corvair engine. You could hear the Corvair powered dune buggies going down the beach, they had a sound all their own. All the rich guys had Corvairs, I was stuck with 40 hp VW engines. I final-ly bought a 145 cu in Corvair engine from a wrecking yard and rebuilt it. I never installed it in a dune buggy, but I did run it on the garage floor with open exhaust just to hear the sound. While I was hang gliding I also took flying lessons and got my pilot’s license in 1977. I started dreaming of building my own airplane. I read a lot of books and articles on the subject and realized I didn’t have enough knowledge, so, I went to see an Air Force recruiter and read the descriptions of all the possible career fields I could choose from. I chose aircraft sheet metal mechanic because I thought I already knew enough about VW engines from my dune buggies. I joined the USAF in 1978 and went to basic training in Texas, then tech. school in Illinois, where I soaked in all I could about aircraft construction. I was all set to get to my first duty station and start building something, but the Air Force in their infinite wisdom sent me to Germany for 3 years working on F-4 Phantoms. While I was in Ger-many I rebuilt a lot of VW engines for myself and other G.I.s. I also decided to build a Sonerai IIL when I got back to the states.

I was transferred to Andrews AFB MD in 1981 working on CH-3E and UH-1N helicopters and had my Sonerai done by 1984. I flew it for about 12 years, learning all the limitations of the VW engine. I kept remembering how much I liked the construction of the Corvair engine from my dune buggy days, and bought William Wynne’s man-ual on converting the Corvair engine for aircraft use. Marriage and kids came along and another transfer to Edwards AFB back to my home state of CA. I was in hog heaven at Edwards! I bought a Quicksilver MX with a friend of mine and actually flew it out of my backyard in a town just north of the base. My friend had a Quickie and asked me if I’d build him a ½ VW engine for it with a set of plans he had from Morry Hummel. I built the en-gine for him but he sold the plane before he flew it. The engine ran nice, but shuffled a little mid range, and we never quite got it to quit leaking oil. I also built a “William Wynne’” engine while at Edwards, and that’s when the idea of a 2 cylinder Corvair engine popped in my head. THE PLANNING As usual, I started reading what I could find about it, and all I could find was that it couldn’t be done. The problems were you would loose the oil pump, pressure relief valve, distributor, and thrust bearing. It was also believed that

the case was too thin to bolt a back cover on. For several years I would think and sketch possible solu-tions to the problems. One solution would usually cause 2 or 3 other problems, but one by one they all eventually went away. There was usually more than one solu-tion to a problem, so I would pick the light-est way or the sim-plest way. I would have parts laying on towels in the living room for weeks at a time, glancing at them until an idea would pop in my

head. My wife tolerated it OK. I figured out where the best place was to cut the block and a way to get 8 screws in the back of the engine to secure the back cov-er, then a way to bolt a VW oil pump to the back cover and get it plumbed into the main oil galleys. ACCESSORIES The oil pump would be driven off a slot milled into the cut off end of the camshaft. The pump turns the opposite

Fletcher’s 2 cylinder engine, made from 1/3 of a 6 cylinder Corvair.


direction from the VW because it is now turned around behind the engine, but the pump doesn’t care, the inlet is now the outlet and vice versa. I used the Corvair pres-sure relief valve and incorporated it into an oil pump cov-er. It bypasses extra pressure back to the suction side of the pump just like the Corvair did. The VW just blows the extra pressure out a hole back into the sump. I think that uses more power. I used a 2 cylinder magneto off a Wisconsin engine in-stead of a distributor, coil and battery. I moved the stock Corvair thrust bearing from the old rear of the engine to the new rear of the engine. The heads were simple, GM put a slot between cylinders in the fins that was in the perfect place to cut. Since the bore spacing on the Cor-vair is wider than the VW there is a complete set of fins on the back of the cut heads. A simple welded in alumi-num plate completed the rocker box area and the valve covers were cut, shortened and bolted on. No modifica-tion was needed for the rockers arms themselves. Both heads are made from just one Corvair head. PLANE & PARTNERS I just solved the problems one at a time until there were no more excuses. I retired from the Air Force in 1999 and took a job at Rockwell Collins in Cedar Rapids, IA as an Aircraft Mechanic and Machinist. After getting to know the new people I was working with, I found 3 guys that wanted to build an ultralight. We decided to build it to-gether to save time and money, (HAH!) and agreed on a Legal Eagle after a trip to Oshkosh. The Legal Eagle was designed around the ½ VW engine and since I’d built one before, I was elected to build our engine. I started gathering VW parts, I cut the case, welded the heads and so forth. As I started working with the VW parts again, I started remem-bering what I thought were it’s limitations. I also remembered how much I liked the way the Corvair engine was designed, the case through bolt, hydrau-lic valves, wider bore spacing, deeper fins on the heads, lighter con-necting rods and pistons for less reciprocating mass, the removable top cover, downward facing exhaust ports, canted valves, and its smaller size for the same dis-placement. I took my sketches to work one day and at lunch time I asked my partners if they trusted me to build a better engine. I sketched it all up for them on dry erase board and they were sold. As I started making the parts for the UltraVair engine, we would weigh them one by one comparing them to the

VW parts. Most of the parts were lighter than the VW parts, but the heads and cylinders were heavier. It all added up about 5 to 8 pounds lighter. The Corvair parts that are heavier are the heads and the cylinders. This is a good thing in my opinion, all the inter-nal rotating and reciprocating parts are lighter requiring less counterweight, making it run smoother, and the ex-ternal finned parts are heavier and denser for better heat dissipation. I also think that the lighter internal parts in-crease power because with each power pulse more of the energy is turned into torque instead of just accelerat-

ing heavier internal parts. The four of us who were building the Legal Eagle weren’t getting very far because of family respon-sibilities and usually hav-ing four different ways of wanting to do things. We had the engine ready to run in March 2003 and we bolted it to a test stand and fired it up. We were immediately satisfied with how smooth it ran, but just like the ½ VW engine I built, it was plagued with oil leaks from crankcase pressure. We tried a PCV valve mounted in a plate

that blocked off half of an unused cylinder hole and that seemed to solve the oil leaks by letting the crankcase pressure out as the pistons were moving down, then cre-ating a partial vacuum in the crankcase as the pistons moved back up.

This view, looking from under the engine at the rear of the engine, shows the magneto location and the oil system (remote oil filter and oil cooler).

The highly modified crank includes the addition of huge counterweights, in addition to some serious shortening.


We were anxious to fly the engine after we had about 15 hours of ground run time on it. We weren’t making any progress on our Legal Eagle, so we bought a MiniMax that needed new fabric and had a recovering party. We bolted the UltraVair engine on the MiniMax and took it out to an uncontrolled airport for flight testing. We were having a good time until one flight down the runway when it seemed like every gasket in the engine blew. There was oil everywhere. I got the MiniMax back on the ground and we found out the PCV valve stuck closed. After smacking it we got it to work again, but we knew we needed a better solution.

I took the plate off that blocked off the unused cylinder hole and made a plate with a bunch of little holes in it to act as a baffle. Then I welded an oil filler tube over the little holes with the Corvair oil fill cap on the end. (See photo above.) We put a copper pot-scrubbing pad in the oil fill tube to act as an air/oil separator and a vent tube at the top. All of our oil problems were solved with no moving parts to fail. We were happy, but Osh-kosh 2003 was right around the corner. We wondered if anyone else would be interested in our engine so we took the MiniMax to Oshkosh and parked it in the Ul-tralight area. OSHKOSH 2003 None of the engine was actually down on paper yet because we didn’t know if there would be any inter-est. We were absolutely amazed by the response we got at Oshkosh. We couldn’t get away from it, there were usually a dozen or more people standing around it asking every conceivable question. The first day the questions all started out “what kind of VW engine is that”? But after a few days word spread like wildfire and the crowd got bigger. If we walked away from it to get something to eat, we’d come back and find a new crowd

of people standing around it with someone who was there yesterday telling the crowd all about it. We also liked all the people that would smack their forehead with the palm of their hand and say “why didn’t I think of that”! The little engine was studied, examined and photo-graphed to death. We took it out to the Ultralight runway one afternoon and ran it up for everyone to hear and let some of the ½ VW guys hold it back to feel the thrust. We did a static rpm comparison with the same pitch and diameter prop as on the VW engines and came up with an estimated 35 hp. We were very happy with the power because it was all with stock parts. No boring out head

and crankcases weaken-ing things and most of what you need is in the engine already. Every-one was asking if we had plans on how to do it. Some people wanted to give us money and their address so we would send them the plans when we developed them. When we got back from

Oshkosh we started producing the manual. I would have rather built 10 more engines than take what was in my head and write it down in a manual in a way that I was comfortable other people could duplicate what we had done. We got it completed and started selling the manu-als in late October. You can learn more about our en-gine, and order our manual by visiting our website at www.ultravair.com or call us at (319)981-6761.

Fletcher Burns

Although it’s difficult to see, this shows the slot cut in the cut off end of the cam, which drives the oil pump.


One of the frequently asked questions we Corvair builders get from the average person is, “Can you still get parts for these engines?” This article at-tempts to answer that question. There are a number of Corvair supply houses in North America, and while the primary thrust of their business is aimed at automobile enthusiasts, they don’t have an objection to selling engine components to the aero con-version crowd. Some of the other auto power conversion parts retailers have a fear of any connection to aviation. Their concern about the perceived threat of potential lia-bility exposure seems unjustified in many ways, since they are surely just selling auto parts. It is we the build-ers who are choosing the application in which we ulti-mately use them. The list below, in no particular order, includes the major sources of parts for Corvair engine rebuilding and some suppliers of specialty conversion components. Although not listed, many Corvair engine parts can be purchased at your local auto parts store, some might need to be special ordered and could set you back a day or two. CLARK’S CORVAIR PARTS, INC. Clark’s Corvair Parts grew from a hobby into the oldest and largest Corvair supply house on the planet. Begun in 1973 by Cal Clark and his wife Joan, they now offer more than 14,000 part numbers available for sale from their 600 page catalog. Besides selling new and recondi-tioned parts, they also buy parts for resale. The catalog alone is an education in Corvair history, and includes nearly two thousand photos and diagrams. No enthusiast should be without this book, and at only $6.00, there is no excuse not to include one in your resource library. One of the features offered in the Clark’s catalog is their customized engine rebuild kit. The purchaser simply fills out a form, and Clarks’ experienced in house profession-als will put together an order sheet with everything they know the customer needs to successfully complete the job. This is sent for approval or modification, and then the parts are shipped. Discounts are allowed on orders over $500, beginning at 3% and on a sliding scale up to 7% for orders exceeding $2000. Located in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts, you may contact Clarks Corvairs On the Internet at www.corvair.com or by telephone at (413) 625-9776 CORVAIR UNDERGROUND Lon and Linda Wall have been operating the West Coast’s largest Corvair supply business for twenty nine years. The Corvair Book, their publication providing links

to six thousand products for the venerable Chevy com-pact, has been a favorite of the Corvair crowd for a long time. Another $6.00 well spent!! This company offers engine rebuild kits in either the all inclusive package, or, if you don’t require any of the machine shop services, a parts only package for those customers who have a local shop they’d trust to handle the crankshaft grinding, etc. Individual components are also available, of course. The full range of piston styles are offered, including the forged aluminum units recommended for aircraft conver-sions. Corvair Underground will extend to you competi-tive prices. Discounts are offered for purchases exceed-ing a certain dollar amount. Lon has been a regular con-tributor to the CorvAIRCRAFT e-mail list. Lon has shown interest in what we are trying to accomplish, and we do appreciate his support. Based in Dundee, Oregon, check their web site at: www.corvairunderground.com LARRY’S CORVAIR PARTS A full service Corvair automobile specialty shop located in Gardena, CA, Larry Shapiro and his staff provides en-gine rebuilding services, as well as an on-line parts cata-log, complete with color photographs. He has several lines of high performance parts that are worth considera-tion. This company is routinely found on eBay auctioning TRW forged aluminum pistons at impossible to beat “buy it now” prices. Prices in general are quite competitive. Visit Larry’s catalog at: www.larryscorvair.com AMERICAN PI Ray Sedman (also an active member of the CorvAIR-CRAFT e-mail list) describes himself as a hobbyist, but through twenty years of Corvair automotive hot rod rac-ing he has developed a small business which does exot-ic cylinder head work to optimize higher compression ratios using a “high squish chamber design” which still permits the use of lower octane fuel. He offers many oth-er machine services, including “big bore” case and head machining, but cautions that he accepts new work on a time available basis only. Ray has the ability to re-bore cylinders in a torque plate clamp which is said to produce a very round and dimensionally stable cylinder. There is a web site describing all of Mr. Sedman’s services and products which you may see at: www.american-pi.com S.C. PERFORMANCE Jeff Ballard took over the daily operation of this company from Corvair guru Bob Sutcliffe when master machinist Bob finally retired. Jeff has found himself overwhelmed with work, much of it from the aviation community. The popularity of the “Big Boy” 3100 c.c. conversion for use in light sport aircraft is likely to keep him well occupied for the foreseeable future. See Mark Langford’s article elsewhere in this issue for more on Mr. Ballard. The re-ported lag time is “several months”, so plan accordingly. Contact Jeff via e-mail at [email protected] or visit his website at www.sc-performance.com where his complete price list for parts and services is posted.

John P Moyle

By John P Moyle Associate Editor


Story and Photos by Mike Sharkey Christavia Mk 1 # 698 www.sharkey.servebeer.com/~michael I live in Ontario, Canada. Many of the interesting places to fly here are not accessible by any other means than by bush plane. I intend to build and fly a small bush plane, a Christavia Mk 1. My plane will be powered by a Corvair automotive engine converted for aircraft use. THE BEGINNING The Christavia Mk 1 is a tandem, two place, high wing, rag-and-tube design, with a maximum gross weight of 1500 LBS. The aircraft is designed to fly reasonably well on quite modest power. I will be flying almost exclusively on floats and skis from small, remote lakes and water-ways which tend to push my requirements toward the upper end of the power spectrum. I was initially attracted to the simplicity of the direct drive Corvair concept pio-neered by William Wynne. Direct drive Corvair is thought to produce right around 100 HP. The designer of the aircraft, Ron Mason suggests that the upper end of the horsepower spectrum for the airframe is around 150HP. I wanted to get closer to that end of the spectrum in order to be able to turn a bigger prop for my more demanding requirements.

I began looking into the so called "Rinker Box" that has become sort of the de-facto standard PSRU used on the Corvair. The "Rinker Box" is fashioned from some VW gearbox parts, and some hand made parts. I considered building the Rinker box for quite a while. One of several problems I saw with the Rinker box was that it has no provision for any flywheel mass on the engine side of the gear box. The only flywheel is the propeller on the output side of the gearbox. This is why the Rinker Box has a characteristic "chatter" at certain speeds and under cer-tain load conditions. What you're hearing is the lash in the gears as the motor tries to rotate out of sync with the flywheel (propeller) mass. THE PRSU I almost abandoned the idea of using the Corvair engine, but then I remembered seeing a neat PSRU setup on a VW engine and I thought it might work well on the Cor-vair. I found the manufacturer of that PSRU, Ron Slender of VW Engine Centre in Australia. I spoke with him about adapting his PSRU to the Corvair. He was thrilled with the idea. First of all, Ron's concept is more than just a PSRU, his concept is to provide a whole bolt-on "package" that in-cludes the housings, gears, prop hub, flywheel, damp-ener (cush drive), and starter. Production units will also

include a flat top cover for the Corvair engine to re-place what would normally be the blower bearing style of top cover. The PSRU gear ratio is 1.6:1, so when the gearbox is driven by the Corvair, the package should yield performance numbers close to what you see on the graph. From the graph, we can see that running the engine at 4000 RPM should yield something in the neighbor-hood of 125 to 130 HP @ 2500 propeller RPM; A sig-nificant gain over the direct drive Corvair’s rating at 100 HP. The Corvair’s redline is 5500 RPM


WEIGHT Here is how everything weighs in:

It seems like a lot of “extra” weight at first when com-pared to a direct drive Corvair. Don't jump to conclusions too quickly. If we are to accurately compare the weight difference with a direct drive Corvair, then If you were planning an electric start anyway, you can subtract the weight of the starter (3.9KG or 8.598 LBS). You also need to subtract the weight of the direct drive style front cover, prop hub, safety shaft, spacer (puck), and any other starter related hardware such as brackets, flexplate and so on. This all brings the true additional weight down to somewhere in the area of 35 LBS. The following are some comments that I solicited from Ron Slender of VW Engine Centre Australia, the machin-ist responsible for all the outstanding work. THE VW ENGINE CENTRE By Ron Slender Some time ago I was asked to develop a twin cylinder 100 hp engine for aircraft use by an aircraft manufactur-er. At that particular time I was involved in a V Twin de-velopment and I thought that it would have been possible to utilize some manufactured components to create a horizontal twin out of those components. I guess you could say that this manufacturer planted the seed of in-terest in an aviation engine requirement. THE BASIS I found that there were few engines available which could deliver 100 horsepower at direct drive revolutions which are compatible with aircraft propellers. Manufac-turing an engine from scratch, for whatever purpose, is highly expensive. As I gathered information from pilots and aviation enthusiasts alike, I began to look for alterna-tive engines. I had looked seriously at the Corvair as the novelty of a 6 cylinder is a customer attraction, but they are like hens’ teeth here in Australia, rather rare. In my quest to find a suitable engine base to work from, I was referred to Gary Wyatt, whose knowledge of the VW engine is as fascinating as it is extensive. We hit it off well on our first meeting. Rather than work with the VW “Beetle” which was a 1200 to 1600 cc magnesium case, Gary's extensive experience suggested the Type 4 en-gine on which to base development. The Type 4 with the

larger bore and larger bore spacing allowed me to in-crease the bore to 98.4. mm and while maintaining a good liner thickness. PISTONS AND CYLINDERS I am a very strong believer in ceramic coatings. Coating the piston crowns minimizes the transfer of heat to the oil at the underside of the piston, which is the hottest point of any engine. Keeping heat out of the engine is im-portant and certainly our engine oil runs a lot cooler due to the ceramic coating.

EMMISSIONS The technical direction in controlling emissions, not from necessarily the “green global effect” but from the view that with better combustion efficiency, fuel is not wasted, the engine becomes more economical and produces more torque. Naturally this attitude automatically assists the green effect on our earth.

Gear Drive 8.4 KG 18.5 LBS

Adapter Plates 3.7 KG 8.2 LBS

Gear Cover Plate 1.0 KG 2.2 LBS

Flywheel 2.8 KG 6.2 LBS

Starter Motor 3.9 KG 8.6 LBS

Top Plate 1.0 KG 2.2 LBS

TOTAL WEIGHT 20.8 KG 45.76 LBS

The VW Engine Centre produces steel sleeved alumi-num finned cylinders for the VW engine, which can be used on the Corvair. VW pistons are the basis for the “Big Boy” engine conversion, written about on pages 7-9 in this issue. Mike is using these in his .030 over 164 cubic inch engine.


THE FIRST RG 2000 Gary and I built our initial engine to establish a basic de-sign concept with respect to the billet alloy cylinders, pis-ton crown coatings, alternator, head modifications includ-ing modification of the spark plug angle, reduced to 10 mm and the extensive use of higher quality components such as stainless valves and chromemoly retainers. Cam selection was based on a torque selection rather than hp because increasing the valves to 42 mm inlet and 36 exhaust, twin carbs and allowing the engine to rev to 4,200 should be sufficient to produce 100 hp, as in stock trim the engine was rated at 85 hp. Our first engine was direct drive, revved to 3,000 RPM and spun a 56 X 44 inch prop. Certainly not 100 hp but releas-ing the RG 2000 introduced an engine conversion with a new look to the market. In April the following year, Gary and I released the RG 2000 Gear Drive which really set us up for orders. The same RG 2000 engine with the direct drive unit removed, fitted with the RG PSRU and with a 68 X 56 prop (with a 5 inch chord) spun at the same revs….. easily. We knew then we had a tiger by the tail and just had to let the world know. We have the power, the torque, the looks and the price. THE PRSU Gary and I unanimously agreed that to in order to produce a 100 hp direct drive from a 2 liter engine, it has to rev higher than a reasonable prop diameter would allow on tip speeds. Se-lecting a tip speed of around 680 ft per second the 1.6:1 ratio was most attractive toward pro-peller efficiency. Our PSRU is billet alloy 6061 heat treated to T6. The thrust forces are taken by a double row 20 degree angular contact ball race. These bearings are suitable for both radial and axial loads in any direction making them suitable for both tractor and pusher types of aircraft. The shaft being made from 4340 high strength steel is suit-able for this application. VW gears have been known to handle up to 180 hp in drag

cars. RG helical cut gears are of a similar angle and di-mension but are 25% wider. Maybe not necessary, but in delivering 100 HP, appear to be more than adequate. We also used an angular bearing for the lower shaft to ensure that thrust loads acquired from the helix angle

were kept in check as well. HARMONICS Harmonics can be produced from running gears and pulsing of a 4 stroke 4 cylinder engine was also on my mind, although “flattened out by the gear ef-fect”. The design restrictions and the room available to de-velop a cush drive system and one that could be easily de-tached from the gear box cer-tainly increased my love of Jim Beam. It’s amazing what you can glean from a bottle of that stuff.

Yes we were able to achieve all design requirements by having a radial cush drive of 6 compression units with a splined centre attached to the flywheel taking up only about 35 mm of space and not weighing very much. THEN ALONG COMES THE CORVAIR Utilizing the extensive development of the RG PSRU has led us back to the Corvair by way of Michael Sharkey, who asked me to adapt our unit to the Corvair, because it is a total concept rather than just a PSRU. In this day

The radial cush drive, with a splined centre at-tached to the flywheel, takes up about 35 mm of space with out adding much weight.

The original RG 2000 VW Type IV engine with the RG PRSU


and age, the cost of development is largely prohibitive in many ways for engineering firms, but we view our devel-opment programs as not to just the item itself, but to-wards the ongoing production requirement and the per-sons we are involved during development. Michael accepted an arrangement and the development has gone ahead. Compounding toward the complexity of the situation and another identity wanting me to look at a development down the other end of the engine, it soon became apparent that from one Corvair engine casting to another, there were considerable variations with respect to tolerance. Not really a problem if you have ALL of the engine in front of you but with the view to supply a bolt-on unit, this was another thing to overcome. In our opinion, the Corvair engine has a lot to offer as an aircraft powerplant and even more to offer when geared, because when geared, the torque of the engine is multi-plied, and for a more suitable RPM for larger propellers is gained as a net result. Engine power over a wider range of RPM is increased and is also spread evenly over a wider power band with the max torque range rpm hardly effected. Our PSRU, as you might say, “completes” the front part of a Corvair, to change it to a more traditional aircraft application, and is an alternative to the drive issues, (flywheel and starter motor arrange-ment) and does so in a very neat package, while remov-ing prop loads from the otherwise stock crank. FUTURE CORVAIR PRODUCTS On the other end of the engine, I would like to see our 28 amp alternator, in order to save weight, and place a more attractive compact unit on this end of the engine. Our alloy cylinder conversion would also save weight and provide better cooling. The cost? We’re not sure yet, but when you look at the overall position of 110 hp 6 cylinder geared air cooled engines, there are very few, in fact none that I can think of right off. The performance and reconditioning and on-going maintenance factor must be highly attractive over a certified engine and most certainly the components

would be more affordable. Sometimes the passion and love of the engine is worth the extra, or even the familiar-ity with the Corvair which an enthusiast can involve him-self. Practicality and affordability is always a business position to establish. My view with the Corvair is that our PSRU unit, alternator modification and lightweight alloy barrels will certainly go a long way into making this engine a highly attractive alternative toward experimental and Sport Aircraft in the US. The Corvair is a US icon in our opinion and there are a lot of passionate lovers of this engine. For that reason, our development with this en-gine will sustain us with a higher degree of credibility which will assist us to achieve a higher sales attitude. Our business is sustained around the world on our own abilities to produce customer related products that can possibly lead to a higher production of the component. All development is established by me and we have the option to let the contract out to CNC operations or contin-ue with low volume production until we reach a point where CNC is necessary to sustain production. An ex-ample is that our gearboxes are already 70% CNC . The balance is low volume production. THE “TYPHOON” AIRCRAFT We found that to establish these conversions as an air-craft engine, we really needed an aircraft which would really benefit from these engines. We found that there wasn’t the “perfect” application, and so we developed the Typhoon; a low wing, all alloy, 2 place side-by-side, 544 kg aircraft, with which we could offer an engine package that would be highly attractive world wide. You can read more about it in a future CONTACT! issue.

Ron Slender, VW Engine Centre www.vw-engines.com

This photo shown the “adapter plate” bolted to the bare Corvair case.


not ready to disclose all the details yet, (I’d like to prove it in the air before I do) a few of the modifications include some serious work to lighten the case, heads and cylin-ders. I also made use of light weight readably available materials and parts, which all work together to make it perhaps one of the lightest Corvair conversions out there. Even though the all up engine weight comes in under the all up weight of an 0-200, the Corvair is still heavier than the little VW engine its replacing in my project. And even though there shouldn’t be any real W&B nor structural issues associated with putting the heavier Corvair engine in where the VW was designed to live, I still want to re-spect the designer’s limit on gross weight. Any surplus dead weight in the engine compartment will take away from my already diminishing useful load. One that seems to work well is the rear starter/alternator set-up I developed. Although my actual system has not run, a friend of mine copied it (in steel instead of alumi-num) for his project. He had an incident with his plane, and scrapped it. I now have his engine in my possession, on a test stand, and the starter never misses a beat, and the alternator keeps the battery topped off.

Although I’ve not worked on it for over a year, I’ve started back on it pretty hard recently. I have several things to do to the plane other than the engine. I’d like to paint it inside and out, and possibly rework the way the canopy opens. I hope to fly the plane to Copperstate 2004.

Speaking of fly-ins, in last issue’s Switch On!, I briefly mentioned the first annual “Alternative Engine Round-Up” . This will be our first attempt to bring together those of us who are interested in installing and flying alterna-tive engines in experimental aircraft. It’ll be a one day event, with engine forums all day long. The event will be free to attend and very informal. Don’t expect tents, ven-dor booths, food vendors or rows of porta-potties. We’ll be set up in a very large, empty hangar, with a table and an PA system at one end, and places for chairs through-out. For more information you can call me, or if you have internet access, you can e-mail me or simply visit: www.ContactMagazine.com/RoundUp.html And speaking of Copperstate, the 2003 event was really something. It was like fly-ins used to be. Not overly com-mercial, and inexpensive to attend. Even the food was as affordable, as it was good. The people who run the event are some of the best I’ve ever met. Many of them went out of their way to see that I had all I needed to run the engine forum tent. Out on the flight line I found 2 very interesting planes. I met with the owners of these planes and conducted an interview with each of them. Both of these planes will be featured in the next issue of CONTACT! Magazine (issue #76). In the exhibitor area, I found a very interesting air-plane which was under construction, but completed to the point where I know you’ll enjoy reading about it. Look for that article in issue #76 as well. I would also like to thank Bruce Frank, Art Beer, John Harlow, Paul Lipps, Tracy Crook, John Moyle and Vance Jaqua for volun-teering to present their forum. If you have the opportuni-ty, please consider joining us at Copperstate 2004. I’ll be hosting the engine forum tent again. If you’d like to be a presenter, let me know. Copperstate 2004, Oct 7-10. www.copperstate.org

Pat Panzera

In the automobile, the starter drives the flywheel. In aircraft trim, the flywheel end of the engine drives the propeller. William Wynne provides a kit to place the starter up front. I wanted my starter in the rear, so I developed this system. The starter and flex plate are from a Ford Probe 2.2L with automatic transmis-sion. For the alternator, I went to Pick-A-Part and opened many hoods to find the smallest alternator I could find. This unit came from a Chevy Sprint, but the same alternator is used on a Geo Tracker and a Suzuki Samurai.

I also designed and built my exhaust system. In this photo, I’ve placed the head on my workbench to use as a jig for welding up the tubes. I had the flanges laser cut from mild steel.

Switch on! Continued from page 28


MISSION Contact! magazine is published bi-monthly by Aeronautics Education Enterprises (AEE), an Arizona nonprofit corporation, established in 1990 to promote aeronautical education. Contact! pro-motes the experimental development, expansion and exchange of aeronautical concepts, infor-mation, and experience. In this corporate age of task specialization many individuals have chosen to seek fresh, unencumbered avenues in the pur-suit of improvements in aircraft and powerplants. In so doing, they have revitalized the progress of aeronautical design, particularly in the general aviation area. Flight efficiency improvements, in terms of operating costs as well as airframe drag, have come from these efforts. We fully expect that such individual efforts will continue and that they will provide additional incentives for the advance-ment of aeronautics.

EDITORIAL POLICY Contact! pages are open to the publication of these individual efforts. Views expressed are ex-clusively those of the individual authors. Experi-menters are encouraged to submit articles and photos of their work. Materials exclusive to Con-tact! are welcome but are returnable only if accom-panied by return postage. Every effort will be made to balance articles reporting on commercial developments. Commercial advertising is not ac-cepted. All rights with respect to reproduction, are reserved. Nothing whole or in part may be repro-duced without the permission of the publisher.

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Volume 13 Number 4 Nov - Dec 2003

Issue #75

I hope you enjoyed our special all Corvair issue. Although I could have easily put together several more articles, I didn’t want to burn everyone out on Corvairs. I’ll sprin-kle a few articles in here and there in future issues, but if you have some specific questions you’d like answered, feel free to e-mail me. But notice that this is the biggest CONTACT! issue to date, with 28 pages total! Just a bit of clarification; I myself am a Corvair nut. The photo in the “centerfold” is of the engine I built. It’s being installed in my Dragonfly MKII, which will be dedicated to CONTACT! Magazine as the maga-zine’s official experimental aircraft. I plan to use the plane for promo-tional trips, fly-ins, and to EAA chapter meetings, where I’ll be pre-senting the magazine, our charity, as well as the Corvair engine.

I got into Corvairs while building my Dragonfly. I was to the point of test hanging the 1835cc VW engine which came with

the partially completed project I purchased the previous year. My son’s best friend had just been giv-en a ‘65 Turbo Corsa, and after a month or so of resurrecting it from being parked for the preceding two decades, he was out in the street, in front of my house, laying down rubber. This got my attention right away! I measured his engine, then measured up my HAPI, and instant-ly removed the HAPI and mount, knowing that this was the engine for me.. Several years have passed, and although I’m using a different air-frame, I’m getting close to having my engine in the air, pulling my Dragonfly behind it The engine is a highly modified “early”, (pre 1964) which came stock with 145 cubic inches, and was rated at 102 HP. Although I’m

This photo shows my Corvair engine attached to the firewall of Dragonfly #935, built by the late Robert Roe in 1988. Bob sold it to Don Stewart, who sold it to me in March of 2001. Although the plane’s Special Airworthiness Certificate had been surrendered to the FAA, the plane was airworthy and has logged hundreds of flight hours. The plan back then was to fly this Dragonfly with the 1835cc VW engine it came with (while still building my original Dragonfly), but the modification bug got the best of me.

Classified ads– minimum $15 donation from subscribers. All ads must include a price. No commercial ads allowed. Ads will run for 3 consecutive issues or until sold. Must be renewed after the 3rd printing. CONTACT! Magazine reserves the right to refuse any ad.

FOR SALE: Miscellaneous parts. One of our supporters donated the contents of his garage. Listed below is a smat-tering of what we have available, and the value we declared for his donation. No reasonable offer will be refused. Please contact Pat Panzera with your questions or offer. CONTACT! Magazine, 559-584-3306 [email protected]

Subaru 2.0 engine, extra head REDUCED MORE $650 New Mazda A10 engine $600 Brock master brake cylinders Vari-Eze $308 Vari-Eze spinner SOLD! $150 Dragonfly project, no engine $1,500 Dragonfly project, no engine $5,000 Dragonfly project, ready to taxi $9,500

DONATE YOUR PLANE, PARTS OR PLANS: The first ever “for aviators by aviators” charity needs your support. Receive tax benefits for a charitable contribution, donating your plane or any of your surplus parts and/or materials. See page 22 of CON-TACT! issue #72 or visit ContactMagazine.com for information on our 501 (c)(3) charity. CONTACT! Magazine (559) 584-3306

Clean out your hangar and place an ad here for only $15.00

For Sale: Glasair 1 TD kit. Fairly complete, unstarted kit with extras. $4500.00 Located in

Hanford California. Please contact Pat Panzera with your questions or offer. CONTACT! Magazine,

559-584-3306 [email protected] 106

For Sale: Instruments- Falcon GH-002 3 1/8" Vacuum Atti-tude Gyro ACS 10-22955 $250 * Airborne 1J7-1/D9-18-1 Filter ACS $25 * 4" Venturi ACS 15050 $35 (has fiberglass streamlined housing) These units have about 300 hours total.* CONTACT! Magazine (559) 584-3306 [email protected] 103

ALTERNATIVE ENGINES VOLUME 3 The third in the series from Mick Myal is available only through CONTACT! Magazine. See the back inside cover wrap of this issue for ordering info or visit

www.ContactMagazine.com

Wanted: Tuned port fuel injection system for my Ford Windsor 351W (See CONTACT! issue 16) which would be fed by my McCulloch (Paxton) supercharger, with each cylin-der's injector adjustable and all mixture leanable. For Sale: Prince P-tip propeller with Gates 2.67:1 PSRU and Polychain Kevlar belts, Used 40+ hours on O'Neill Mag-num V8 “Pickup” with modified Ford 351W, with and without McCulloch (Paxton) supercharger, 260 to 380 HP. Spinner included. Engine not included. $800 For Sale: Torsional vib. damper, for Lyc O-320. $180 For Sale: Female molds for wingtips for NACA 4412 airfoil, 63" chord. $170. [email protected] Terrence O'Neill 103

ALTERNATIVE ENGINES VOLUME 2 Once again available! See the back inside cover wrap of this issue for ordering info or visit

www.ContactMagazine.com

For Sale: 3.8L Ford V6 with Blanton redrive, as pulled from an RV-6 shown on Youtube.com by searching for “V-6 air-plane engine” (yellow plane). Includes three-blade Warp Drive prop, all manuals and engine instruments. $2,000.00 Buyer pays shipping from Benbrook TX. (817)692-6742 Richard [email protected] 102

For Sale: Subaru EJ-22 Firewall Forward. 300 hours TT w/o any problems. Ross redrive, all electronics, engine mount and some spare Subaru parts included. See CON-TACT! issues #6 and #8 for a full description of this engine as installed on a Dragonfly. $5,000 Ruidoso NM. Randy (575) 937-3586 [email protected] 102

For Sale: Two RV6 Motor mounts for 4.3L Chevrolet V-6. One tail dragger, one with nose wheel. $1,000 each. Ruidoso NM. Randy (575) 937-3586 [email protected]

102

For Sale: B0208/MFI-9 (Messerschmitt built) A unique rec-reation of the mini-coin Biafra Baby #BB905. Historically accurate and documented. New zero-time TMX IO-240. A highly maneuverable small ship for a small pilot. Registered Experimental/Exhibition warbird. New prop, paint, interior, instruments, wheels and brakes. NOT LSA qualified. Con-tact [email protected] for brochure or go to www.italmotion.com for images under “current project.” Priced at $38k FL59 Ft. Myers FL. Partial or full trades for aircraft or vintage racecar considered. Don Black 107

For Sale: Ross Redrive with aluminum flywheel. $1800.00 For Sale: Warp Drive Propeller three-

blade, 66” diameter, left-hand rotation with nick-el leading edges. Comes with spinner. $500.00 Or

buy both for $2000 total. These components were bolted to a Subaru EA-81 and tested for a maximum of 30 minutes only. Buyer pays shipping from Las Vegas NV 89104. Don Thompson (702) 236-1691 106

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contact magazine issue 75 corvair engines

Documents

corvair powerplant

corvair motor

corvair authority

hp corvair conversion

issue of contact

aircraft engine story

corvair flyer newsletter

hp flight engine