SFBA member Jeffrey Ross has decided to put a 140 in his late model Corvair. Usually, not newsworthy, but Jeffrey has decided to build the engine himself under the guidance of Mel Raven at Mel’s Vairmart in Santa Clara.
Here is his progress to date.
Back at my happy place to start my “summer of love”, tackling something new, an engine rebuild for my 65 Corvair. I’m excited!
Today consisted of choosing a block, dismantling it and sending the crank out to be machined.
Next up, I cleaned and painted the block, bell housing and other engine parts.
Progress made today! Sourced and cleaned rocker arms & secondary carbs & sent the heads out to be machined.
Got the crank back. First, a ‘dry’ assembly to check tolerances. 0.002 I’ll take that!
Then a ‘wet’ assembly with Lucas Assembly lube and plenty of cam lube on the Otto 20 cam.
Nerdy-me marked the bolts in order of torquing and placement in the block. A good day!
Installed the bell housing, back block cover, harmonic balancer, cleaned and painted the skid plate oil pickup and pan.
Tomorrow, we install the piston rings and put in the lifters. Time permitting, I may start on the carb rebuild.
Installed the piston rings & lifters, masked off the carbs bodies and painted them and prepped the lifters.
Back at it at Mel’s Vairmart! A great start to the week.
“Stuffed” the cylinders with assembled pistons, then mounted them into the block.
I kept hearing “You’re soaking in it!”, a tagline from an old dishwashing soap commercial as I dipped and coated the pistons with motor oil.
More to come…
SFBA note: Jeffrey wanted to share his progress with you all to show you that you can do it too!
We want to hear and share your Corvair stories. Drop us a line with your story and some photos to sfbacorsa@gmail.com and we will share with members, subscribers and our extended Corvair family!
SFBA CORSA 
Leave a comment