Progress on converting a Corvair for aviation use

This page tracks progress of converting a Corvair engine for aviation use. At the time of creating this page, in March 2010, I had spent about a year-18 months on the CorvairListServe and purchased the Corvair Flight Engines manual from WilliamWynne. With the ZenithAir RudderWorkshop this month, it prompted creating the SmitSTOLBuildLog to track time and progress links for record-keeping purposes. This page will be the hub for the Engine subassembly.

21 November 2009 - Flight Manual ordered

Ordered the Corvair Flight Engines manual, listed in this wiki as the FlyCorvairManual, from WilliamWynne. Proceeded to read it from cover to cover.

22 November 2010 - Corvair Build page created

Created the CorvairBuild - or EngineSubassembly - page

26 November 2010 - Purchased engine core

Securing the engine after manhandling it onto the trailer.

Purchased an engine core for $200 from Rick Ramey. Found the engine being advertised on the Greensboro Craigslist. My wife and I travelled to where I-40 and Buckhorn Road intersect near Mebane, NC, to meet him there and transfer the engine from his pickup truck to my trailer. It was much heavier than I expected and took two of us to lift it slightly to slide it off the back of his pickup truck and down the trailer ramp onto the bed of my trailer. Rick said he thought it weighed close to 350 pounds, so it's going to be interesting to see how much weight will come off this engine when it's in its final aviation completed form. The engine is reportedly from a 1965 automatic with serial number # T0223RH. This should be a 110 HP engine. I'll discover more when it's been stripped and cleaned. The page showing where the engine was collected is HERE.

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27 November 2010 - Began engine cleaning

This doesn't do justice to how thick and tough the grime was on this engine.

Went to the local engine cleaning places and parked the trailer in a bay. Spent about $10 in quarters trying to remove road crud, oil and other assorted black stuff from the engine. At times, the brush became so caked with goop that it was almost useless. I can see why so many people post about the amount of elbow grease it takes to get these engines clean. There is a sequence of pictures of today's first attempts to strip the road gunk from the engine at T0223RHFirstCleaning

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28 November 2010 - Transferring the engine from the trailer into the workshop

Hoist and rigging in place to drag the engine up the ramp off the trailer onto the workbench.

I had an approximately 270-300 pound engine sitting on my trailer and needed a way to transfer it from there onto my workbench in MyWorkshop. I didn't have any way of maneuvering the engine or, looking ahead, any way of lifting the engine or anything else heavy in the shop, so I took advantage of Thanksgiving sales specials and picked up an electrical hoist from Harbor Freight, saving $40 and shipping. I then spent an hour rigging my rafters with a full-length rod and attached the hoist to it. Transfer from the trailer into the workshop then required rigging various ropes to get the right angles to drag it up a thick plank onto the workbench, where I called it a weekend. See T0223RHEngineIntoWorkshop