Corvairs? Don’t they leak oil?

Builders;

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Below is a prime example of how Corvair cars were ‘assisted’ by morons who fancied themselves as great mechanics, in gaining an undeserved reputation as a difficult vehicle to maintain.

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Above, on the left a 1960-63 sand cast rear oil case that came in as a core for one of our HV-2000 Rear Oil Cases. The model on the right is a 1964-69 die cast case, the one we use on planes – it is almost 2 pounds lighter. (If you are getting an HV-2000 from us, note that we need a late model 64-69 core)

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Look closely and see the mark of a ‘great’ mechanic, silver spray paint on the left sand cast case. It was applied with great care, right over and inside the rear oil seal. Now the best part: look close, the seal is in backwards. Yes, some guy, who likely fancied himself a great mechanic, drove the seal in from the inside of the part. Now think about how that leaked on the spinning rear balancer, which flung the oil on the fan belt, which carried it up to the fan, when it was sucked in and spread on the hot engine, and the resulting smoke was fed into the heating system.

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Did the ‘mechanic’ go back in find his error? No, he left it, I’m sure he wrote off the results as evidence that Corvairs were no good, instead of admitting that he was an idiot. In nearly 30 years of taking apart core engines, I have seen countless mistakes like this and far worse. When you encounter a person who once owned a Corvair car and needs to tell you what a problem it was, think of this: he probably had a mechanic like this guy working on his car. The only thing dumber than that mechanic, was the guy paying him to mess up the car while he blamed it on General Motors.

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Above, the sand cast case is still on the left. you can see the rusty steel flange of the seal beaten into place from the inside The seal on the table, and in the top phot is in the correct orientation in each picture.

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How does this relate to my Experimental Airplane?

The fundamental goal of our engine program is to make you a skilled and knowledgeable owner-operator of your own engine. You will be a far better mechanic that the idiot who put the seal in backward with a hammer. You will be able to determine the quality of your engine, not be the person who writes a check to a self proclaimed mechanic and blindly believes they need no further concern for their engine’s airworthiness.

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The Next Event on the Schedule:

FlyCorvair/SPA – Joint Workshop/Open house, May 18,19,20

Read the link now and make a plan today.

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WEWjr

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