Went out to the garage last night to finally determine whether the spare engine was usable as-is or not. I knew there was a slim chance it would be reliably functional, but I decided to go through the motions of prepping and checking. So I fitted an oil filter and added enough used oil (hey, I am frugal) to show full on the dipstick. After pulling the distributor, I spun the oil pump using my hand-drill with the rod machined to mate with the slot. Had to tighten the oil filter bolt to stop the oozing, so I knew I was actually pressurizing the system. After a half-minute more of oiling, I hooked up a spare battery to the starter, energized the solenoid, and watched the torque converter spin around taking the crank with it. OK, that worked, now let’s see what kind of compression each cylinder has, if any. I screwed the end of the compression tester hose into the #6 sparkplug hole and energized the solenoid. The needle went up to 90 psi after a couple revolutions, but after the cranking stopped, the needle dropped to zero. I removed the tester hose, poured a little oil into the cylinder, and reinstalled the tester. This time the needle climbed above 150 psi and stayed there after the cranking ceased. Looks like that cylinder has bad rings. Moved on to the rest of the cylinders and got values of 90 to 140, each holding steady. That bodes well for the valves, I thought, but there’s no way this engine will run well.
Disassembly time. First, I carefully removed the oil drain plug so the oil would drain into the catch pan. I didn’t need to be so careful since nothing came out the open hole. A big not-good. This will be interesting. Am I going to discover a big chunk of solidified oil sitting in the bottom of crankcase? Won’t know until I open her up. Off the engine and onto the shelf went the fuel pump, harmonic balancer, alternator adapter, and oil cooler. Next off was the right-side valve cover which exposed a disturbing sight. Rusty valve springs with nary a trace of oil to be seen on any surface. Another big not-good. Into a bucket went the rocker arms, pushrods, guides, and head nuts. I’ll decide later what I’m keeping and what gets scrapped. I noticed the ends of a couple valves were a little beat, but that was only adverse sign. Over to the other side, and while no slickened surfaces were spotted, rust had not set up shop in this area. The bucket’s contents was doubled, and after removing and shelving the fan, pulley, and top cover of the engine I could finally see into the engine. No sign of oil, but also no sign of bearing bits. Can't wait to finish the teardown and figure out what the deal is with the oiling system. At that point it was time to call it a night.
’64 Corvair engines are a one-year only thing. They have the larger displacement of the later engines (via an increase in stroke), but retained the head gasket area of the prior years’ engines. In ’65, this area was increased improving reliability. I still have many of Heidi’s original engine parts including the block, crank, cylinders, pistons, and connecting rods. If the ’65 vintage spare engine equivalents are in decent shape, I’ll keep them and scrap the ’64 pieces. Anyone want a project?
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