Good, Great, and Greater Still

The good is that yesterday I left my place of employ after only putting in eight hours of labor – a rare luxury. The purpose of my early departure was to wash Lucy before darkness set in.

The great is that I had time to turn the steering box setscrew hidden under the one inch diameter plug in the trunk. That got rid of the play in the steering wheel. How nice it is to turn the wheel and not have to take up five degrees of slop before feeling the front wheels respond.

Now for the greater still. This morning I received an e-mail from a ‘vair friend, Irv. Last Fall I loaned him one of my racing harnesses so he could participate in the NECC time trial event at Roebling Roads. Recently he acquired a collection of Corvairs and parts and offered them for sale to the Corvair community. I responded to his posting with a wish list that included a set of 140 horsepower heads and matching exhaust manifolds. His e-mail this morning said that he has them, is setting them aside for me, may deliver them to DC in two weeks, AND he’s giving me a “generous deal” to boot. I am so psyched.

An engine with the 140 HP heads installed looks like this:
To accommodate the additional two carburetors (secondaries), I need to re-work the air cleaner, gas lines, and throttle linkage. Since I'm unwilling to spring for a stock air cleaner assembly, I'll end up clamping separate elements to the top of each carburetor with the PCV line plumbed into the base of the nearest element. The gas lines are pretty straightforward. I could give Clark’s Corvair Parts $60+, or I could make them myself from bendable brake lines or rubber fuel hoses. The throttle linkage needs to be progressive, which means the secondary carburetors don’t open until the primaries are roughly halfway to wide-open-throttle (WOT). The following close-up shows how this is accomplished.The small rod to the secondary carburetor’s throttle (bottom one in the photo) doesn’t start moving until the actuator plate (circled in red) is rotated a pretty significant amount. Additionally, the throttle plate for the secondary carb is roughly half the length of the primary so that it opens faster with less rod input. This ensures that primary and secondary carbs reach WOT at the same time. I figure I can put together a mixture of extra linkage parts with homemade parts and replicate the functionality. After my successful engineering of the air cleaner spacers last weekend, I’m up for the challenge.

Oh yeah. Which car is getting this hot setup? I'm thinking Betty is the best candidate, but I'm not ruling out a quick intall in Lucy.