It wasn’t easy finding a blue Corvair engine, but I found one. I'm not using for today's Motor Monday CPotD. Instead I'm using this photo I found of a Chrysler Marine engine. How can it be appropriate for a Corvair Photo of the Day? The answer’s in the title of the post.
When Chevrolet designed the Corvair engine, they had to follow the convention of the day for GM. To be compatible with the rest of the engine building and testing equipment, the engine would have to rotate in the same direction as the other vehicles when viewed from the front of the car. Since the engine is installed backwards in the Corvair, this meant the Corvair engine rotates backwards from most every other passenger car engine. Everyone who wants to install a different engine in the rear engine compartment AND keep the stock transaxle, must use a reverse rotation engine.
Enter the marine engine. Twin-prop boats require the two propeller shafts to turn opposition directions to each other to keep the boat going straight. In days gone by, they used a standard rotating engine and a reverse rotation engine to meet this requirement. It may be sacrilege to some (many?) to put a powerplant from Mopar into a GM product, but with the scarcity of reverse rotation candidates, beggars can’t be choosers. This setup would garner plenty of attention at car shows.
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