Zenith Aircraft Builders and Flyers
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Corvair engine and Aluminum sheet
Last week I came across a gentleman that was selling sheets of 6061-T6 (12 - 0.016, 4 - 0.025, 1 - 0.032 and 1 - 0.040 all sheets are 12'x4') and a Corvair engine. As luck would have it he lives only 20 miles from me! My son and I went last Saturday to get it all and bring it back home. On Monday I sent off an order fo William Wynne's Corvair conversion manual and his engine disassembly DVD. Finally I'll be able to start doing something directly related to building. It's nice doing stuff to prepare to build airplane stuff, but it's not the same as actually building. What I'll do first is disassemble the engine and clean it up (I still need to build a workbench so the sheet metal will have to wait a little longer). I won't build the engine until it is needed. I don't want to have a fully built engine sit for years. I'll clean up the parts, spray them with oil to prevent rust and store them in rubbermaid containers for now.
Comment
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Comment by Earnest Fontenot on April 30, 2013 at 9:40am
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Yeah Mark,
That was back when American automobile companies still made real cars! To bad that not long after that they took such a nose dive (the 80's and 90's). They seem to be moving in the right direction now but their credibility has suffered.
It's going to take a lot of elbow grease (meaning both work and getting grease all the way up to my elbows) to convert it to an airworthy engine. If you look at www.flycorvair.com you will see that plenty of them have been converted from a state where they didn't look much better than mine. I'm just excited about finally moving (slowly as it may be) along with building. I have been thinking about building for some time now. I have been in "tool collection" mode since January. This just happened to come along and I couldn't pass it up!
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Comment by Mark Maltais on April 29, 2013 at 5:19pm
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Hard to believe those engines are salvageable to the point where they run so great! They are tough!!!
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Pat,
The suffix code portion of the serial number is "RH". According to some information I found through William Wynne's web site those cases were made between 1965 - 1968. The serial numbers on both heads are 3878566 which according to the same information were made between 1965 - 1967. I don't have the info on the crank yet. When I disassemble it all I will be able to check it.
It was a lucky find! I have had my plans since January and was planning on buying sheet stock from a nearby distributor in New Orleans as needed. This amount of material should get me through a good portion of the build.
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Comment by Pat Kelly on April 25, 2013 at 5:21pm
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man, that was a lucky find. you know what year the motor is?
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