Unsafe at Any Speed

Good news and bad news

2009-09-17T14:35:00.000-07:00

The good news is that after removing the spark plugs, the new engine turns freely. The bad news is that it turns freely through about 330 degrees. Probably a stuck valve, hopefully some penetrating oil and a hammer will free it up.

Dr. Frankenstein had it easy

2009-09-15T00:34:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since our last update. As you may know, we suffered catastrophic engine failure at Goin' For Broken in May. A week later, we had come into possession of a new drivetrain, and it was in the back of the big white van until it could be moved into a garage to work on. We anticipated it might take a few days.

Last Friday, with a rented engine hoist and much cursing, we moved it into the garage.

The drivetrain we bought came with the primitive-even-in-the-sixties Powerglide two-speed automatic transmission. This was naturally of no use to us since our car has a four-speed and the bodies are different. Off it came, to live in my basement until we can find some sucker who will give us a hundred bucks for it. The diff will come off later; if it's a posi unit we might be able to sell the diff and trans for what we paid for the motor.

The plan was that we'd do a quick compression check on the motor, see that it was in nearly perfect condition, do a little engine-transmission switch, and go racing.

This plan got off to a good start when we saw that the engine was only a quart or so low on oil.

It took a turn for the worse when we noticed some twigs and grass through one of the spark plug access holes.

Removing the sheet metal - more cursing, fevered use of vise-grips, and cutting away rotted rubber tubes - showed that our engine had been used as a home by some small animal. Probably feathered.

Some more time with the shop vac and some compressed air and we should be remove the spark plugs without fear of contaminating our precious combustion chambers. If we end up with 140 psi of compression, it's probably because the they're half full of mouse turds.

Going For Broken Race Report

2009-05-24T19:17:00.001-07:00

We went for broken, and we made it. Pictures to follow, but I'll sum up. We threw the fan belt, didn't notice until the engine overheated and threw a rod. Our plan was to remove the trashed #3 piston and conrod, along with the intact #4 piston and conrod, and run the thing as a four-cylinder. Sadly, even after removing the damaged pistons, the crank was locked up solid.

We found one possible parts car, but there was an inch-thick layer of leaves and dirt in the engine compartment, including inside the open oil filler neck. We found a line on a possible spare motor, but the person selling it was so high on meth when we called him Saturday night that he had forgotten the conversation by Sunday morning and claimed he had sold the motor to someone from Las Vegas.

With no motor, our race was over. I think we completed 10 laps, but maybe only 9. We will mount the piston and conrod next to the trophy from Arse-Freeze-A-Palooza.

Like Butter

2009-05-19T12:41:00.000-07:00

Those are the words Jake used to describe the shifting of our newly repaired transmission. We have 3rd gear folks! Who knows, we might actually be competitive now.

We did discover a fuel leak in our newly rebuilt carbs. Luckily, things like that are easy to fix and can be done relatively last minute. We're much further along for pre-race checklist this time compared to last, so we're feeling pretty good. Reno, here we come!

Progress

2009-05-17T13:02:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a productive one at Team Unsafe's secret, underground lair. We managed to reassemble the transmission, reattach it to the diff, and get the whole powertrain bolted back into the car. It was a great effort by all, and we really appreciate Alfred joining us to provide a helping hand and some fresh points of view on the car.

Today, we hope to start the car with a new starter solenoid and hear the flat 6 roar to life. Now about those pesky mufflers...

Fixing 3rd gear

2009-05-13T18:43:00.000-07:00

Mentioned in our last post, we ran the entire previous race without a 3rd gear. This significantly slowed our lap times (and possibly increased our longevity but whatever) so we're determined to resolve the issue before our next race.

The Corvair's drivetrain is removed at a top secret underground location

Brad admires his handiwork

Mike and Janet drain the transmission fluid

After the trannyectomy, Jake discovered that the inside of the 3rd gear synchro was completely destroyed. A replacement is on order, and we should have 3rd for the next race. All other teams are now on notice -- we're bringing it!

The Corvair survives ARSE-FREEZE-APALOOZA

2009-05-13T18:20:00.000-07:00

A much belated update to our dozens of fans out there on the Internets. We'll be updating the blog a bit more frequently in our run up to GOIN' FOR BROKEN over Memorial Day weekend.

The Corvair soldiered on through our last race and Team Unsafe at any Speed recorded a very solid 54th place out of 114 entrants. Not bad for a car that's over four decades old and didn't have a 3rd gear. Sure, there were some interesting goings on with last second muffler additions resulting in metal fireballs. Still, the car not only survived the race but is in good enough shape to run another race. A short race recap:

- RX7's don't like Mike.
- Manual transmissions don't like Byron.
- The Pandamonium guys don't like Shane.
- Jake and Bradley are still tall.

We did manage to secure the "Most Likely to Leave in an Ambulance" award! We think it's quite an honor.

The full results are available here.

Race #65 - We Are In

2008-10-21T17:41:00.000-07:00

From: Jay Lamm
21 October 2008

Hi, Team Captain:

Good news--I think. Your team has officially been ACCEPTED for LeMons Arse-Freeze-Apalooza on 26-28 December '08 at Thunderhill Raceway Park in Willows CA. We got over 200 entries for this race; thanks a lot for submitting one good enough to stand out from the crowd.

----

As the Kool-Aid Man would say, "Oh Yeahhhhh!!!" We will see you all at the races!

It's alive!

2008-10-21T17:40:00.000-07:00

Old Shaft/New Shaft

2008-09-13T20:13:00.000-07:00

We managed to track down a mixture of '65 and '66 drive shaft parts that should, hopefully, return the car to operation. Team Unsafe's crack mechanics had the car up jacks and the wheels off before you could say "How many more times are we going to do this?"

(Byron checks new bearings in foreground. Mike removes rear wheel in background to fix valve cover oil leak.)

The new left side drive shaft goes in, aided by six hands, a rubber mallet, and a little coaxing from Mr. Dremel.

New shaft installed, we turned to finishing off the interiorectomy. Note the truly awesome wiring job done by the former owner.

Removing the interior revealed that the underbody is generally in good shape, the firewall is intact, and just a wee bit of rust in the shifter area.

It's hard to see from the picture, but the ground underneath the car is clearly visible through those holes. Smokey Yunick and his acid-dipped body panels ain't got nothin' on us. We are going to have our cage guy weld a patch on the rusted-out area.

At the end of the day we had 6 cylinders that all delivered compression, two of our four carbs operational and two still disconnected, and two drive shafts somewhat more securely connected to their respective wheels. Who knows, the engine might even run. A successful day by LeMons racing standards.

Team Unsafe gets the (drive) shaft

2008-09-08T21:38:00.000-07:00

Having restored compression to the engine, we decided to take a look into the source of the camber problem with the rear end of the Corvair. The cut springs that came with the car gave all of the wheels a bit of negative camber, except for the left rear wheel, which had an impressive ~10 degrees of negative camber. It's a shame we are not racing at an oval track. So, once again, the car goes up on jacks.

Hmmm, that looks interesting. Setting aside, for the moment, the fact that our throttle linkage appears to be held together with a Wonder Bread twist-tie, there was excessive play in the drive shaft.

Oh, hey, look! Half a bearing!!!

Well, maybe the problem will just be with the bearing, or the universal joint. The shaft itself could be fine, right?

Nope. The disintegrating bearings took out the u-joint, the drive shaft, and did some machining work on the yoke.

Hmmm. You can't tell by looking at the picture, but the nub in the center of the yoke is, or rather used to be, the bolt that keeps the yoke attached to the differential. Jake was able to pull the yoke out with two fingers. Keep in mind that we drove the Corvair home, more than 20 miles, with half of the final drive held together by essentially nothing.

The only bits of good news from the day was: (1) A replacement drive shaft was available for ~$50 and (2) all of the shocks had been replaced in the relative recent past. We ordered a used, and hopefully less mangled, drive shaft from the good people at Clark's Corvair Parts and put the car to bed.

This is why you should listen to the old guys...

2008-08-21T00:05:00.000-07:00

At the end of our last posting, Team Unsafe had discovered that the Corvair's flat 6 was running as a straight 3 with 0-0-0 compression numbers for the right bank of cylinders. This was not good. The 140 HP engine is the highest-strung of all the Corvair engines, and we thought that the problem was caused by a seriously messed up head, which would mean a new head, which would probably require new pistons, which would need new bores, etc, etc, etc...

Before buying an ATV jack and lowering out the engine, (Yes, it's a rear-engine car and the enging lowers out under the frame, like a Porsche. Or a VW Bug. Or a Porsche!) we decided to post our problem to the collective wisdom of the Corvair Center, www.corvaircenter.com. We received a number of knowledgeable replies within a day. The likely causes for our compression woes were either an improperly torqued head, or improperly adjusted valves, with most of the votes going for the valves.

So, today the valve cover came off and we checked the valves. Guess what? Every valve on the right side, both intake and exhaust, were way out of spec on the tight side. We couldn't believe it. Coming from a variety of motorcycle backgrounds, and having dealt with a variety of shim-under-bucket, screw-and-locknut, and (shudder) desmo valves, theses valves are dead easy to adjust. Adjust the rocker nut until there is no free play, then turn in one turn. Could it be that simple?

We hooked up the compression tester and the new reading were 120-120-120. Perfect, thank you Corvair Center! Now all we have to do is rebuild and sync four carbs, figure out why the left rear wheel has 15 degrees of camber, find a correct set of springs, get a seat, install the cage, fix the timing, redo the electrics, track down a battery box, deal with the crunching noises coming from fourth gear... But most importantly, this fix required exactly $0 from our budget. We have $400 to go before we need to start selling parts.

Compression Test and Suspension

2008-08-10T21:02:00.000-07:00

Byron, Jake, and Shane got together today to do a compression test on the Corvair's engine and see if we could determine what the heck was going on with the camber on the left rear wheel.

The good news is that the camber should be an easy fix. Jake saw that the camber plate is adjusted in the "wrong" direction and that the left rear control arms is probably installed on the right side of the car. It's going to be a shame to fix, really. The car went around left turns so well...

The bad news is the result of the compression test. The compression test on the left side cylinders was 100/130/100 - a little low, but perfectly acceptable for LeMons duty. Compression on the right side cylinders was 0/0/0. Hopefully it's just the gasket, and not a dropped valve seat.

A few pics from the shop day. Shane cranks the mighty flat 6 and dreams of LeMons glory...

...while Jake checks the compression and contemplates running the car as a straight-3.

Meanwhile, Byron found the detachable face for the stereo! That's another $50 in our account when we sell it on eBay.

4 carburettors feeding 6 cylinders. I hear it's a piece of cake to synchronize.

While nobody likes to hear that their engine is half dead, at least we know what we need to do. Jake will get a copy of the shop manual, Shane will figure out if the head can be removed without dropping the engine from the car, and Byron will find some jack stands.

The Corvair has landed!

2008-08-09T16:12:00.000-07:00

It took a little bit of work, and two jump starts, but we got the Corvair back to the house. Here are a few pictures:

The car (which needs a name, BTW) already has electronic ignition installed, so that saves $50 from our precious budget. Tomorrow we will check the compression and spark in each cylinder and take a look at the carbs.