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VW 88mm pistons & cylinders on a Corvair

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aviast

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 4, 2011
Messages
153
Location
Brisbane, Australia
Here's the situation: I live in Australia where Corvair engines, and associated parts, are like hen's teeth and need to be imported from the U.S. The shipping costs, plus customs etc., are exorbitant and constitute a significant proportion of the cost of the final engine. On the other hand, Volkswagen cars and engines are common and parts are readily available locally.

So... I was very excited as, watching William Wynne's second DVD, he started talking about using an 88mm VW piston and cylinder. AND this was lighter than the Corvair original AND did not require any modifications to the case. Where do I sign?

But the DVD was recorded in 2001 and things have changed. According to legend (a.k.a. the manual) WW learned some lessons from the VW experience and went on to develop his own pistons and cylinders. But I've still got my freight costs problem. What I haven't been able to find is: what's wrong with using VW pistons and cylinders? Were there any "showstopper" issues?

In this Getting Started post #10 WW says:

We are going to look at three piston and cylinder options and then apply each of them to each of the Closed Case systems above. That will give us 15 basic engine build paths.
Notice how the options expand geometrically as we get a little further along. 15 is actually something of a simplification, as I am not going to get into outdated displacements like 88mm, 90.5mm and 94mm bores.

Why outdated? It's frustrating that all references to the VW option - which was a favoured option only 10 years ago - seem to have been erased.

I see that the late Gary Collins used this combination on his engine but I haven't found much else.

All thoughts/suggestions appreciated!
 
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