Let's TEAR IT DOWN! 1963 Corvair Spyder Complete Engine Disassembly 

Watching you pry on those fins made me cringe. spray some Kroil in there and let it sit overnight, or here's an old timer's trick, get it good and hot with a torch, then melt some bee's wax on it. As the metal cools, the bee's wax will be drawn into the gap and loosen the parts. I've seen it work very well. I'll be doing this myself with a '62 Monza very soon.

Great job ! The crank looked very good, for the age and miles. If you can reuse / find as many oem parts / original parts has possible. Most of the aftermarket parts are junk these days. Also remember these older engines require Zinc , a lot of these newer oil's don;t contain any, it will wipe out your cam and lifters.Just a few tips. I hope this may help. As always I liked and shared. All my very best.

Everyone has their own methods for tackling disassembly/reassembly of a component or system, so it’s interesting to watch someone else approach various obstacles. My suggestion is more rubber mallet and penetrating oil, less crowbar in future, but in fairness when available and if reasonably priced new jugs simplify life. Looking forward to watching your overall plan for the vehicle’s restoration unfold.

Ok like you said I’ll keep watching and you keep filming. Good video thanks

Great job! Im a newbe to the Corvair world and was fascinated to see this engine tear down. My '66' monza will be getting a valve job soon.

I got a lot of my 63 monza back together have the head to do I need to find some turbo parts

Always use 6-point sockets or box wrenches, when breaking rusted bolts & nuts free. As it starts to move, even a little, tighten it a tiny bit, then loosen a bit, and go back & forth like that. If it starts to feel tighter again all of a sudden, then start tightening again and slowly work it as before. You can often prevent the breaking of a bolt or stud like that. For wheel cylinder bleeder screws, same thing. Break it loose with a 6 point socket when possible, then use a wrench to bleed. The hooks used on the chain for lifting the engine, are handy. However, those aren’t for lifting loads like that. Either run a strong grade 8 bolt through the chain link itself, or use a strong enough clevis & pin through the chain. You can also use a threaded chain link. The fin broke because you were trying to pry from only one side. Tiny amounts from both sides, working back and forth and end to end. For the broken bolt in the bottom of the block, drill a small hole and use an E-Z-Out. -use the the kind with a hex shape on the tool end, so you can use a 6-point socket.

Great video - I'm about to do the same full disassembly on a '65 engine so this is good have seen it ahead of time. There was an unfortunate (to me) skip at about 43:12 ... where the harmonic and rear assembly were removed but I imagine it is pretty straight forward.

Have the machine shop check the rods for size tolerances!

Small trick with nuts and bolts frozen use PB blaster or kroil penetrating oil, then Tighten them before you loosen them.heat heat if all else fails and remember with any aluminum use never seize

I hate to be critical but using a wrecking bar on a Corvair motor? There's a reason they are called "wrecking" bars. I knew the fin on the jug was going bye-bye before you ever put pressure against it. Rubber hammers and wooden blocks, and then only on solid surfaces.

Very amusing to me how similar and how different this engine is compared to the Porsche 911 of the same era. Similarly the long studs holding the heads down, except the 911 has six separate heads. The case is split around the main bearings on both engines but the 911 has seven bearings, the Corvair four I think. Consequently the Porsche has LOTS more bolts holding the two halves together. The Corvair case looks much beefier than the Porsche but I would, somehow be surprised if it ever had the longivity of the 911 engine. I know of 911s that have travelled over 300,000 miles without splitting the case but that was on later versions (1978 and later)

At some points especially the Crowbar and the cylinder, I almost quit watching. When I was nine my dad bought two a 65 and a 66 Spyder. I hated working on them. I probably change the starter a dozen times one summer on the 66. Help replace a push rod tube O-rings twice. They used to remove the bottom jug cover so they would run cooler. The gravel roads would cause the pushrod tubes to start leaking. I think the 63 and the 64 was probably the ugliest down cars Detroit ever made. But seeing your struggles sure brought back unpleasant memories

definitely needed a valve job! You can see where some were leaking. Pretty interesting to me, I've never seen a Corvair engine torn down before.

Just did this to a 64 and did it with the engine still in the car. Not fun. But it’s back together. Is this your first corvair project?

PB Blaster

Good work sir. Enjoying your progress.

I GUESS YOU DIDN'T KNOW THE LONG SHAFT JUSTS PULL OUT BECAUSE AT THE 10.01 MINUTE SPOT IT WAS STILL HANGING OUT

Those barrels can be hard to get off the head. I had one and NOTHING (heat, lubricants, waiting..., hammering, prying etc.) worked. I finally took a 20 ton press, used clamped steel plates to hang the barrel/head upside down by the nubs on the side of the barrel. I took a baggie filled with sand (to evenly distribute the pressure in the combustion chamber), clipped the corners off a 4x4 so it fit into the barrel and pressed against that. It seemed like I was giving it all the pressure I felt the barrel could take and it still wasn't moving. I then took a torch and applied heat and it FINALLY came loose! Not sure what your plan for the rods/pistons are but because it is an opposed engine the corresponding cylinders (1-2, 3-4 ,5-6) should be as evenly matched weight wise. Those rod bearings don't look bad, I assume the mains would look good too. Still measure for clearance. Corvair engine bearings are NOT cheap. A lot of people prefer the older Clevite 77 bearings when they can find them. That said the bearings Clark's sells probably have the best price and I hear no complaints. Note that one of the main bearings has an offset and has to be installed a particular way. Another frustration of the Corvair is the "press on" cam gear. If you don't have the right tools and follow conventional wisdom (consult a Corvair group) it is probably best to have a Corvair experienced person install the gear (should you replace it). I hear a number of horror stories when the "machine shop down the street" doesn't do it right. All the best in your venture.

An SBC is kindergarden-simple compared to this. Not hard to understand why GM gave up on the Corvair.

Love watching newbies learn the Zen of Corvair. Nice parts organization. We have all had to learn the tricks of removing broken bolts or farm it out.

Don't forget to replace the alternator/generator, the fan bearing, and the idler bearing. I had both the alternator seize and later the fan bearing seize on me once I got a car running that had sat for awhile, and they both stop you in your tracks. I'm on a first name basis with my local tow guy now. For the fan and idler, use plenty of heat to get them out, don't hammer on them or use a press. I broke my top cover using a press to remove the bearing. Before you remove it, run some threaded rod into the holes that mount the fan, down from the hub to the top of the top cover, this will establish your fan height where it is now, there is no stop in that hole. Then support the cover upside down and heat the crap out of that thing, sometimes the bearing will simply fall out, you might need to tap on the bearing shaft with a drift. When you get the hub off of the old bearing, press it onto the new one, then heat the cover up around that boss and drop the new one in! The threaded rod will stop it at the correct height. Once it cools off, you can apply some red loctite from the inside and let it creep into the joint. Well done so far, looking forward to more! The nice thing about Corvairs is there is a huge following and knowledge base, and parts suppliers carry almost everything. Clark's is the biggest and they’re great, there are also a couple smaller places that can help like Morton's Classic Corvair Parts and California Corvair's. They don't have as wide a selection of new parts or reproductions as Clark's, but I've found some used parts I've needed at both of them.

Looks like someone really cared for this car for quite a while, until, you know, they didn't. But at least the not caring phase happened after it was parked, I really expected this engine to look like the Creature from the Black Lagoon used it as a toilet. Don't fret the small mistakes, you're going farther than most people would with this utterly odd engine design. Looks very similar to a VW, as it should, as they basically copied the VW engine. My Dad used to say that although we beat the German's twice in war we couldn't beat their cheap cars without BS laws, see the "Chicken Tax" for example. Anyway, keep up the great work man, you lucked out with the condition of this engine big time. Also I noticed an antique Virginia tag on one of your cars in the background, greetings from Southwestern VA!

I'll be doing this next winter for my mildly hot, Corsa 180 build.

In the overhead shot, did I see a Mustang convertible? What year is it? I still love the Corvair though.

I REALLY MISS MY CORVAIRS I OWNED IN PAST

As a longtime gearhead, let me share my motto with you: Boost is Best!

Life experience story, The little varmints like to story acorns and such in the heater boxes. This can't be the source of a great conflagration and much consternation. Why do I know this?

At 37:30, this poor guy doesn't know how to use the spring compressor the right way, here's how, back off the threaded "t" handle, move the clamp lever to the closed position, if you can't close it, back off more on the "t" handle, then use the "t" handle to compress the spring

I can't believe how small those valves are😃!

Great video thanks

I’m trying to let you know about a donor body.. 63’ vert body & interior good condition.. no motor! …. YT deleted twice

Doc, you are a Corvair surgeon.

Nut splitters are a nice too to have especially when there is lots of room to work them...like on that turbo base .