l Fox <paulvair@yahoo.com> Subject: Re: <VV>Octane/Ping

[Padgett]

>  It would be nice if you could get a Corvair to work at 9 to 1 on 87 
> octane. Maybe when the engine is fresh with no carbon build up. I think 
> the air cooling will keep you from the ideal temps for this.

When you get down to it, all engines are air cooled, just some use water 
(coolant) as an intermediate step. The key is to be able to cool the engine 
below where you want it to run and then be able to stabilize it at the 
temperature you want. After all, a Harley Sportster 883 has about the same 
cyl size as the Corvair.

At first glance the Corvair seems backwards, because at speed you have a 
high pressure area under the floorpan and a low pressure area over the rear 
deck. I realize that is how VW did it but the shape was entirely different.

If going to push air down, I would think an air dam under the back seat and 
a rear spoiler would be useful to reverse the pressures.

I also have to wonder just how much hp is used for the fan at a 70 mph/3500 
rpm cruise (either electrics of a CVT drive would allow constant fan flow: 
with a bit of reprogramming, my computer cars run 181-185F even in hot for 
Orlando weather.

Just as an aside, are 3.08 gearsets considered valuable for anything ? 
Since a big hunk of the cooling issue is IHP losses, keeping the revs low 
can really help (odd thing is that back at GMI, people thought I was crazy 
promoting very steep axle ratios for low rpm cruise but as far as I was 
concerned it was a win-win situation. My test bed then was a 327-275 hp 
Camaro (because I had it) with a 4-speed and Rochester FI. using very tall 
tires (H78-15) to keep the revs down on Interstates. Could of gone furter 
but never found a B-W o/d to mate with a Saginaw 4-speed.

Padgett