<VV> Taking the turbo for a spin...

[Guus de Haan]

My Corsa has been a garage object for quite a while now. As some of  
you may remember it had a mysterious flooding carb that seemed to be  
impossible to fix. Well last autumn Grant Young and I found out with  
the help of other VVers that the problem was not in the carb but a  
missing gasket below the turbocharger base was the culprit. So I  
fixed installed a new gasket last autumn but did not testdrive the  
car because of bad weather.

But the good weather is coming, at least it's supposed to! So I've  
made an appointed to have the car inspected next tuesday so I can  
drive it. Bought new tires to replace the, at least 10 year, old ones  
that were still on the car. Had the wheels sand blasted and powder  
coated before putting on the new tires. Changed the brake fluid and  
checked all the usual things like lights and installed the lower  
shrouds that I previously removed.

The final thing to do was to testdrive the car to see if the fuel  
problem is really solved. The car hasn't been driven for quite a  
while. The only thing it did was idle on my driveway every now and  
then and as other turbo owners know that makes a turbo run awful. At  
first it would not run at all but a spark plug change cured that and  
I was on my way with the unmannered beast. From previous experience  
I've learned that you have to really use a turbo hard and things will  
get better. And also this time it worked. I ran it warm and used all  
revs to clean the engine and it started running better and better.  
Frequent stops to check for fuel drips from the carb but I did not  
see one!

I was really flooring it and letting the turbo come in.. and then...  
all of sudden the fan belt jumped off. Bummer, I hadn't brought any  
tools with me and was 3 miles from home. I tried to get the belt back  
on but it wouldn't so I removed the belt, let the car cool a bit and  
started to drive it towards home. It's a straight road without much  
traffic. To avoid overheating I shut down the engine down a few times  
and let it coast doing rolling starts to get it going again. You see  
another problem I have is that the battery is weak ;-) So half a mile  
from home it completely died on me, no electrical power anymore. Oh  
well, this distance is not to bad to walk. Pushed the car to the side  
of the road and started walking...

Got our other car, some tools and the wife and returned to the car. I  
thought it would be a simple cure. Fix the fan belt, jump start the  
car and be on my way again but NOT! After loosening the tensioner I  
found out to my big surprise that the belt would still not fit. It  
seemed much to small for the car, which is rather funny because it  
had been on the car just before. The engine was to hot to touch but  
eventually I managed to get it on again with a tire spoon (not sure  
what you call these). Jump started the car which started immediately  
and drove it home. The car was really running beautiful and very smooth.

So the test drive was a succes but I'm a little puzzled by this fan  
belt thing. Has anybody ever has this as well? Do these things shrink  
with age? Do they shrink when they get hot? I'm pretty sure I bought  
most of my belts from a Corvair vendor but maybe I bought another one  
locally. There's no marking on the belt (anymore), no name no number  
so I don't know anything about it. Going to buy me a spare one  
anyway. I don't think the inspection will be a problem and I'm really  
looking forward to using the car again this summer.

Have a good weekend!


Guus de Haan
The Netherlands
'65 Corsa Turbo-Charged Cvt