<VV> Valve Seats

[Bruce Schug]

While I don't have the experience driving scores of Corvairs, or  
building dozens of engines, some of you do, I'm in the "replace 'em"  
camp.

When I built my engine in '86, I sent the heads to Bob Coffin. This  
was when he was still in MA. I had him replace all the seats. Now, a  
distinction must be made here. These are the "high press" seats that  
some of the folks install, not just new seats. I did "everything" to  
this engine and wanted it to be completely reliable as well as  
powerful on the street. I didn't want to be tearing it down in a few  
thousand miles to replace a seat.

I understand the idea of inspecting a head to see if a seat has  
started to move. I wasn't worried about that. I was worried about a  
seat that hadn't started to move yet, but would start in 10,000 miles,  
then let go in another thousand.

Since then my engine has been driven in every kind of condition  
possible. It has run thousands of miles on interstates running an air- 
conditioning system. It was the fastest car driven to VIR in 2002. It  
is unbeaten in three convention autocrosses. It has made scores of  
other autocross runs with an MSD chip ranging from 6,200-6,800. At  
times, it has been driven on the rev limiter to the next corner, when  
an upshift wasn't worth it. It has scored more than 50 mpg a few times  
in economy runs. It has won rallies. It has been driven on the  
"Corvairs Drive the Tail of the Dragon" three times. It has run up and  
down the mountains of Western North Carolina for miles and miles. What  
more could you ask from an engine? Last year, I rebuilt the carbs  
after all these years and over 60,000 miles, but nothing else has been  
apart.

Build it right once and enjoy it.




Bruce

Bruce W. Schug
Membership Chair,
CORSA South Carolina
CORSA member since 1980
'67 Monza, "67AC140"
bwschug at att.net