New Problems
On the way home from Mesquite, the car had some mis-firing problems. I'm thinking that the coil has gone bad. The wires and distributor were already replaced. I can also change the points although I'm thinking about going to electronic ignition. I'll Order the parts in the next day or so and see how it goes.

One Hot Car
On the drive home, the car was pushing 500 degrees and would knock when the turbo started to boost. I took it easy not boosting the car at all to prevent knocking, but I need to do something about it. There are several engine cooling strategies available to me. Also, I'm wondering if the pressure retard system in the ignition is actually working. Its possible that if its not, then the timing is too advanced for the boost and causing the knocking. We shall see. I'm also looking into a water injection system that will inject water into the heads when I boost.

Fuel Pump Anyone?
An interesting observation I made in Mesquite was that the majority of cars have had their mechanical fuel pump removed and replaced with an electric pump at the gas tank. I found out later that when the old pumps fail, they can be very dangerous, very destructive or both. In one scenario, when the pump dies, gas is pumped into the crank case, not a good thing. Another scenario is that a stream of gas could be shot at the very hot engine starting a fire! So now on to my list of upgrades for the car is an electric fuel pump.

Back from Mesquite

What a great time. Here are the pictures pomised. just click on
Corvair Gathering 2004 and check it out.

5th Annual Corvair Gathering
Well, here I am in Mesquite, NV attending the 5th annual Corvair Gathering. I'm having a great time meeting other Corvair nuts. I've gotten lots of great advice on improvements to the car as well as some praise on the Corvair. There are some beautiful cars here. I've taken a bunch of picture and will post them as soon as I get to my computer to download them from the camera.

Tomorrow will be the car show. My car has been entered, but I doubt I'll be winning anything with some of these other cars here. I'm looking forward to a good time. Until then...

Car is running once again
At least I can say that nothing I fixed has failed again! The new wires and distributor cap seemed to do the trick. It took a while for the car to start though. I had to jump start it with my other car and it took a few attempts. Once it got started though, its seems pretty strong. I drove it around all day yesterday running errands and it never had a problem starting again. Is it ready for a longer trip to Mesquite? I guess we'll find out in a few days. I'll have to get my AAA membership up to date to be safe, but I'm pretty confident that she'll make it. The car left me stranded once, but that was after a few days of owning it before any work was done. I'm thinking I'll get there and back okay!

Turbo Heat Shield
Well, I have a heat shield for the turbo, but naturally it has no mounting tabs on it. I have new tabs, but mounting them might prove tricky. I don't have access to a welder of any type, so I'm going to drill and screw the tabs on it. With the proper hardware I don't think it will cause any problems.

More Parts In
The New Wires are here. They should be in the car in a few hours. Hopefully, this will be the solution to my non-starting Corvair. Looking through the Clark's catalog it mentions that old wires are susceptible to moisture and I definitely had a lot of moisture in the trunk the last time I drove the car. Buckets of steam is a better description of what was going on in the engine compartment. One of my future projects will be to seal the compartment. That will be difficult because It looks like I need to pull apart the turbo and exhaust system to install the brackets and heat resistant seals. I may have to come up with a more workable solution. Luckily I know some people who work with metal so I have some resources to get it done.

Long Delay
I know. By now I should have the speedometer in. Unfortunately, the car won't start and I don't know why. I'm thinking its electrical. I mentioned I took the car out in the rain a little while back. Its been humid and wet since then and I think that since the engine compartment is not sealed I may have gotten some moisture into the distributor. It off right now. I'm hoping a few days in open air will dry it out. I'll be purchasing a new cap as well as new wires. It can't hurt.

I need to get the car up and running again for the gathering in Mesquite in 2 weeks. Hopefully its something simple although I'm not really sure where to start if its not moisture in the distributor. We'll have to see.

On a side note, I bought a slightly dented turbo heat shield. It needs brackets to connect it to the turbo, but it doesn't look too bad. I'll have to take a picture and post it.

That's all for now. Hopefully I'll have good news soon.