re: #104 The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge

And what really killed the Corvair was two mistakes. First, they put the camshaft above the crankshaft, instead of below like a VW. Secondly, they just had to use hydraulic lifters for quietness. (They don’t start clacking till they already have your money).

The combination of these two mistakes resulted in the lifters draining, drying out, and plugging up. If you didn’t start a Corvair for a while—once a day wasn’t really good enough—the lifters would fail to work and you’d fry the valves.

A 2¢ O-ring around each pushrod would cure the problem, but nobody knew that.

First gen Corvairs had big time problems, but I thought Chevy worked them out by the second gen.