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Rear Drive Starter Saga (continued)

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to visit this page since May 27, 2000

Okie - Dokie, Folks! You came this far, so you must've wanted to see what I've been up to! Well, here goes!

Here is a picture of the stock Corvair oil cooler adapter. Aside from the annotations on the picture, I understand that tapping cast aluminum for pipe fittings is a no-no, due to it's extreme propensity to stress crack.

The next step in the process was to figger a way to get the oil from the block, through a filter, through a cooler, and back to the block. I needed my own adapter.

Here are a few pics of the first adapter I made.

This basically started as a chunk of 7075 aluminum, initially drilled with holes that would correspond to the various "in" and "out" flow ports.

Here you can see how the part will function. The adapter is bolted to the Corvair block oil adapter. The in and outflow ports are on the top and bottom. They will be tapped for AN-8 nipples.

Here you can see how the assembly fits onto the engine. The AN nipples are yet to be added.

This shows that there is plenty of room for plumbing on the bottom side.

This is the 2nd generation adapter.

This is the start of the 2nd generation adapter. I started over because I didn't like how it was possible for the other one to actually twist, using the mount bolt as a pivot. On this version, I machined shoulders that will prevent this possibility.

Rather than rely on those sneaky rulers, I chose to locate the port centers with a transfer punch.

Here is a shot of how I tapped the ports for AN fittings. Using the live center to maintain the tap in a vertical plane assured me of a perfectly formed thread.

Here I'm ensuring that all sides are square to each other. You can see the recesses for the o-ring seals.

Here it is! Almost done.

Side view. AN-8 pipe nipples.

Here's what it looks like, installed. There really IS a lot of room between the nipple and the alternator adapter plate, but the angle that the picture was taken makes it look close.