While I was originally planning on using stock (forged) pistons for my Corvair conversion, apparently good quality forged pistons are getting rather scarce. I guess I should have bought them when I first started this project. Well, there are now some aftermarket pistons that might actually work out better. William Wynne and the "Corvair Consortium" have come up with some pistons with a cavity milled into the head. The shape of the cavity matches the shape of the combustion chamber. This allows builders to remove the ridge around the cylinder head (where the head gasket goes) to get an effective quench distance without causing the compression ratio to skyrocket. The cylinders come in two sizes. One size results in a 2850 cc displacement, while the other results in a displacement of 3000 cc. (The stock motor is about 2700 cc.) The benefit of the 2850 pistons is that no extra machining is needed for them to fit. The 3000 cc pistons actually need 94 mm VW cylinders, which require some machining to both the case and the cylinder head. I'd already sent my cylinder heads to Falcon Machine in Wisconsin earlier this year. I decided to splurge and get my case machined to accept the 3000 cc cylinders. Here it is, all packed up and ready to ship. It's going to the same place as my cylinder heads, so hopefully they'll both be done together (and soon!).
Total Time: 3.5 hrs.