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Date Posted: 10:17:46 12/08/12 Sat
Author: bill
Author Host/IP: 71.172.182.41
Subject: Re:Corvair?
In reply to: arthur 's message, "Re:Corvair?" on 18:44:02 12/07/12 Fri

Well actually not the first all aluminum engine they made was the corvair engine which began being designed in the late fifties. the first aluminum engine plant was the one they made for the corvair engines abd before the 215 engine was designed and came out they were already making corvair engines. The designer was the same engineer who did the Vega engine which could be claimed to have e=been a byproduct of the corvair project. The same can probably be said about the 215 V* which was GMs first alll aluminum V* even though it was not all that successful because of the casting method they were using which had too high a failure rate and too much scrap production to make it a turely successful engine. When they came up with the thin wall iron block tech the aluminum v8 was shelved and eventually sold to Rover who developed it into a successful engine that used a different casting technique and much improved castin from the original design.... they still make it todayso the idea was good just not the final product or the process itself. That 215 block though is also still being made in modified form as a popular engine for modified cars, hot rods, racing engines etc.
So we were both wrong even though the vega page claims it was the first GM all aluminum engine it was not in truth as the corvair engine preceeded it as well as the 215 by a few years.

http://perrya.hubpages.com/hub/The-Making-of-the-Chevrolet-Corvair-Engine

Now as for the heads used and the idea of using sleeves in the engine I cannot say who first used this concept but my dad had one of the five Hudson straight 8 commadores that had the aluminum block with steel sleeves that was made in 47. the other four as I understand it were either sent to the arabs in the middle east or possibly one was also here in the USA.
Not sure if there were even earlier aluminum engined cars made going back a lot farther and if so who got the patent rights by aquisition when the companies were failing faster than the auto market was opening up.
Remember that at the turn of the century aluminum was so scarce and rare that it was worth more than gold. It was the electric furnace that made it low cost and a lot of people began using it for many things that were previously made from other materials and revolutionized all sorts of technologies from flight to ship building as well as the common cast or forged items found in most homes. aluminum sheet metal was becomming common but the casting technologies were still developing when the idea of light weight engines using it came about so there were probably many failed experiments before mass production.
Porshe was also using aluminum as was VW before the us auto designers thoguht to use it I believe since that was where GM went for their development program.

bill

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