by Timothy Palmer

Very little has been written about the differences in the Corvair turbochargers. They were made from model years 1962 to 1966. The early model (1962-1964) versions all have the same capacity but there are minor differences and I will try to describe and will be summarized in a table below. To begin with all the turbochargers have a part no painted on an I.D. tag attached to the compressor housing. The numbers are given below (thanks to Larry Claypool). All the I.D. tags look alike except the 1962 model which is twice the size of the others and has “TURBOCHARGER” painted in large letters across it. 1962 and 1963 exhaust turbine housings (the part the exhaust pipe is connected to) are the same. They use a flat gasket to attach the exhaust pipe going to the muffler with no step or chamfer looking into housing. The 1964 exhaust turbine housings have chamfer and step on the outlet where the pipe goes to the muffler. The chamfer is for the exhaust packing (donut) which was used in lieu of the flat gasket. The 1965 and 1966 exhaust housing are the same and have chamfer on the outlet going to the muffler but have no step. The 1962-63 style exhaust housing are interchangeable with the 1964 version, but not with the 1965-66 version because of the size difference the exhaust turbines.

By Gary Baxter & Tim Palmer

A late breaking news flash on the article several months ago on turbo exhaust housing (scroll). In the article I stated the 62 and 63 exhaust housings were the same. This has been found to be incorrect upon further investigation. The 62 housing has two of the four bolt holes for the exhaust outlet slotted, whereas the 63's are just regular holes. Also the studs that stick out to hold the muffler pipe changed. The 62 has a extended length from the turbo of .74/.80 inches whereas the 63 has a length of 1.45/1.51 inches.