Thread: 4.2 Litre Rangie motors

Originally posted by walker
Has anyone had any experience with these motors. I couple of Rangies I want to look at on the weekend have them and I have heard conflicting stories about them.

i am talking about the 4.2l Vitesse & 4.2l Ritter (maybe they are the same I have no idea).

I have heard that they quite are different.

Why not ring ritters?
I know a few of the blokes have these conversions so you could have a chat. At least you will know what the differences maybe then.

Dave.

Thanks Dave,
I have been told that both these engines are more of a performance engine and so tend to wear out quicker & have the niggly problems associated with a modified engine. I was hoping someone could confirm or deny this.

OK , I have no personal experience, but I have spoken to Graeme Cooper about these.
Both are stroked 3.5 engines using the standard 3.5 bore, or plus 20 thou.
Cooper used to do these and they were relatively trouble free.
There were problems with some motors shifting bores, but this was in the minority.
I understand some earlier kits had problems with piston slap , due to the rod length causing the gudgeon to be too high in the piston, but later kits did not have the problem.
If the motor has done significant ks since its build, I see no real issue with poorer life etc. If the heads were not modiied and they were running carbs they would not rev anyway, so they mainly provided significant extra torque.
regards Philip A