Outer Limits 4x4 Board

I am looking for a competition car and looked at two almost identical vehicles on the weekend. One with a 3.9 stroked to 4.2, one with GenIII. Apart from that the vehicles are basically identical. manuals, maxis complete set-up front & rear, h/mounts, cages etc. Vehicles have similar suspension set-up, GenIII has slightly heavier front springs.

What is your opinion of the best engine?

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Ossie

Depends on the type of Competitions you're talking about. Something like the OBC requires lots of power in which case the gen 3 would shit all over the 4.2. It would probably have better fuel economy and be cheaper to repair as well. Be mindful of oil consumption with these motors though, some come out of the factory chewing more oil than fuel!!! Another consideration is the weight of the motor, the heavier gen 3 will change the handling characteristics of the vehicle.

If its slow speed stuff then the difference between the two would not be as noticeable. The 4.2 has a reasonable amount of torque and is well suited to crawling. I've heard that the gen 3 doesn't have much down low although its probably nothing a change in cam wouldn't fix.

Overall, I'd be more inclined to go the gen 3 but keep in mind that with that sort of power you will be breaking diffs and cv's with the maxidrive setup.

pretty much what TUFF said except for the fact I would go the Rover, purely to do with weight... the Rover V8 is very light (i can carry a short V8) and in my opinion the lighter I can keep my Rangie the better.

Anyone got the power to weight ratio of these engines ??

I am personally not into engines, but I was of the understanding that reliability problems with the Gen 3 nearly sent General Motors to the wall. There are enough mechanical weaknesses with Rover Vehicles without introducing any more.

Bill.

daddylonglegs wrote:I am personally not into engines, but I was of the understanding that reliability problems with the Gen 3 nearly sent General Motors to the wall. There are enough mechanical weaknesses with Rover Vehicles without introducing any more.

Yes you are right Bill - the Gen III had many problems with oil consumption (among other things) and quite a few were replaced under warranty. If you managed to get a good one it was ok apparently.

One of the big problems with these engine was to do with oil pickup which was redesigned to fit the Commodore cross member. The same engine in a Camaro or Corvette did not have the same problems. If you are doing competition work with these I would try and get the sump and pickup from one if its Yankee siblings.

I don't know how much difference there is in engines as both are an alloy block/alloy head combo. I would go the GenIII personally. What type of ECU are each or these running?