138 Grey / 138 Red

[Rod]

From time to time I see the expression 138 red motor. Excuse my ignorance but I thought the red started with the 149. Can anyone tell me what the differences are between the 138 grey and red motors other than the stated obvious - color. Just curious on the differences if there are any.

Rod

[mcl1959]

Rod apart from the pretty well known red motors - 149, 161, 179, 186 and 202, there was also the 2250cc red motor which powered the early Toranas such as the LC.
This is a genuine red motor, looks like a red motor, feels like a red motor but is only 138 cubic inches.
In SA you can actually put a 138 red into an FE/FC without an engineers report since there is no increase in engine capacity.
Now there's a stupid beaurocratic decision if I ever saw one.

Ken

[RET]

And in the interests of completeness, there's also a 173.

We have the same bureaucracy in NSW, except you can go up to 149 without a engineer's report, based on the "less than 10% increase in capacity" rule.

One variant of the HQ series exported to South Africa sported (if that's the word) the 138 red.  What a slug that must have been  , although probably not as horrid as a Starfire Commodore.....