My 1980 International Scout 2 Build

[Joe Link]

Thanks for all the replies and info guy! Hopefully I won't have the 345 for long, I'm looking into GM FI engines, if I can afford the swap. It'll be my daily driver so it won't see as much off road stuff as most of these do now days. It'll get it's fair share of sand, snow, and mud, but nothing too extreme.

 

[orygun]

Thanks for all the replies and info guy! Hopefully I won't have the 345 for long, I'm looking into GM FI engines, if I can afford the swap. It'll be my daily driver so it won't see as much off road stuff as most of these do now days. It'll get it's fair share of sand, snow, and mud, but nothing too extreme.

Ohhhhh!
You just stuck a stake in my heart!
That Cornbinder 345 is one tank of an engine. Not that there's any thing "wrong" with a fuelie GM engine, it's just that the International V8 is built like a tank and will almost last forever, plus it has torque up the wazoo. Yeah, it's heavy. Yeah, it's not easy to find aftermarket parts for...
There is more than one good bolt on TBI set-up you could use and you'll save a bunch of bread for all of the other goodies you are looking for.
If you wanted an FI small block you should have bought a 89-91 Blazer.

Oh well, vehicles, just like guns, get tweaked to the owner's ideals.
Good luck on the swap. Probably easier to do a Dodge fuelie and have the transmission built into a Dodge case.
orygun

 

[nhuman]

Ohhhhh!
You just stuck a stake in my heart!
That Cornbinder 345 is one tank of an engine. Not that there's any thing "wrong" with a fuelie GM engine, it's just that the International V8 is built like a tank and will almost last forever, plus it has torque up the wazoo. Yeah, it's heavy. Yeah, it's not easy to find aftermarket parts for...
There is more than one good bolt on TBI set-up you could use and you'll save a bunch of bread for all of the other goodies you are looking for.
If you wanted an FI small block you should have bought a 89-91 Blazer.

Oh well, vehicles, just like guns, get tweaked to the owner's ideals.
Good luck on the swap. Probably easier to do a Dodge fuelie and have the transmission built into a Dodge case.
orygun

+1 on the no-gm engine. A great swap in those is the cummins 4bta 4cyl. It's a 4cyl version of the cummins six that was in the dodge trucks. you can crank them up to 350 horse and 700 something ftlbs of torque.

Sweet scout. used to build them and haven't seen many nicer.
Kyle

 

[techieguy]

Depending on how much you wheel, may I suggest a locker before any other mod...

And why would you sell a FJ40:huh:

 

[thirtycal]

I'm pretty sure that thing is all original (except for the 345). That thing is beautiful - it would be a shame to molest it. I've got a '79 that spent many years building into a good mix of a daily driver and an off-roader. My advise, having spent years working on Scouts, is to not mess up a nice all original rig like yours by repowering it with a modern drivetrain, or trying to make it a tough offroader. Leave it stock (or close to stock) and you'll be happier - there aren't many left that are as nice as yours.

Here's my '79. I've got probably 900-1000 hours of labor into it. Tons of mods far too numerous to list. Pretty much everything is custom, but it is running the original 345 (240K miles, never rebuilt), and a 727 (rebuilt at 150K). I've been running a GM EFI system for the last 12 years. I bought it back in '95 and it was totally stock (and about as nice as yours).

View attachment 210878





Here's the GM EFI throttle body


Here's the engine controller and my custom EPROM - I developed some software that let me tune the air/fuel mixture and get the spark curve right:


Here's the custom distributor I made by combining the top half of a GM distributor with the bottom half of the stock Holley unit.


Here's the custom steering knuckles:


Here's the 6-point DOM cage I bent and welded:


Here's the rear cable-activated locker (I had that installed - one of the few things I didn't do myself)


Here's the custom seats:


These things become an obsession. I can't tell you how much time I sunk into it - and to be honest, now that it's all done it spends 95% of it's life on the street. I rarely get a chance to go offroading anymore because so many trails have closed out here in SW WA. If I could roll the clock back, I think I'd rather have it back to bone stock again. Take my advise, keep that beautiful rig stock.

-Thirtycal

 

[Redcap]

Thanks for all the replies and info guy! Hopefully I won't have the 345 for long, I'm looking into GM FI engines, if I can afford the swap. It'll be my daily driver so it won't see as much off road stuff as most of these do now days. It'll get it's fair share of sand, snow, and mud, but nothing too extreme.

Please don't rob the heart out of that Scout and toss in a soulless General Morons engine. If fuel injection is what you want, there are many ways to do just that, yet still keep that old workhorse 345.

 

[Joe Link]

Chances are by the time I can afford an engine swap for it I'll have changed my mind anyway, so don't worry about it happening in the next year or so

Thanks for the great photos thirtycal, that looks like a lot of fun! I'm definitely not looking to modify mine as much as you have yours, just a mild lift, some larger tires, and a more comfortable interior. What springs are you running? Would you recommend going SOA on a rig that was primarily a daily driver or rather an off the shelf kit such as Skyjacker?

 

[thirtycal]

Chances are by the time I can afford an engine swap for it I'll have changed my mind anyway, so don't worry about it happening in the next year or so

Thanks for the great photos thirtycal, that looks like a lot of fun! I'm definitely not looking to modify mine as much as you have yours, just a mild lift, some larger tires, and a more comfortable interior. What springs are you running? Would you recommend going SOA on a rig that was primarily a daily driver or rather an off the shelf kit such as Skyjacker?

I've built two different Scouts - a '64 that was pretty mild (3" lift springs from Mr Scout), and a '79 that is designed to be a good mix of on-road daily drivability and moderately aggressive weekend offroading. I pushed the 'offroading' aspect as much as possible, but of course the "how much" you push it before you start significantly degrading the 'daily drivability' is very subjective: What's 'driveable' for one person may not be for another.

So in my subjective opinion, an SOA that works offroad really doesn't work on road. I don't have any swaybars, so maybe that would help, but with the stock springs (with all leaves intact), I get quite a bit of body-roll on hard corners. I didn't take any shortcuts - in fact I probably over-engineered alot of it because I'm pretty crazy about details/safety, and I did all of the work myself... which generally will give you better results than if you pay somebody else if you've got decent mechanical skills and tools (a good MIG welder for instance). BTW, I did a 6-degree caster turn on the front axle which did make a difference. Beware that your '80 Scout has 0-degree caster.

Worse than the body roll though, the SOA really introduced a problem I didn't anticipate would need to be addressed: Spring wrap. It was really bad under heavy breaking - it felt very unstable. So I ended up fixing that with a swiveling ladder bar:



Designing that ladder bar to not affect off-road wheel travel was a little tricky. It took a few turns with a forklift testing extreme wheel travel in the wheel to figure out exactly where to put it. Once I had that installed, it really fixed up wheelhop on hard acceleration up loose/rocky offroad terrain, and it also fixed the springwrap on hard deceleration onroad. In my opinion, it's a must-have for an SOA both on and offroad.

The speech I'd give you is this: It's your rig, do as you please - but I'm speaking as someone that has been down the road, I'd avoid the SOA and stick with a nice 4" lift if you need to fit 33's.

-Thirtycal

 

[Joe Link]

I'm actually happy you said that. It seems like many guys are overly quick to insist if I'm going to lift it I must go SOA. Like I said, I'm planning on running it mostly on sand, with some very mild snow and mud action in the winter. I have an old Toyota 4x4 I can take out and beat on if I feel the need to do that

 

[Joe Link]

Grant Security System & wheel now installed, check post #1 for pics

 

[M.Link]

What if the thief has a steering wheel with the same system and they use it on your column?

 

[Joe Link]

What if the thief has a steering wheel with the same system and they use it on your column?

The red cap locks onto the steering column, so you'd still need a key to get it off and attach a different wheel

 

[thirtycal]

I'm actually happy you said that. It seems like many guys are overly quick to insist if I'm going to lift it I must go SOA. Like I said, I'm planning on running it mostly on sand, with some very mild snow and mud action in the winter. I have an old Toyota 4x4 I can take out and beat on if I feel the need to do that

Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of an SOA for a rig that you're building for hard wheeling - but for a rig like yours, as nice as yours, it wouldn't be my first choice. The SUA with 4" springs will give you a reasonable amount of lift, but will still let you use your stock front swaybar and will control spring wrap much better (due to alot less leverage than an SOA).

Check your PM by the way Joey Link

-Thirtycal

 

[Joe Link]

Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of an SOA for a rig that you're building for hard wheeling - but for a rig like yours, as nice as yours, it wouldn't be my first choice. The SUA with 4" springs will give you a reasonable amount of lift, but will still let you use your stock front swaybar and will control spring wrap much better (due to alot less leverage than an SOA).

Check your PM by the way Joey Link

-Thirtycal

Yeah I read somewhere about the "80/20 Rule" that made a lot of sense to me. They said to think of what you'll be using the rig for 80% of the time, and build it for primarily doing just that. 80% of the time I'll be driving it on the road, so I need to build it for that first and foremost. The other 20% will be about 15% sand and 5% mud/snow. I'm still having a heck of a time deciding to go with Skyjacker or Alcan, but I'm leaning toward Alcan. I can get the Skyjacker kit for $780 shipped, including their cheap shocks, or the Alcan's for $985 shipped without shocks but custom made to my specifications. Chances are I'd be replacing the Skyjacker shocks with a better unit anyway, so that's really a non-issue.

 

[thirtycal]

Yeah I read somewhere about the "80/20 Rule" that made a lot of sense to me. They said to think of what you'll be using the rig for 80% of the time, and build it for primarily doing just that. 80% of the time I'll be driving it on the road, so I need to build it for that first and foremost. The other 20% will be about 15% sand and 5% mud/snow. I'm still having a heck of a time deciding to go with Skyjacker or Alcan, but I'm leaning toward Alcan. I can get the Skyjacker kit for $780 shipped, including their cheap shocks, or the Alcan's for $985 shipped without shocks but custom made to my specifications. Chances are I'd be replacing the Skyjacker shocks with a better unit anyway, so that's really a non-issue.

Good choice - I kept having a problem with front spring sag due to the additional weight of my winch bumper and winch (an additional 200lbs or thereabouts)... So I had a custom set of front springs made at Portland Spring. They even mounted them for me. I've never had a problem since, and that's after alot of hard wheeling and 14 years of sitting. I tend to go with the 'alternative' options so I'd probably pick Alcan myself (even though they might be more expensive).

Thirtycal

 

[Joe Link]

Update!

 

[gunnin88]

Don't take that thing off road, it's WAY to pretty for that. I hate scouts and I meant hate, but that thing there is in amazing shape.

 

[Joe Link]

Man, am I tired! Just posted another update of today's achievements on page 1

 

[Gunner3456]

Lookin' great!

Not sure what all you did with your lift setup, but about that squirrely habit - be sure to check the caster on the front wheels. It may not be a problem, but that will for sure do what you described.

 

[Father of four]

Hey Joey, I found you a instructional video to view. Of what not to do? Maybe go about it say a little more cautiously? If you are ever in a situation like this...well I hope it turns out better for you!