Alright a folks, my dad has been looking for and old Jeep for years. He lives out in the Denver area and wants one for the dunes and trails out there. This week I found out that the son of a friend of mine who died from cancer was looking to clear out some of the projects that had accumulated. One of them is a 1971 IH Scout 800. It was a factory V8 4 speed truck but the engine is long gone. It sits on a Dana 44 rear axle and a Dana 35 front. Another set of axles that can add front disc brakes come with it. It has a little rust which is to be expected for these and there might be another transfer case too. Knowing how much of a perfectionist my friend was on his cars I know this will be a perfect project starting point. At this point it's a done deal and I'm going to pick it up and drag it out to Denver for dad to tinker on. Of course, I will have first dibs on it if he wants to sell it.

The big question is what engine should we look for? An old 304 can be had for a few hundred bucks but they are heavy as hell and don't make great power. I would love to drop a 5.0 Windsor in it while he is more of a GM guy and would put a LS in it. He runs a salvage yard so getting parts for a swap won't be much of a problem. Do any of y'all have much experience with these? What could possibly be bad about buying this for a few hundred bucks?

 

I just did a bit of googling - the most common swap is a GM 4.3 V6, but I assume most of those were to replace the 4 banger. I did see some Chevy 350 and 5.3 swaps. One common thread is replace the engine, trans, and transfer case so you don't have to chase adapters. Motor mounts have to be fabbed.

 

I've been looking too. The truck has a Borg Warner T-18 transmission attached to a Dana 20 transfer case. There are supposed to be about completely bulletproof. Both of these were also used by Ford. That means a different bell housing, clutch assembly and input shaft might be all that's needed to bolt the drive line together. A new set of motor mounts should get everything bolted down. Just doing that will chop 350# from the front end and be a nice bump in power. A GM swap will be a bit more work.

 

You talking about a 302?

 

Yup, a 302 or later model 5.0 Windsor. A Coyote 5.0 would be cool but I suspect it would be too wide.

 

Probably not - I also saw a 454 swap. The IH 304 ain't exactly a narrow engine. Electronics would be the issue with a Coyote, you are best off with a carbed engine with no electronics except possibly ignition and no emission controls.

 

That would be the easiest for sure. But to me carbs are like points ignition, they work but there are a lot better ways out there.

What I would like to do is take a somewhat modern engine from a mid-90s Ford and drop it along with the ECM etc into the Scout. Hardware wise this wouldn't be too bad since the bell housing should be an easy change and some custom motor mounts. A manual donor car would be nice since all the transmission controls will not be a problem. I'm not too afraid of dealing with wiring up the FI and ECM. The biggest reason for this is driving in Colorado could cause a lot of tuning issues for a carbed motor. It could run great in Denver at 5000' but up in the mountanis at 11,000-12,000 it would not be set up very well. Even worse would be if I set it up here at 300' then took it out there. The factory 304 only had 193Hp GROSS so losing many will be quite noticable.

 

How about something like a Buick 3.8 turbo?

 

Wookie,

If you are Facebook, that would be a good question to toss out to the "Scout 80/800" community.

Also, we'd love to see some some pix of your project.

Scout on!

 

So would I! I still haven’t seen it yet but I’ll throw up a few pics when I get them. Yup, I have pretty much bought project sight unseen. The way I see it is the guy who had it was incredibly picky about his stuff. We always teased him about getting factory date coded air for his spare tires so I know it is a solid starting point. So for a couple hundred bucks I picked up a clean Scout body, two sets of axles (Dana 44+35 & Dana 60?+?? I know they have disc brakes and are a little bit wider), two transfer cases (Dana 20 and NP???) and a good Borg Warner T-18 transmission. Just selling the parts on Craigslist would easily triple my money so it was a safe bet. Plus, my Old Man has wanted a Scout since he worked at the IH dealership in the late 70s. He would have murdered me if I didn’t get it.

So far we are fairly certain we are going with a Ford 5.0W to power it. I’m still trying to figure out if the IH T-18 shares the same bolt pattern as the Ford T-18. From my research the Jeep variant uses a different pattern to attach the bell housing to the tranny case and the input shaft is different so they aren’t completely interchangeable. The twin stick transfer case is pretty cool so I would like to keep it if possible. Right now it’s all a big puzzle I’m trying to put together.

I joined the FB group and will look around for some answers there.

 

Sounds like you got a great deal!

Anxious to follow your progress.

 

One of my neighbors was doing a complete frame off restoration of one of those Scouts. He was planning to sell it when he completed it. The last time I talked to him about it, he said he would have about $75K in it when he completed it, a lesson learned.

 

Yep -- the sad reality of the collector car world. Very seldom do you make money on a car restoration. To me, the end result is definitely worth the investment, but if you do it with the idea that you're going to make a buck or two you are likely going to be very disappointed!

 

I never planned on making money on it. For me and my Old Man it's a car we've always wanted but never had. We can get it for the right price and since he runs a salvage yard getting some of the pieces will be pretty easy and cheaper than most would get stuff for. A totaled truck just hit the yard with a like new set of 16" mud tires, guess where they're gonna end up... A couple of more scores like that and we'll have a running trail rig for next to nothing. For now that's our plan.

 

Gm ls swap 6.0 or 6.2 would be the easiest swap. Lots of aftermarket and the motor is powerful and compact. I would say going with new 5.0 would cost twice as much and the ls will make more torque

Love the new 5.0 in the mustang. Just not enough to pay twice the price and struggle with install