I6 ignition with gold box swap to 304 w/ prestolite swap

BigTallKen

BigTallKen

Member
Hi all.

I'm swapping a complete 304 from a 1974 Scout II into my 1974 Scout II that came equipped originally with an i6 and the gold box on the firewall.

Are there any pitfalls I should be aware of in swapping the v8 into into the truck? Which wire from the gold box should I use to power the coil?

I have a prestolite points distributor in there now. The engine does run with the positive side of the coil jumped to the battery.
 
In this thread you will find wiring diagrams for "both" versions of sii underhood electrical systems:

http://www.forums.IHPartsAmerica.com/ignition-tech/1434-need-bit-help-getting-thing-firing.html

A breaker point system needs a "start" feed to the coil positive terminal, and a "run" feed (resistive or ballasted feed of approximately 1.8ohms) to the same terminal. The coil (primary resistance value) you currently have for the gold box 6 banger will work ok for the 304 distributor also.

You won't use any of the gold box connection points for the breaker point ignition system, those are two completely different animals.

Use the wiring diagrams to trace out the two essential circuits, this is very simple if it's a manual trans, the automatic trans involves the addition of the nss circuit along with it's accompanying relay.
 
I am using the manual transmission that is mated to the 304 right now.

I have none of the ignition parts for the i6 except the gold box. The motor and transmission were mia when I acquired it from the po.

I do have everything from the donor car though.
 
If there is no "resistor wire" in the existing harness in the ramblermotor sii, then simply run a "resistive" run feed to the coil using a 1.8ohm ballast resistor. Actually...any resistive value between 1.5 and 2.0 ohms will work just fine. A ballast resistor is/was often substituted for the "resistance wire" when those went up in flames....just never use both! If you can't find a 1.8ohm ballast, then use two 0.8ohm units neatly wired in series and commonly-mounted from their tabs, I've had to do that several times due to parts availability.
 
If you have the complete donor then the v-8 engine harness will plug right in to the bhc and if the rig was orginaly equipped with points will have the resistor wire in place. A quick check with an ohm meter will verify if the coil feed is a resistor wire. The presence of 2 wires coming from the coil (+) terminal and the fact that one of them is cloth covered is another indicator that it is set up for points. Just plug and play.


The bigger issue is the fact that the engine mounts are in a different location on the 6 cyl frame than on the 4 and v-8 rigs. That is why I did a frame swap on my '73 that started life as a 6cyl 2wd and now is a 345 4wd.
 
I have noticed that the mounts are different. I think I May move the motor back an inch or two if I get no interference from the shifters as well.

That is an interesting idea doing the frame swap..

I imagine it's about the same amount of labor either way, given that I have to fabricate new motor mounts.
 
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