Looking for Ideas/Guidance

[Hawke]

This is my first post (sorry if it's long) and I just want to say from what I have seen and read, I wish I had access to this while I owned my other Scout II. You guys are amazing!

I just bought my 2nd Scout II - the first one (1974 - I was the second owner) did not survive the baseball size hail and the tornado damage since I didn't have the garage up yet, so I recently found a 1980 Scout II w/ a 345 and 727 with 52,000 original miles with no rust (I am now the 3rd owner).

Fortunately/unfortunately, this vehicle has sat in a garage for the last 16 years. I drove it back from Colorado to nebraska last weekend (350 miles) and it was surging at various times/speeds/stalling/etc. I told my wife I am going to have this beast up and running in top form before the first real snowfall, so I want to give it a good once over now and replace/repair everything so I don't have problems once the weather changes for the worst.

Due to the way it was running, I put on a new edelbrock 1406 (since I am not that great of a carb guy, these are simple enough for me to adjust) and kept the original Holley 4bbl for a rebuild. After replacing the carb, it ran great that night during my test drive, but the next day, it went back to surging anything over 45 mph.

I then replaced the coil, mechanical fuel pump, fuel filter, and the spark plugs (85's were used to replace the 303's from the previous owner). While tracing the fuel line, I found a lot of various splices/fuel line sizes and a small electric fuel pump bolted to the frame and hooked to the coil.

Today I dropped the tank and looked inside - no rust clean and clear. I replaced all the fuel line with new 3/8" and put a fuel filter prior to the mechanical pump, and removed the electric pump. It ran great tonight during my test drive, so I will see what tomorrow brings, however it sounds like it is missing just a little bit - I haven't adjusted the timing due to the following questions.

I am planning on replacing the 7mm wires (very cheap and thin)with 8mm and I am looking at replacing my distributor (currently a prestolite electric). What are my choices - ie - your recommendations for a good quality distributor? I saw some of the postings regarding the mallory 3761701 and the dui 90900. My first question is are they worth the money, and my next is will I see noticable improvement/performance? What are my options to update my current distributor, etc. Given the choice between the two (or other options) what would you go with?

I still have a lot of dried up gaskets and seals to pull and replace and I would like to spend my money/time wisely, since I sold my 2008 Chevy truck due to a knee injury at work, I am using this as my daily driver and want something reliable. So I figure if I can replace/repair everything now, I should be good for a number of years if it's like my last one.

I look forward to your input and help!!!

Thanks,

scott

 

[Rusty Scout]

I have a 1979 Scout with 345.



Fix this back to stock specs: "I found a lot of various splices/fuel line sizes and a small electric fuel pump bolted to the frame and hooked to the coil. " the coil terminals are not a good place to tap in for anything other than a tach. No reason to have an electric fuel pump in addition to the stock mechanical fuel pump on a Scout.

I had a stock prestolite electronic do things that made me think fuel system problems. A low cost retrofit upgrade worked well for me for years. I put a pertronix ignitor I module in the prestolite electronic dizzy and got 20 yrs of trouble free ignition until some jackass left the key on engine not running and smoked it. I replaced it with the same thing and expect another 20 yrs. It was the pertronix ignitor 1483a . This was a good easy solution for me and I was using my Scout as a daily driver. It cost about 100 bucks.

A carb upgrade is useless unless the ignition system is dialed in first. Hard to tune the new carb with ignition problems.

Firing up one of these engines after sitting for 16 years is a good way to harm the cam bearings. If you were planning on changing the oil pan gasket anyway check the pan for pieces of cam bearings. Much has been written about the cam bearings in the engine section.

Slow down, take it one system at a time, don't throw money at it unless you have to, don't introduce too many variables while troubleshooting and search/read these forums because some other guy has already been there done that or asked similar questions.