New Scout owner looking for advice

N

NextEpisodeGarage

New member
Hey guys,

I own a shop in dothan, alabama where we specialize in race development, but recently had a friend of mine willing to let us restore his 1973 Scout II. It has the stock 345 in it, auto trans, 4x4.

He wants to drive the Scout for a couple of years and then give it to his daughter for her first car (says he wants her in a tank!). He does not like the manual choke setup on truck and would like to convert it to a fuel injected setup.

I discussed the option of throwing a 5.3 engine and trans out of a 99-06 tahoe/silverado/gmc. I found a thread and the work seems to be tricky, but not incredibly difficult. I dont mind doing a custom dash with aftermarket gauges to allow ease of reading things from the ecu. It's the driveshaft, rear end, and 4x4 setup I'm worried about making fit with all of that. He wants a/c and power steering to remain on the new engine as well.

I'm reaching out to you guys for suggestions on simple setups as this will be a put around town vehicle and he will occasionally take it out his farm/hunting land, only to then become a daily driver for his 16 year old daughter in two years. What're some bullet proof ideas we can offer to my friend? I was just thinking the 5.3 setup would be pretty reliable.

Aside from that, we are converting the front drum brakes to discs, refinishing the interior, adding a roll bar, and painting the truck.

Thank in advance guys, I look forward to sharing the progress of this build!

--ryan
 
Hey ryan, welcome! If fuel injection is what you want there is a whole section on here for installing fuel injection on our trucks. IH Parts America also sell a complete kit to make this change.if the 345 that ia in there now I would think about just installing fuel injection.
Ron
 
ronmc1954 said:
hey ryan, welcome! If fuel injection is what you want there is a whole section on here for installing fuel injection on our trucks. IH Parts America also sell a complete kit to make this change.if the 345 that ia in there now I would think about just installing fuel injection.
Ron
Click to expand...

Ron,

thanks for the info! I just checked out that sub forum and it looks like it'll cost my guy $1900-$2100 after labor for me to do that conversion. I think this is why the 5.3 interests me. It's a newer engine that is already fuel injected. Plus I can get the motor and trans for less than the cost of fuel injecting this original motor.

I guess that's where I'm looking for guidance. You guys know that to keep a customer happy that want that piece of mind on reliability.
 
If peace of mind is what your looking for this forum is the place to be. There is nothing but the real deal here. If someone posts bad info it will be corrected. I can't advise on your issue so I will let others chime in.
 
Similar drivetrain transplants have been performed on these ole IH scouts many times. Take into account that the Scout transfer case won't be able to bolt up to the GM transplant. Plus, with the added cost of the t.c., there's the new length drive shafts.

As far as being rock solid of a vehicle goes, these scouts are semi built like tanks. I walked away, on my own accord, from a barrel roll, with only two scratches on my left hand. But that was doing a little wheeling in hollister. Sad to say that I've got it linked in my sig.

73/74 scouts was transition years of changing over from front drum brakes to disc. Most likely your friends Scout has a Dana 30 front axle. There are kits available out there for disc swap. Better yet, try and find a Dana 44 front axle out of a 75-80 Scout. They came standard disc front/drums rear.
 
nextepisodegarage said:
ron,

thanks for the info! I just checked out that sub forum and it looks like it'll cost my guy $1900-$2100 after labor for me to do that conversion. I think this is why the 5.3 interests me. It's a newer engine that is already fuel injected. Plus I can get the motor and trans for less than the cost of fuel injecting this original motor.

I guess that's where I'm looking for guidance. You guys know that to keep a customer happy that want that piece of mind on reliability.
Click to expand...

Just be aware that the days of a cheap good ls are gone. Those same engines are being snapped up by the owners of the same y/m tahoes and pickups as they are wearing out quick.
This info comes from a good friend who owns a auto salvage yard in fontana CA. He sold me and friends many of them and says they are at a premium. His brother builds hi dollar dirt buggys with them and has few to chose from. Some unscrupulous guys are miss marking mileage on the ones they do get. Most have 150+k on them. Many need some serious rebuilding.

Of course that story is differant where cars rust out as opposed to wear out.. East coaster you are?
 
I suppose I am old school when it comes to reliability.

What is so hard about learning to use a hand choke? Most old 'binders don't need much choke anyway.

I had a whole lot more issues with the automatic choke on my '74 200 with a sv392 than I have ever had with the manual choke in my '65 sv304.

If on the other hand you are looking for easier drivability and reliability the addition of electronic ignition with electronic fuel injection can't be beat.

As long as the sv345 in your Scout is oiling properly there is no reason to think it won't go the better part of 500,000 miles without any real problems. I have seen loadstars recently that have had that engine still running with the original engine. Any loadstar empty is running a lot harder than any Scout fully loaded.

Swapping in other power packages has some merit particularly if the transplant includes an od transmission. But I am not convinced, as long as the oem power package is working correctly that transplants are worth the effort.
 
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