It's a 1980 International Scout II. It was originally a powered by a factory installed, Nissan-sourced 198ci inline 6 turbo diesel with a 4 speed transmission, but since I already had two diesel powered Scouts at the time, I pulled it in favor of a 304ci gas V8 and an automatic transmission. I ran it that way for a few years, fixing up the body in the meantime. My lovely wife wanted a truck for occasional yard work, going to get mulch, hauling trash and such, so this was it. She was less than impressed by my redneck style spray can camo paint job, and the fact that I hadn't replaced a few patches where I'd cut out rust...and thus laid down the law that it would be one color again before she drove it anymore. Well, not really wanting to do all of that yard work myself, I figured I'd better please the Mrs! I went ahead and replaced most of the body sheetmetal to compliment the floors, rockers, body mounts, all of the bracing under the floors, etc that had been replaced to make it "road worthy" already, and performed my first all-over paint job. I let her choose the color, orange, and I chose the shade, 1969 Camaro "Hugger Orange". I expected it to turn out like crap, but this is what I got. I put a 4" lift on it, new tires and wheels, and made the stripes for on the sides, and I think I have a real cool ride that I can say I did EVERYTHING on myself.
This was done in 2002-2005. Fast forward a couple years, now. The carburetor is giving me lots of problems, and I can't find anyone to tell me what the heck is wrong. The 125hp V8 is not really a powerhouse, and I start thinking. This is never a cheap thing, me thinking! I've got a '97 Firehawk in the stable, too...and I know that LT1 engines can be had cheap these days (2007)...I wonder if...? A couple months later, I hit the road with a 300hp EFI equipped LT1 under the hood of my Scout. WOW what a difference! It fires right up in the dead of winter, and has POWER! I went from 122hp and 12 MPG, to 300hp and 17MPG. Win!
Fast forward again to recently, and the #8 rod bearing took a crap in it. I got a new long block installed with a little hotter camshaft, and finally got it running a few weeks ago. Sorta. It runs okay in open loop, but when it goes to closed loop it runs rough and won't half idle. I got ahold of the ECM programmer, and he said it sounded like a O2 sensor. I ordered 2, and just last night got them in and it's doing the same thing. I have another ECM on the way to try, now. I'm really wanting to get it back on the road...I miss my Scout!
While doing the engine swap, I decided to dig some old school audio out of the attic and put in there, too. So far this is all I've got installed, but more is coming if I get time.
