"jminer" (jminer)
04/26/2016 at 12:09 • Filed to: None
2
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"jminer" (jminer)
04/26/2016 at 12:09 • Filed to: None | 2
| 9 |
So I bought a 79 Scout last week and have been slowly working on it as time allows. I’ll try to post weekly my trials and tribulations of wrenching on this old hunk of American Iron. Some weeks if I get froggy you’ll hear from me several times, but life gets in the way so maybe not all that often other times...
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Last night I took to cleaning up the old radiator. The previous owner said it was shot, but I was going to check it out for myself. Several other decisions of his were quite questionable so far... It didn’t have any obvious holes and not many bent fins so I figured it was worth a look.
New ones aren’t that expensive ($150 for an alum radiator) so it’s not worth the cost of taking it to a shop and having it cleaned and tested to then have a radiator that’s still older than I am and may just give up the ghost at any time.
Initial signs were promising, I rinsed it out and a fair bit of rust and gunk came out, but not much scale or buildup so I was thinking happy thoughts. Then I popped off the cap (which had been previously siezed) and shot a high pressure burst of water down from it through the lower fitting
Well Shit... There was a sizeable rodents nest in that sucker. There is no way I’ll be able to clean out everything. I guess a new radiator goes on the parts list after all.
And you go off to the great scrap yard in the sky. At least it’s copper so it’ll pay for a decent chunk of the new radiator.
On a positive note, the truck has electronic ignition (I can handle points, but I’d rather not) and also the timing marks are some of the easiest to read that I’ve ever seen. More on that later when I static time this beast and install the plug wires.
Steve in Manhattan
> jminer
04/26/2016 at 12:16 |
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Inline 6 in that thing?
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jminer
> Steve in Manhattan
04/26/2016 at 12:20 |
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Nope, it has a International 345 V8. An all cast iron beast that didn't product a ton of HP, but made torque like it was an I6.
Party-vi
> jminer
04/26/2016 at 12:20 |
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Port and polish them heads to turn that turd of a tractor engine into a polished tractor-engine turd.
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jminer
> Party-vi
04/26/2016 at 12:27 |
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Hey, for what it is and when it was built it is pretty decent. It puts out about ~170 HP and ~300 foot pounds in stock form with a redline of only 4k RPM.
I honestly don't plan much upgrades currently. These guys with a few mild upgrades (headers, ignition, intake) can push out ~250 HP 400 TQ, but that won't be for a good while unless I have to go into the engine for other reasons.
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Steve in Manhattan
> jminer
04/26/2016 at 12:27 |
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Ah, like back in the day when a 7 liter V8 made 180 bhp. The 3.4 in my ‘97 SHO made, I think, 235 ponies.
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jminer
> Steve in Manhattan
04/26/2016 at 12:28 |
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Yep, this guy was built firmly in the dark days of the American auto industry.
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Party-vi
> jminer
04/26/2016 at 12:35 |
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I don’t think ignition, intake, and headers will give you an extra 80hp. The intake on the engine was designed for lots of low-end torque, and the heads are the biggest bottleneck for breathing on that engine. I would just drop the heads off and have them done and bolt everything else back together with a new ignition and see how that floats your boat.
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Steve in Manhattan
> jminer
04/26/2016 at 12:48 |
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Now they make a turbo 4 that makes, as near as makes no difference, 300 HP. And it a damn site cleaner than any of its predecessors. Progress.
Pearson Hurst
> jminer
04/26/2016 at 14:41 |
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Excellent! Another Oppo Scout!