I've been working on a '76 International Scout that my brother has, and it has a V-8 in it. I believe it is a 345. It is really torquey, and it idles great. Has anyone ever thought of or are currently using one in a rod?
boat anchor! ok, it could be used, but you'll be facing weight, mileage, and hot rod parts availability issues. my neighbor has an older scout, and the "half a V8" slant 4 that came out of it
There are a number of performance parts available for them, including cams & valvetrain gear, headers, distributors, & aluminum intakes. They are extremely heavy, & in stock form, as you noted, make a ton of torque....pretty much all done at around 4500 rpm. It is possible to do some port work & other mods & give them a little wider powerband, but it can quickly get expensive. I have seen a number of Scouts, Scout IIs, & pickups with modded engines. I kinda, in the back of my head, would like to do a mid- '30s IH pickup hot rod, & power it with a 345 or 392, just for the shock value. One thing about them....they are waaaay overbuilt.....originally intended for medium trucks.....high-nickel content in the blocks & heads....100000 miles is just gettin' warmed up for one of them....
i had a scout II with the V8, you could not stop that thing. using it in a rod would be interesting and different. shoot, the engine will probably keep running after the rest of the vehicle as wasted away to dust many many centuries from now.
I really don't see weight as an issue, after all, people use Hemis, Fe Fords and big block Chevys in all different kinds of rods. I was thinking of a nicely detailed stocker in a 30's or 40's pickup would be cool with no mods at all.
Friend did one in a 4x4 way back in HS. High build cost, low parts availability, and generally one ugly engine. His redlined like 4500rpm with a performance cam. Not very hot roddy IMO. Oh yeah, real bad mileage. But it'd turn the 44s in any situation.
Eeww, i agree with most of the guys, expensive, ugly, dog bone/boat anchor, could be done, but why? International engines are kind of tricky too, them scouts the way they were built and parts they had depended on if it was before or after lunch, 'cause after lunch some how everything changed. If your gonna use an international engine use the funny lookin' half a V8 slant 4cyl, or a power stroke diesel! both lame dog bones but cooler than a international V8, IMHO.
Dunno as I would say ugly...they look a hell of a lot like the Mopar Poly engines, with the scalloped covers. But, each to their own. There's a lot of excess bracketry & **** on them that could stand to be cleaned up. So far as parts are concerned....there are some running changes, sure....just like most every other vehicle model out there....but the engines are pretty consistent. I've been around them since I was a kid...never found much h***le with them so far as the parts. The 392s have a few oddities to watch for with the IC versions. So far as the weight, they are heavier than the FEs & BBCs....not certain about the early Hemis. Probably fairly close. Most IH cams are deliberately designed for low RPM....& the intake ports need a fair amount of work in order to flow very well. They have...obstructions, you might say. I will say they are a little miscast in a rod, & it takes some $$ & work to give them a better RPM capability, but, it can & has been done.
I wouldn't put on in anything but and international project. BUT if i found a mid 30's C-Series Pickup/truck and wanted to rod it, that's what I would look at to put in it.
Whatever. You expressed your opinion, I expressed mine. Of course, I actually bothered to make some relevant comments...rather than just repeating what others said. And, I didn't have to use someone else's (Muttley's) artwork to do it, either.
Probably a good one to run in a car or truck with no hood sides. The wow factor is up there, everyone who sees it who knows motors at all will still stop and say WTF is that?!? but outside of that.. well, they'd be cheap I'm sure, we have a truck on the farm there that isn't in bad shape but I don't think we could even get anyone to go $300 s**** price on it. My grandfather had a couple of the big wagons - like a Suburban - I forget which model that was, but he towed a travel trailer all over the place with them. The second one was one of the last they even made, so it had kind of a mix of parts as they used up older stock to get rid of it when they ran out of the parts for that model year. To a 5 year old, the thing may as well have been a city bus -
Heres one after my heart, I used to run mud drags with a ScoutII That I ran a built 392 in. I had punched it .060 over and was running a comp cams custom grind cam in it. I had a severely ported set of 345 (small chamber compared to the 392 heads) bolted to the top end. Stock 4 barrel intake ported and a set of full length headers in it. The Scout raced at 3000lbs even. I beat alot of big and small block everything. The torque was unbelievable with a redline at 5500rpm. No one believed I was running a Binder motor till I opened up the hood. It was fun telling people they got beat by a school bus engine.
Yep, you did make some relevant comments, and my opinion on these engines is that they are junk. I am actually working on one for my grandpa's scout, and his travel all, he's restoring. We have 2 "matching" engines same year same size same options, but most parts won't interchange. When you call a parts store they laugh at you, and when you call the Scout Connection in Iowa they can't get you the right parts. So i have come to the conclussion that these engines are usless unless you want to use them as a boat anchor, wrecking ball, extra wieght in the s**** trailer, or anything else a heavy object is required for IMHO. And actually i didn't get the image off the H.A.M.B. there's pages of them on google.
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