1980 Scout II Purchase?

[Fireclimb28]

Hello! I am going to look at a 1980 Scout II that appears to be in decent condition. I pretty sure I can spot any obvious mechanical issues etc, but I wanted to reach out to see if anyone had any recommendations or gotchas that I should be on the lookout for.

One item that concerns me is the VIN on the title and a sticker somewhere on the body (pictures provided prior to physically looking) are mismatched. One shows it came with the medium diesel the other says a small diesel and the actual motor is the 345. I am not concerned about the motor swap but there seems to be a lot of mismatching going on. Should I be concerned?

Thanks in advance!

 

[cyure]

Hello! I am going to look at a 1980 Scout II that appears to be in decent condition. I pretty sure I can spot any obvious mechanical issues etc, but I wanted to reach out to see if anyone had any recommendations or gotchas that I should be on the lookout for.

One item that concerns me is the VIN on the title and a sticker somewhere on the body (pictures provided prior to physically looking) are mismatched. One shows it came with the medium diesel the other says a small diesel and the actual motor is the 345. I am not concerned about the motor swap but there seems to be a lot of mismatching going on. Should I be concerned?

Thanks in advance!

Welcome to the community. There’s a couple members here who I am sure can help. @Colton_Scout80
@SpaceEVDriver @Tuff66

You definitely came to the right place.

Welcome
Again!

 

[dreamweaver]

Hello! I am going to look at a 1980 Scout II that appears to be in decent condition. I pretty sure I can spot any obvious mechanical issues etc, but I wanted to reach out to see if anyone had any recommendations or gotchas that I should be on the lookout for.

One item that concerns me is the VIN on the title and a sticker somewhere on the body (pictures provided prior to physically looking) are mismatched. One shows it came with the medium diesel the other says a small diesel and the actual motor is the 345. I am not concerned about the motor swap but there seems to be a lot of mismatching going on. Should I be concerned?

Thanks in advance!

That would concern me as well. But as cyure so rightly put it. You have come to the right place.
Thank You for your service.


Scout. “People. Connections. Community. Authenticity." Welcome to the Scout community. Enjoy the ride.
Remember the built in search on the forums is a great place to start getting answers to your many questions.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

For vehicles this old, the question in my mind is less about any mismatch and more about the intended use.

What's the goal?

Perfect restoration? Then I may want to try to make sure everything I put in the vehicle matched as closely as possible to the original.

Restoration and then resale? Then I would track down records of modifications and changes and keep meticulous records going forward so I wasn't unintentionally defrauding the next buyer.

Weekend pleasure driving? Then I wouldn't worry about any of the details.

Daily driver? I would swap in a lightweight engine with modern emissions and fuel efficiency features. Or, and more likely, I would do a full EV conversion.

 

[Fireclimb28]

Welcome to the community. There’s a couple members here who I am sure can help. @Colton_Scout80
@SpaceEVDriver @Tuff66

You definitely came to the right place.

Welcome
Again!

Thank you! Looking forward to learning

 

[Fireclimb28]

For vehicles this old, the question in my mind is less about any mismatch and more about the intended use.

What's the goal?

Perfect restoration? Then I may want to try to make sure everything I put in the vehicle matched as closely as possible to the original.

Restoration and then resale? Then I would track down records of modifications and changes and keep meticulous records going forward so I wasn't unintentionally defrauding the next buyer.

Weekend pleasure driving? Then I wouldn't worry about any of the details.

Daily driver? I would swap in a lightweight engine with modern emissions and fuel efficiency features. Or, and more likely, I would do a full EV conversion.

Great advice, thank you! Somewhere between the last two with restoration in mind for my own use, not resale.

I will just verify there’s nothing wonky with the previous modifications.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Great advice, thank you! Somewhere between the last two with restoration in mind for my own use, not resale.

I will just verify there’s nothing wonky with the previous modifications.

Well… There’s ALWAYS something wonky with someone else’s mods unless they’re a professional restorer and even then...

It sounds like there are at least three vehicles involved.

A diesel-coded Scout with a gas V8 is at least a bit wonky. I’d want to know what transmission does the vehicle have? If they matched the 345 with the 3-speed automatic w/o overdrive, you’re likely to be stuck with non-freeway driving. If you keep that combination, that is.


Opinions follow:

Depending on your short-term vs long-term budget and skillsets, and based on your statement that you’re not looking at full restoration, you might try to find a modern engine and transmission to drop into it. The various Scout forums would have more up-to-date experience with this kind of modification. The last time I did an engine swap in a Scout I hadn’t yet finished high school.

IMO: The 345 is a very, very durable, heavy, and very unreliable power plant. In your case, it’s not even original to the vehicle, so taking it out, selling it to someone doing a restoration on an earlier Scout, and replacing it with a newer, lighter, more efficient and more reliable engine isn’t—again, in my opinion—an anti-original thing to do. If you keep the 345, you will be spending more money and time in the long run keeping it running and feeding it fuel.

 

[Fireclimb28]

Well… There’s ALWAYS something wonky with someone else’s mods unless they’re a professional restorer and even then...

It sounds like there are at least three vehicles involved.

A diesel-coded Scout with a gas V8 is at least a bit wonky. I’d want to know what transmission does the vehicle have? If they matched the 345 with the 3-speed automatic w/o overdrive, you’re likely to be stuck with non-freeway driving. If you keep that combination, that is.


Opinions follow:

Depending on your short-term vs long-term budget and skillsets, and based on your statement that you’re not looking at full restoration, you might try to find a modern engine and transmission to drop into it. The various Scout forums would have more up-to-date experience with this kind of modification. The last time I did an engine swap in a Scout I hadn’t yet finished high school.

IMO: The 345 is a very, very durable, heavy, and very unreliable power plant. In your case, it’s not even original to the vehicle, so taking it out, selling it to someone doing a restoration on an earlier Scout, and replacing it with a newer, lighter, more efficient and more reliable engine isn’t—again, in my opinion—an anti-original thing to do. If you keep the 345, you will be spending more money and time in the long run keeping it running and feeding it fuel.

All fair points, I would probably stick with the 345 for the near term. I understand it was recently re-built. I will know more on Thursday but as I understand it, it was a “restoration” project and garage kept, that has likely been passed down to the next generation.

It has a 4 speed manual transmission. What exactly makes the 345 unreliable in your experience? I am aware that the rebuild quality of any motor is highly dependent on the person doing it.

 

[6-ScoutFamily]

…

IMO: The 345 is a very, very durable, heavy, and very unreliable power plant. In your case, it’s not even original to the vehicle, so taking it out, selling it to someone doing a restoration on an earlier Scout, and replacing it with a newer, lighter, more efficient and more reliable engine isn’t—again, in my opinion—an anti-original thing to do. If you keep the 345, you will be spending more money and time in the long run keeping it running and feeding it fuel.

Unreliable? My dad’s last Scout II sold with 345,000 miles on that motor and never once did he have any major work done on it.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

All fair points, I would probably stick with the 345 for the near term. I understand it was recently re-built. I will know more on Thursday but as I understand it, it was a “restoration” project and garage kept, that has likely been passed down to the next generation.

It has a 4 speed manual transmission. What exactly makes the 345 unreliable in your experience? I am aware that the rebuild quality of any motor is highly dependent on the person doing it.

The motor fundamentals are essentially unimpeachable—the block, pistons, cylinder walls, etc. were designed to be almost impossible to break while working on the farm.

But all the other parts are weak links. My definition of “unreliable” is about how much work I have to do on it on a regular basis to maintain the engine. Like I said, the engine itself will las a long, long time. But you’ll need to do a lot of regular work.

The fuel pump needs care. The carb is prone to leaking and sticking; varnish-clogging is almost a gurantee. The points can quickly get out of spec. The rings can wear quickly because of the hardness of the cylinder walls. The valves and valve seats are not very forgiving—a bit of carbon deposit and they start to fail to seal pretty quickly. Lots of things, some little, some bigger. The engine will run forever if you do regular maintenance and repairs. But, in my experience, you’ll be doing those a lot.

 

[J Alynn]

Unreliable? My dad’s last Scout II sold with 345,000 miles on that motor and never once did he have any major work done on it.

Engines went forever. The rust was probably the biggest detriment