🔧 BUILD Reviving The Cherry Popper - 1980 Scout

[Jon01]

It's been a few days since I was able to get to the farm but I did slip away for a few hours yesterday and tackle the rear crossmember.
It was the part I've been dreading the most. Getting at all the hardware and spot welds that were buried in the quarters had me debating punching myself in the dick.
A buddy came down and helped me tackle it and it actually came apart pretty darn easy. We had the old one out in a couple of hours and the new one installed and fully welded in by the end of the evening.

My wife also came down and got after applying seam sealer around all of the new metal that we have installed.

Next I tore into the dash harness and dug this vintage piece of electronics out of it.

I'm not sure if it's the brake controller or the module for the cruise control.

Gonna head back down today and finish the patches up for the firewall to floor seams and then go through and apply por15 rust killer and try to finish the seam sealer work then if time allows I may either prime the new parts or try to get the engine started.

 

[guspech750]

 

[Jon01]

Good day today, got lots done and if I can get down there tomorrow for even a couple of hours I should be able to finish all of the welding up other than a couple patches I just found the need for in the cargo area.

Rear brace all welded in and new body bushings installed.

Also replaced the other 4 body bushings

Next I got after the couple of small patches needed on both sides.

Again, not perfect but good enough for what this thing is gonna do.
I seem to have misplaced the distributor clamp, so I'm on the hunt for it. Once I find it I hope to crack this thing off and see if the motor is solid.

 

[IceCreamAssassin]

This is all so good. Keep it up!!

 

[Jon01]

Went down this morning since it is probably the last warm day for a while and spread POR15 rust killer stuff, put the dimples in the floor pans for the body bolts then went through and primed everything with self etching primer.

I'm going to place an order with SSS for some cargo floor patches and a few other things.

I also dropped the gas tank off at a radiator shop yesterday, hopefully they can boil it out and get it back to me next week.
I did some looking at the clamp and I'm pretty confident I can make one sturdy enough to hold it at least good enough to prove the motor is healthy.
So, gonna see if wifey gives clearance to head back down tonight and make a new one and we'll see if it'll go...

 

[Jon01]

Amazon is being a bunch of cunts with the ignition module, it just shipped today.
I needed to haul some leaf bags down to cover the cattle waterer with so I also threw the new tailgate in.
It was amazingly easy to install, literally took 30 minutes to get hung and adjusted.

If the module shows up tomorrow I'll get it installed and see if we can fire it up.
I'm inching closer to just LS'ing this thing and being done with it...There's an LQ9/65E on FB for $1100 complete...whereas I'm gonna have $3500 just getting this NV4500 adapted into the stock bellhousing and transfer case.
Anything Scout has their motor mounts and trans mounts in stock for $500, BPAutomotive could make me a harness for $650, that leaves me a grand+ for an Atlas case to get crawl ratio back.
Fuck.

 

[Jon01]

New Pertronix showed up Thursday so we zipped down yesterday and installed it, still no spark.
I'll hit RockAuto for a cap, rotor and plug wires and throw a spare coil I have on it.

After a lot of thinking an LS swap is really making more and more sense with this thing.
I'm going to have 6k getting OD and EFI on this old IH motor that'll make a max of 160hp and 300ft/lbs. And it'll get maybe 12mpg in tip top tune.

I did some more digging and it looks like Advance Adapters makes an adapter to bolt my stock Dana 300 transfer case to the back of a 4L60E.
I can buy this LQ9 pullout for 1100, rebuild the 65e 1000 tops, harness from BP is 650, fuel system 300, mounts 500, shifters 200, AA transfer case kit 700, exhaust 500. I'm a couple grand in the black and have a motor that'll make twice the power, get high teens and be reliable.


With that in mind we also ran up to Anything Scout and picked up a set of LS motor and transmission mounts.
I figured since they don't run them very often and have been out of stock for several months I'd grab them now.

Then I stopped by FleetFarm and checked on ordering tires before their buy 3 get one free sale ends.

I can easily get Cooper STT Pro's but I'd prefer BFG Mud Terrain's so they're gonna see if they can get them.

I also made the decision to rewire the truck, the harness that's in it isn't horrible but it sure isn't the best.
I had a $50 off coupon at Jegs so I ordered one of American Autowire's new Scout specific kits. I have one in my C10 and am fairly happy with it so far.

The weather has changed, winter is definitely here now so work progress on the Scout is going to slow down for a little bit.
But I always take this period to build a parts pile and work on smaller projects in the small heated garage at our house.
Goal is still to have this thing ready for fun early summer and I think it's very attainable unless something strange happens.

 

[Mr_Roboto]

get a pick up too. If the module didn't do it that's where my money is provided your fundamentals such as power and ground are covered.

Throw a Rochester 220 TBI from a 305 on it and be happy. Probably could use the oem box witg fuel pressure adjustment. Use the existing ignition to covert to HEI.

 

[Jon01]

I think I'm gonna tap out on the IH power. Even with OD and EFI it'll be a 160hp, 10mpg unit that leaks oil like a sieve and peaks about 3000rpm.
Plus, it will cost more to adapt OD/EFI than it will to just swap this thing.
I am always watching for good pullouts on CL/Marketplace as it never hurts to have a spare LQ4 laying around.
Came across a nice 04 unit with 145k on it for 1100, complete balancer to transfer case so I ran up there and grabbed it with a buddy last weekend.

I think this will make its way into the Scout. Debating about adding a cam but I think I might just toss an oil pump in it and leave well enough alone.
I'll probably have the 65e rebuilt just for good measure.

This weekend wifey and I ran over to Canada and picked up the axles, high crossover and hydraulic assist steering stuff.
These are key to the build. They're already set up for spring over, have had caster corrected, chromo axles, lockers, 4.88's, spicer u-joints, etc...I should be able to slap these in and go, worst case I have to grind the perches off and reset pinion angle.

Next step is split the trans from the motor and get to cleaning the motor up. I hope to have it prepped and ready for a coat of IH red by the end of the weekend.

 

[Mr_Roboto]

This took a turn.

 

[Jon01]

This took a turn.

Yeah, I thought about it long and hard and this just makes sense.
For the $ I'll have getting the 345 adapted to the NV4500, EFI added, etc...I can have this LQ4 in there and running.

Also made the decision to rewire it while I'm at it.

American Autowire makes a direct fit kit for Scouts and doing the swap at this time just makes sense so I can fully integrate it into the new harness.

 

[Spivitz]

You Sir haz dem skilz ?

 

[Jon01]

You Sir haz dem skilz ?

Thanks Spivitz!
I've done several swaps and can handle the tuning too.
TBH I've thought about doing a few on the side to make some cash $.

 

[Shawn1112]

How the fuck did I miss this, this is awesome!
I wish I had half your skills to do everything your doing!

 

[Jon01]

How the fuck did I miss this, this is awesome!
I wish I had half your skills to do everything your doing!

Thanks Shawn1112 !
This kind of stuff is my rain man thing, I'm just good at it and understand it.

 

[IceCreamAssassin]

So still gonna use nv4500 or nah?

 

[Jon01]

So still gonna use nv4500 or nah?

Nah, I'm just gonna run the 65e that came on this pullout.

 

[LoveSpank]

This is frigging awesome and makes me jelly. Love where this is headed.

 

[Jon01]

I was really second guessing whether or not I wanted to put a 4L60 based trans into this thing.
I know my throttle habits and a cammed LQ4, 4.88 gears, combined with 35's would likely make short work of anything less than a well built 60.
With the cost of a built 60 and crawl ratio in mind, plus with what I can get for the LQ4 pullout I figured fuck it, I'll see if I can come across a decent swap with a 6 speed auto.
So, was Marketplacing around Sunday and came across a 6.2/6L80E pullout down in Missouri for the right money.
Dude sent me some vids, we made a deal, he pulled it yesterday and I ran down today and grabbed it.

It's definitely crusty but that's easy, some acid and she'll be minty fresh again - way easier than wire wheeling the LQ4 pullout up to minty standards.

Pretty tired tonight after the trek but got the intake and valve covers pulled.
It looks clean inside so I'm hopeful it was well maintained.

Tomorrow I'm gonna split the engine from the trans and get the engine mounted on the stand and stick the trans in the corner.

 

[LikeABauce302]

LS swapped Scout? I like where this is going! Nice work!

 

[cap42]

Liking the change of drivetrain! That 6.2 should wake that thing up.

 

[Jon01]

Thanks guys. It was fun with the 160hp 345 in high school.
Nearly 3x that with OD and good suspension should be a riot and go lots of places I don't need to go.

Got the motor split and put on the stand tonight with wifey's help.
Tomorrow I'm gonna clean the motor up, hit it with etching primer and clean the garage up.

 

[Jon01]

Just spent an hour cleaning about 3 square inches with acetone.
This is dumb, I'm gonna go ge some oven cleaner, let it warm up a little bit and hook up my power washer.

 

[Jon01]

I gave up on the acetone/dawn and paintbrush routine and broke out the power washer which was interesting considering the high here today was 2*. About froze my balls to my pant leg.
But, it's clean, primed and first coat of paint applied.

2 coats of POR15 etching primer

And a single coat of IH Red implement paint.

I'll be replacing the pan and valve covers and will have the timing cover blasted when I take it off so it'll all be nice and purty once it's together.
Plan is to hit it with a second coat of this implement paint tomorrow and see where it lands. If it takes 3 coats then that's fine.

 

[Jon01]

After another coat I am happy with how the block is coming out, but the heads really looked like dogshit. The corrosion and having to be careful about not getting shit down in the ports really made it hard to get them cleaned up to my standards.
So, I decided to pop the heads and have them cleaned and resurfaced. This morning wifey and I hit the garage and we now have a shortblock.

It wasn't hard to convince myself that this is the way, I have a set of studs and ls9 head gaskets left over from another project and they'll fit this just fine.
Once we got the heads off and out of the way I blew the bolt holes out and ran a thread chaser through them.
Then got the studs run in and LS9 head gaskets set in place.

It looks like the price of the Kevko pan I use for swaps has gone up 50%(thanks Brandon) so I'll just have the stock pan cleaned and reuse it.
If the machine shop can turn these heads around for me quick my hope is to be able to get this thing back together early in the week.
RockAuto and Advance Adapters got into my wallet, ordered gaskets and some misc BS stuff that'll be needed to get this back together as well as the adapter to bolt the Jeep D300 I got in Canada from the guy I bought the axles from to the back of the 6L80E.