I have a friend building a 72 Scout II. He wants a diesel, and we've been round and round on which one. The easiest to get is a 617 obviously, and with me as his friend all he needs to do is ask and I'll find one for him. But with a large engine bay there are may options for him to choose from. My dad is in the midst of swapping out his 7.3IDI with banks kit from his 88 Ford, My friend is considering that swap, but the weigh it much more then the existing 345. We've come to the conclusion that the 4BT is the best option, but he doesn't have the funds at the moment to buy any of the ones we've found for sale.

I honestly think the 617 could be a good match, at least for what hes using the scout for. He started a 4WD exploration club. Once a year we take a week or so and explore ghost town in Nevada. With that concept in mind fuel efficiency and mechanical simplicity, as well as parts availability are just as important as HP and TQ numbers. There is a fellow here on this forum who is mating a 617 to a transmission for a Toyota truck for his Landcruiser project. This is the route I suggested to my friend. I'd add to that a dual transfer-case setup from Marlin Crawler and I don't think you'd have any problems with torque. Not saying you'd go anywhere fast. But that's not really the point.

Best of luck with your project. I already sent a link to this tread to my friend. I'm sure we'll both be reading as you make progress!

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Something to note on me is that I'm a hot rodder. I have built many, many engines. Diesels are my fave, because when a 5500 pound truck, powered by an engine I've built blows down the 1/4 mile, totally humiliating the high end sports car, I get all tingly inside.

So, SOMEONE PLEASE SLAP ME WHEN I FORGET I'M BUILDING A 4X4, NOT A DRAGSTER!!!

I have to remind myself, its all about torque multiplication. If I mate an 617 to a pre94 gm NV4500 and get the 3.15 low gears for my Dana 20, and put 3.54 gears in my axles, then were talking like 70.7:1 in 4wL and 1st gear. If my engine is putting out just 150 lbft at the crank, that 10,605 at the wheels.

Hmm, I'm going to need to upgrade all my axles to 4340 chromoly. :-)

By the way, to anyone that thinks I should build a gasser dodge engine, the answer is NO! This is a diesel rig.

As to what engine I use, thats going to come down to what donor car was available at the time. But the build won't start till july-august. See you all then. I will have pic galore.

I'm OK with you wanting to build a diesel truck because you want one. However don't expect the conversion to save money. As for being more reliable, that depends on engine age / type and attention to details.

Also consider that engine swaps between brands is an entirely different operation than bolting in some parts more or less designed to work together. Or plugging in a diesel tuner box.

" The transmission was a '53 and the motor turned out to be a '73
And when we tried to put in the bolts all the holes were gone "

It is pretty easy to lash something together but, it takes lots of engineering time to keep the reliability up.

I may be new to this form, but I am not new to vehicle customization, engineering, or design. I've been building custom cars for years. This scout will be my 9th personal custom, and will free my corvair up for the wife to use as her daily driver.

I will resist the urge to blather on about my corvair's engine, but its quite the masterpiece. I think the appropriate thermodynamic cycle that describes how the engine operates is the brayton cycle. But any more than that is getting off topic. If anyone wants to know more about this engine I can post a description in another, more appropriate, place on this form.

It is good to hear you have some background. There are many posts on various boards where someone wants to build something beyond a few bolts but has no idea of the work involved.

So the Corvair is a gas turbine? Some of what you have done would be on topic for the tech section or general how to mod stuff.

What sort of day job do you have?

Yep, that was me, 17 years ago. If I knew then, what I know now... I swear I'd have never... Who am I kidding, I'd still have put that Cummins 4bt into my 83 Camaro, just without breaking my finger.

A boxer six, actually. I'll find the right place to post and then boast.

I'm a full time Dad and Husband, part time alaskan fisherman, and retired majority partner in a Rural ISP that serves about 2800 subscribers.

So most of my day consists of making breakfast, taking my son down to our church for school, then snuggling with my wife till she decides its time for her to work in the greenhouse and I to make a lot of thumpling, banging, and grinding noises out in my shop, then I take lunch to our son, then come home to work on one of her "honey do" list of projects, then go pick up my son from school, help him with his homework, then we go out to the shop to make more thumping, banging, and grinding noises till mom flips off the breaker and yells "I'm going to throw it to the pigs if you two don't come in and eat your dinner!", then send my son to bed... something, somethings, an more something, then go to bed.

So, as you can see, I just don't have time for a day job. Especially when you throw in my sons three 4H clubs, junior drag racing, my hillclimb racing, my wifes lawn and garden shows, the gun and knife shows (them is fur the whole family), the county fair, hunting season, cutting firewood, etc, etc, etnosium, my how the time flys.

For a nice balanced driver the 617 is a much better choice than something that weighs 800# (4bt). I think you'll find the scout with the 617 will come in at low 3000's weight. I bet the 617 is lighter than the half 345 four cylinder and lighter still than the 345 v8 or any of the IH v8's. The nissan diesel offered prolly is about the same weight as the 617 but it did not put out as much as the 617 turbo. I think the fellows who had or have them though find them fine for normal mudding. I remember testing a new one in 76 or 77, can't remember if turbo or not, but it seemed adequate but not real peppy. I liked the sound of it for sure.

yesterday I saw a really sweet looking orange terra yesterday.

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

The SD33 was offered from 76-79, the SD33T was only available in 1980, and only with the T19. I have searched high and low for one of these engines. No luck.

IHC, where are you located? No mention in the post view here. I am thinking that you are in in the United States, but I could be wrong.

I have a 1987 300TD (OM603) that was being driven daily until it was hit this week. I would keep it for a repower project in a 4x4 as you are planning, but I am moving and not able to act on that desire right now.

Check out the classifieds section here for info. The car is located in Winchester, Va.

Good luck with your project.

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85 300D 3 pedal. Current project.
83 300TD (need rear wiper assembly dead or alive)
84 300SD Daily driver
85 300TD almost 400k miles and driven daily.
98 E300D *sold
86 300SDL *sold and made flawless 10 hour journey to new home.

Skamokawa, WA.

Consider it a blessing. They didn't have the best reputation and I'm sure parts are unobtanium today.

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'83 300D, 126K miles.

IHC I have the same plans as you but putting the OM606 with only 65 k miles on it with a om603 ip in my 79 scout terra, I dont know what transmission to use and adapters.
please help.