The story so far....As you can tell from the photos, my 1962 SC80 No 2007, spent most of its life in the Volunteer Bush Fire Service. First with water tank and pump, then toolboxes, oil drums etc as the mechanic's ute to travel around and service the Fire Trucks, then polished up for the Group Captain to use as his Saturday runabout. When I gained possession in Dec 1986 it had 21000 miles on the clock. It now has 26000 on it. Several coats of various red and orange colours covered the original Harvester Green (dark) on the outside of the body , while the engine compartment and underbody were as-built. After much rubbing down and smoothing it was repainted in the original colour. That was in 1991. I made the frame and had the soft top stitched up at that time also. In 1992 I decided to do a complete mechanical rebuild. Or should I say conversion. By the time it's finished (very close now) there won't be much left of the original. I started with a 727 Torqueflite / Dana 20 combo out of a Traveler. The auto box was rebuilt in the usual way with heavy duty bolt-in rear sprag, clutch packs and bands. The torque converter was swapped for a Valiant 360 unit with about 1800rpm stall speed. The transfer case was fitted with new bearings, seals, preload shims, etc. The gears are like new. The biggest headache was trying to decide what engine to use. It HAD to be a V-8 !! And nothing under about 350 size. The 345 Inter V-8 was discarded as being too heavy, a pretty tight fit, lacking peppy performance and very costly to rebuild. No doubt about the quality and life expectency though.

The 360 Mopar never really appealed to me. Maybe because I don't know much about it. Anyway, of the BIG 3 it is the least popular and the most expensive to rebuild and hot-up. If I was into Mopars I would go straight to a Dodge Big Block. It really came down to the Ford Cleveland or Windsor 351 and the Chevy 350. The Fords have been put into early Scouts plenty of times. The main concern was the lack of clearance under the sump (pan) which is deepest at the front, because that's where the oil pump and the distributor are located. The Bronco sump and oil pickup help a little. If my memory serves me, the Fords are a bit wider than the Chev and the Cleveland is heavier.(All of this was figured out about 7 years ago. This is a LONG term project....). Anyhow, the Chevy won the day. With a short water pump and bottom pulley it sits far enough forward for the distributor to easily clear the firewall. And parts are very cheap! The engine is a 1975 2 bolt 350. Fully rebuilt as follows: Flat top hypereutectic pistons + .030" , reground crank, rods closed and honed, heads fully reco'd with heavy valve springs, cam is to G.M. spec for 350 HP with double row roller chain and sprocket set, Edelbrock Performer intake, Holley 600 vac sec carby, Mallory twin point dizzy, rams horn exhaust manifolds (aluminum sprayed) into a single 2 1/2" stainless steel system. There's the usual chrome dress-up items. It goes quite well..... Thats all for now. Part 2 will cover the biggest headache... adapting the Chevy to the Inter bell housing on the Torqueflite tranny plus the torque converter, starter motor, engine mounts, radiator etc. etc.

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Alan Hogden's 1963 80 Series Scout

Updated 2 MAY 98