MY 1st SCOUT ! ! (carb question)

[Doc Stewart]

at sea level in california I a running 61 jets in a 2300 2bbbl on a 304 sv8. they sell junk for gas here

[IH64Scout]

The "duraspark" hei style upgrade is cake and will noticeably improve how it runs. With junkyard parts and a painless wiring harness I efi'd my '77 scout for as much as a new holley carb.

[thehud]

Originally Posted by 96smoke-eater

Thanks man..... seems i did read something about a "duraspark " or something like that.... When U said "FI" are U referring to fuel injection ? So, R U saying u can piece together a DIY fuel injection set up for my 345 V-8 on the cheap ? Cause that would be awesome ?... thanks for the info about the carb....I'll just clean it and put a rebuild kit in it and tune it the best I can....

If you have any local pull-a-part or similar yards in your area, they sometimes have $50 wheelbarrow days where you can fill your wheelbarrow with everything you can for one charge. That's where I got the majority of the parts for my fuel injection (actually enough to build close to 3 systems) and a ton of other odds and ends. The money for the EFI goes into buying new components and the electronics to program new chips. Well that and if you want to have some fancy stuff made. But being conservative, if you use primarily used parts and have a decent skill set, $400 to $500 will go a very long way on getting you pretty much everything.

You can also watch eBay, sometimes you can get almost all you need off the GM donor for around $150.

[Thomas]

---Holley List# 6386. See my post in the Useful P/N List thread for alcohol approved & reusable parts for when you wish to rebuild it. AFAIC, there's no true improvement when it comes to EFI. No one has shown numbers that constitute changing over. It's all about inability to tune and ease of typing on a keyboard to do what they couldn't, but if you want something different or want to say "I installed it myself", it's a different tale.

Originally Posted by thehud

If you have any local pull-a-part or similar yards in your area, they sometimes have $50 wheelbarrow days where you can fill your wheelbarrow with everything you can for one charge.

---There, they would have Pull-a-Part where it's $2 a head and prices are set for each part. You can purchase a sealed beam headlight from a Pinto or a projector style from a Mercedes for roughly $12. 4-Speed Transmissions are roughly $70 no matter what they come out of, same with V6 engines. V8s are IIRC around $120 complete, again, no matter what they come out of. Cleanest yards I have ever seen, with fresh 3/4 stone put down once a month or so.

---Good luck finding anything International there. You'd be better off taking a trip to GA.

---The Birmingham yard is nice, if you like Birmingham. I have come out with roughly $700 in parts and paid only $80, cause the person at the register priced the parts as low as possible (E.G., a complete [large] engine harness with sensors & Control Modules was priced as a small harness). There's also another yard across the street that I never had the chance to visit.

[Eric VanBuren]

Originally Posted by Thomas

---Holley List# 6386. See my post in the Useful P/N List thread for alcohol approved & reusable parts for when you wish to rebuild it. AFAIC, there's no true improvement when it comes to EFI. No one has shown numbers that constitute changing over. It's all about inability to tune and ease of typing on a keyboard to do what they couldn't, but if you want something different or want to say "I installed it myself", it's a different tale.

EFI does improve performance as it is an easy 10% increase in MPG and since your timing curve does not have to be a curve, you can gain a seat of the pants performance gain.

[96smoke-eater]

I've got this Holley 2300 cleaned up and polished like a new penny... Im just gonna make sure the newly rebuilt carb gets good clean, filtered gas to it. I'll just make sure its well adjusted and tuned right and that little 2bbl will be fine for me... I have to keep my own personal goal with this vehicle on track. Which is a father/son project. I dont need a faster, more powerful V-8 for a teenage boy to drive. i just want it to be a soild, reliable running V-8... I'm gonna either do a gas tank sealer kit or just put a plastic tank in it so I donrt have to worry about the rusty crud that was in the carb.. prior to the rebuild..
BTW how many turns on the idle mixture screws at the base plate of the carb ?

[scoutboy74]

Start with an equal 2.5 turns out from gently seated and dial both sides in equally from there to achieve your lean best idle. It's likely you will wind up somewhere between 1.5 - 2 turns out. A vacuum gauge connected to monitor manifold vacuum is helpful but not necessary. Use your ears to listen for the beginning of engine stumble. Use your eyes to watch for erratic engine movement. That means you've gone in too far with the mix screw and need to back off a quarter turn. After you fiddle with it enough times, you'll get the feel. This needs to be done with the engine warmed up and idle speed @ 700 revs.

I agree with your strategy. Ensuring that everything is at an optimum state of tune is a pretty good place to be. While it won't win many paved-surface races, you will find that there will be plenty of power on tap for normal driving and hauling cargo. These engines weren't designed with the Light Line vehicles in mind. They were what was readily available and therefore cost effective at the time. Plus, the IH propeller heads knew these engines would serve the purpose well enough...and indeed they've proven themselves quite worthy over the decades. To get truly neck-snapping acceleration from a Binder, it takes fairly deep pockets, especially when sticking with an IH mill. A 426 Hemi swapped in would be one shortcut of sorts.