Out of Hibernation! Another 1980 Diesel Traveler resurection begins!

[JLCBikes]

Pm me if you want the oem alternator.

[vegestar]

I have plenty of stock alternators, even have a freshly re-built one and plenty of other SD33 related parts if anyone needs. I had to move my stockpile of parts from the truck so I could start driving the darn thing! Which I have been for the last couple weeks

Desperately need to chronicle what has been done thus far, a lot has happened in January as the weather here has been fantastic. And as soon as I have a minute to sort through and organize all the pics (and remind myself of everything lol) I promise to do just that.

[vegestar]

Haha, just realized that I just hit 500 posts which earned me the title of binder driver! The timing couldn't be more perfect as I just started driving my truck. So let me start filling everyone in on how I got to this point.

I started by adjusted the valves and pump timing on the temporary power plant


Then I set about extracting the T19 and Dana 300 from it's resting place in the back of the truck


I had to give up my forklift so all these operations with an engine hoist take 4 times as long as necessary but I was determined so I didn't let it bother me. So after repositioning everything I got the engine and trans mated up.


By the end of that day I had the combo slid into the truck and bolted in.

[vegestar]

Next came the fun part. I spent 2 solid days doing a Delco alt conversion and getting the Power steering pump and 12SI to play nicely together. Not as easy as it may seem. I think I went to the auto parts store 4 or 5 times to get the right belts. And I still need to make a new adjustment arm for the power steering pump but it seems to be working fine for now.

Here's the alt bracket milling action shot:


And the finished product:



And finally the alt installed:


The alt is from my guys around the corner, outstanding quality 100 amp rebuild. $85 with a core. The last hurdle to overcome was an additional pressure hose for the hydraboost. I remembered reading that one could simply use another stock diesel Scout hose (mine being a 1980 and having the o-ring style fittings already) however the stock Scout hose proved to be a difficult thing to come by. A quick trip to the boneyard netted a hose that I could form and bend to whatever shape I needed.

With all that buttoned up it was time for a little wiring to do away with the Hitachi voltage regulator and get the 12SI hooked up properly. The electrical system on this truck is going to see many upgrades. The stock system will remain intact while I add a secondary fuse block and relays for headlamps (going to upgrade to HID), electric cooling fan(s), glow plugs and 12 volt vegetable oil heater. Look forward to those mods in the coming days.

[vegestar]

Update desperately needed here! I was able to get the truck up and running for my 30th b-day in Feb. It was the best gift ever! I have thoroughly enjoyed driving and working on it since then. Just a quick overview of the work done as follows. And just to let you guys know almost everything used for these mods came from the junkyard or things I've collected over the years.

The first thing that had to go was the fixed cooling fan. I found it to be not only obnoxiously loud at highway speed but to be robbing precious power from the SD33 NA engine. I fitted an aux cooling fan from a Mercedes in front of the radiator and a temp switch from a ford tempo or something like that. The fan comes on at aprox 190* but that never happens! No matter how hard I run the engine or what kind of stop and go traffic I end up in. We'll see how it does in the Nevada desert this year. (more on that later)

Next I needed to add a tow hitch. My powerstroke was in hibernation again waiting for a new fuel pump so I needed something for quick local emergency tows. My Traveler came from the factory with a trailer wiring package but was never fitted with a hitch. I had a couple spare hitches laying around but none of them really matched the frame width of the Scout. I walked over to Charlie, my parts Scout, and there was a perfectly good hitch and an added bonus. A skid plate for the gas tank! Score! Just as simple as removing everything from one truck and bolting it on the other. No drilling needed.

Now it was time to start on the vegetable oil conversion. This is actually what I do for a living so you can imagine how hard it was to find time to work on my own truck. I had a tank that was removed from someones car years ago. I made a frame/bracket to mount it in the cargo area above the passenger side wheel well. Then added a nice tube in tube fuel line I pulled from a clients truck leading to a heat exchanger in the engine compartment. From there fuel flows to an oversize Racor 900 series fuel/water separator that was heated by a copper coil around it. Also from the same vehicle that the tank came from. I removed the stock fuel filter on the engine and re-routed fuel flow from the lift pump directly to the IP. I also added a regulated by-bass return off the IP using an OFV from a Mercedes. Don't worry, I'll post pics of all this when I can.

The last mod to mention came after I accepted a job offer to work for the fine folks at Burning Man, hence the mention of the Nevada desert earlier in this post. I decided an on board air system would serve me well. Not really for airing up tires on the trail but more for running air tools and having compressed air for cleaning playa dust from everything. And again I seemed to have most of the necessary pieces already in my arsenal. The york compressor of course being the easiest to mount was first to go in. I robbed a pressure switch and a check valve/unloader from a dead harbor freight compressor and went to Grainger for a coalescing filter/oil separator and a manifold for all the fittings. Went to my local speed shop for a nice K&N breather to use as an intake filter for the compressor. I actually plan to mount the filter inside the cab under the dash to help keep the playa dust out. I'm running air brake hose for all the connections (except the inlet and discharge from the compressor) cause I like the way it looks. Last thing I'm waiting on is a tank (or 2) that I can mount between the driveshaft and frame. I had a couple options (air tank from a tire mounting machine and an old propane tank from a forklift) but both were just a tad large in diameter for my likings.

Other than the basics like new tires and shocks and a temporary exhaust system that about sums it up. I will add pics to show off all the goodies when I can. Most likely it won't be till I return from BRC in Sept. Cheers and happy trails till then!

[guidolyons]

Glad you made some excellent progress.

It feels good to drive it after all that hard work.

Now, where's the pics?

[djsscout80]

Hello,
I am a newbie. I am also the original owner of 1980 Scout Terra SD33T. Read your very interesting posts. I have not driven my scout in a long time.I am having some issues with my engine's ignition. It does crank but does not keep running. One thing though, I never changed the glow plugs. I'd love to get it running. Any help to get it running again is appreciated. I am in San Jose.

[vegestar]

Wow! Where has the year gone? I'm overdue for some pics, that's for sure... Somehow the Scout became my DD which has been a challenge at times but tons of fun to say the least. Still haven't found the right combination of parts to have decent windshield wipers and had some issues blowing the tail light/dash fuse. Chased that issue around in circles following up on all the mods I've done and catching up on playa maintenance from last year. Finally changed the brake light bulbs and fixed it. Of course that was the first suggestion from my best friend...

I'm adding a new gallery of the Traveler at work. Believe it or not I towed all kinds of things with that NA motor. I mean the thing has no guts at all, the 3:54 gears and 31" tires are not at all suited to the power of the NA. But with some patience and a tailwind you'd be surprised what I pulled off! lol

Now this next part might make some of you a little uneasy... But I guess I like to live life on the edge. About a month ago I was digging through the basement for some parts for a Mercedes manual transmission swap. I kept tripping over the abundance of SD 33T turbos and manifolds I seem to have collected and somehow ended up with one of them on my Scout I actually tried to talk myself out of it with the whole piston squirter argument but I kept thinking "heck, the stock turbo pistons couldn't hold up. Why can't I give the NA pistons a try?" I'm not going for crazy power, mainly just want to breathe some more air in the altitude. That was my main complaint from work in the desert last year. At 4000 ft and constantly pushing wind getting up to 55 was a chore for the little NA, but I do admit that's asking a lot of the old girl... Anyway, back to the turbo swap. I decided/needed to swap everything that was turbo engine related: Injection pump and timing device, oil cooler, and of course the manifolds. I "massaged" the oil feed and return lines to match the un-used alternator ports. IP swap was a breeze, according to my deciphering of the markings on the timing devices the NA has 9* of advance and the turbo has 11* if anyone is interested. Swapped in a nicely cleaned turbo oil cooler and hit an unexpected roadblock when I went to bolt up the oil pipes. At first I thought the oil filter housings may have been different but after removing it and comparing to another they were identical. I realized the turbo block is about 10MM wider at the bottom to make room for the larger oil galleries. Well I was too far in to turn back at this point so I made up a spacer to shim out the oil filter housing to match up with the cooler lines. Made up a quick egr block off/egt mount and bolted on the 3" downpipe I got from Carl years ago. That's about all there was to it. I ran a can of diesel purge through the Injection pump I chose from the stash. At this point they've all been sitting around for years.

Certainly not my finest hour but I'm pleased with the result so far. It puts out about 6lbs max boost and the hottest I've gotten the pyro up to was 850*. As far as I can tell the engine has stopped burning oil altogether... go figure, added bonus if that keeps up. And the coolant temps haven't changed a bit. Cooling fan still never cycles. And it must be my imagination but the oil pressure seems a tad higher too. But remember kids! Don't try this at home! I'm a seasoned diesel nut with a firm grasp of what's going on inside that explosion machine. And I'm fully (mentally, lol) prepared to deal with the consequences should they arise. Stay tuned for short or long term reports. In the meantime I'll be finishing up the rehab of my vintage one-off RV. Oh ya, did I mention I found an old RV on an International chassis?...