Well, That's not a Good Sign...

Like I said before, the Scout’s 196 4cyl was buried in the snow nearby. The guy with the backhoe, dug around till he found it and plopped it in my truck. “Covered up”... was more like it had a holey tarp over half of it. So no surprise, it was locked up. I knew it would have issues since the guy I had bought the Scout from had pulled the motor 10 years earlier to replace the oil seals or something and never got around to it. So I drug the motor into my shed and filled the cylinders with Marvel Mystery Oil. A week or two later I was surprised with success and got it to move but there was zero compression. Here’s where I have to be honest…. I’m not a mechanic. I understand the basics and I’m willing to learn but before this project I’d never opened a motor, rearend, transfer case, transmission or any other oily part of a motor. I’ve changed the oil, replaced starters, alternators, and brake light bulbs but that’s about it. I knew I wanted to drive this Scout across the country so I wasn’t going to make my first try at a rebuild on a motor that I’d be depending on for thousands of miles.

After some research on Alaska hot rod and 4x4 Facebook pages I found a guy who had numerous recommendations for dragster builds. I gave him a call and he said he was up to the challenge of something new. I flew my motor into Anchorage (for a 4 cyl it’s a heavy SOB) and he drove there and picked it up. Long story short, the motor had an irreparable crack in the block and we were dead in the water. I scoured Alaska for a motor for three months. Found a couple 152s and a v8, but no 196s anywhere. Then on a when on my way to the Alaska State Fair if heard a rumor of a guy with dozens of International trucks in Wasilla. I talked the wife and kids into making a short detour to see what we could find. Wasilla isn't a big place so we just drove around looking and asking people and sure enough we found him. He had a couple Scout 800s and about 40 IH trucks. He didn’t want to sell just a motor but as we were wandering around just checking out cool old IHs my boy tripped over a motor in the waist high grass. Unbelievably it was a 196-4cyl sitting on a pallet. With not a great deal of hope it would be ok, the guy sold it to me for $100 and told me I could have my money back if it was cracked. The rebuild guy drove out and picked it up a week later and tore it down. No cracks!….. back in business. This guy rebuilds dragster motors in his spare time so you should have seen the motors all lined up in his garage with my 4cyl setting in the middle of all these Hemis with blowers and turbos, and god knows what… it was awesome! So a couple months later I had a motor! Currently it’s back in Bethel and setting in my shed. With shipping, parts and labor I have about 4gs in the motor but it’s just what it takes when you have to fly it back and forth in a jet.