Mike Johnson has always been a Scout guy. He bought his first Scout in high school and kept it for about 10 years. He deployed with the Marines and decided to sell it but knew that was a bad decision shortly after.
About 7 years ago Mike found another Scout but it was in bad shape and in pieces. He slowly worked on it when he had time while attending school. He finally got it drivable 4 years ago and started taking it out on off road trips. In 2018 he took it for the first time on a 1000 mile round trip that he has been doing every year. With a 4 cylinder engine it did pretty well, but he decided that wasn’t enough. A good friend of Mike’s talked him into doing an LS swap so he installed a 5.3 Chevy engine and hasn’t looked back since. Mike said that the Scout did phenomenal on the trip this year and it averaged 16-18 mpg.
Specs: 5.3L Gen III, Scout T18, Dana 20, Scout II Dana 44 axles, Detroit lockers, 4 wheel disc brakes, 2.5″ CPT suspension lift, custom drivelines, power steering, custom fuel tank and filler neck, 33×10.50r15 BFG KM3 tires.
Sick ass scout…. I am modeling mine after your engine/tranny combo…… Bad ass ride!