According to the seller, this 1977 International Scout Pickup has the rare SD33 straight-six Nissan diesel engine! Located in Niagara Falls, New York, it can be found here on Craigslist with an asking price of $7,000. I’m not sure if they will get an offer close to the asking price, but this seems like a pretty good old truck. Thanks to Ikey H. for the tip on this one! Let’s take a closer look.
Too bad there are a few tears in the seat cover. The retro styling of the plaid seat is very cool looking. The interior doesn’t seem like it has been modified and is pretty typical of the mid-70s. The simulated wood grain dash is a nice touch and was pretty classy for a utilitarian truck like this one. Other than a good cleaning and maybe a seat cover, there doesn’t appear that much needs to be done to make this a comfortable cockpit.
Here you can see the truck bed that has been lined with plywood. This is okay as long as it doesn’t get wet. Any moisture that gets underneath will be trapped by the wood and will accelerate any rust. You can tell this truck has worked a bit, but it doesn’t look abused. As mentioned before, this truck has a diesel engine. It is a 3.2-liter straight-six that was produced by Nissan. Unfortunately, there are no photos of the engine in the ad, nor does it say what the running condition is.
Overall, the body looks pretty decent. It’s a little hard to tell until you can get it out in the daylight and inspect it. There doesn’t seem to be abundant rust or body damage. There are a few photos of the undercarriage in the ad as well and it looks amazingly good. There is very little surface rust on the frame rails and other pieces. Overall, this looks like a nice/unique truck. What do you think?
These International trucks always look like they’ve lived hard lives. You just never see one with 5,000 miles on it that was babied by its owner.
Looks pretty good to me, but the condition of the engine is an unknown factor. Let’s assume that the engine is toast. What would be a fair price?
What,s good about these truck. Alot of years will interchange . Seems a little high on the price and figuring if a person was gonna restore it or just fix it up and run it. These years were bad about having rust issues. The metal was thin too. Including the frames. They had good running gears.
This is my idea of what an SUV should be. It’s a damn shame that the Nissan Diesel engine wasn’t popular back in the 80s.
Car Nut Tacoma – I think the diesel would have found more interest if it offered more ponies. The non-turbocharged model (about half were not turbocharged) was rated at only 81 hp. IH discontinued the Scout in 1980, so popularity in the 80’s (at least as far as IH is concerned) is a moot point.
HI shutdown scout product in 1981 I know because I owned one you can tell an 81 by the square headlights, only year they came that way.
nice example….
I like these old trucks and early jeeps more than the muscle cars of my teen years. The Cameo comes to mind, oh if I.d had the wisdom to keep all of the old trucks I.d had 55 chev…..56 chev…60 ford….63 Willy Wagoneer….and 62. Apache 4×4 283 high factory stance. It kills me to see fancy restore shops lower trucks and turn into a low rider. I have nothing against low riders but they gotta be a car.
That’s a handsome truck! Makes me miss my ’77 Traveller.
I think the final yr they turboed the diesel. An S3xx instead of a S2xx I think? Also may B .2 more Ltrs? I wuz lookin into re-powering my ’66bronk (hasa stock 170/2.8) with one. Huge cab-access plate 4 transmis, no?
I like the 80 Model even more…
If International had put thicker metal on these trucks. They would probably still in business. They rode really good, easy on gas–including the v-8,s. The rod end were big. I,m surprised someone never started making race engines out of them. Dad had(still in the yard. Would like to find some good body parts for it. They were really good trucks. Maybe someday they will start making them again.
1980 was the last year of production, Desert Rat, though yours may have been titled as 1981 if it sat on the lot
IH’s SV V8 engines were great industrial engines, but the long stroke made them like low revs, not suitable for high revving race applications. That said, quite a few have been built into racers. I have 345 that was balanced and will turn 6K without blowing up. Not that I’d want to do that for long.
The Nissan SD33 was by most accounts a turd, prone to cracked heads and with anemic power. Good for smogging the neighborhood and pretty good gas mileage. They do have their diehard adherents though and if AI had a Scout with one, I wouldn’t rush out to swap in something else.
Desert rat stands corrected I guess my was a 1980. I have had three scouts a 74,79 and that 81 that turned out to be an 80, you must remember Desert rat’s mind is not what it used to be….
I’ve seen s-series IH pickups (1956 only) titled as ‘59s, so you never know what might show up on the title.