The September/October 2022 issue of Vintage Truck magazine is available in our gift shop now and will be available on newsstands soon. Continuing with our 30th Anniversary, we have in store for you some great features yet again! The cover feature is the 1974 International Scout II Perkins Diesel Prototype. Story by B. Mitchell Carlson • Photos by Brad Bowling

1974 International Scout II Perkins Diesel Prototype

How the Scout II Diesel was almost powered by Perkins instead of Nissan

International Harvester Corp. was a company in the early 1970s that could simultaneously be considered ahead of and behind the times.

International was forward-thinking in anticipating a market for light-duty diesel trucks. Indeed, IHC dipped a toe into that water in the early 1960s, offering its naturally aspirated D301 6-cylinder diesel as an option in the first Loadstars, then as a special order in its one-ton trucks from 1963 through 1968. Few were produced because the agriculture-sourced engine was not ideal for highway use and the market just was not interested. The powerplant wasn’t even cataloged as a factory option. Despite this failed experiment, IHC saw change on the horizon.

Efforts to create a diesel-powered Scout probably began in the mid-1960s, because of the truck’s popularity as an export product, but it was the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) oil embargo of 1973 through 1974 that made the company go full throttle toward a more fuel-efficient diesel Scout. IHC’s offerings of robust yet fuel-thirsty V-8 engines needed more economical alternatives in addition to the optional AMC-sourced 6-cylinder powerplants or anemic 196ci “half a 392ci V-8” slant 4-cylinder. At the time, a diesel engine was the simplest way to get the fuel efficiency of a gas-powered 4-cylinder and the torque of a V-8.

To read more about the 1974 International Scout II, pick up a copy of the September/October 2022 issue of Vintage Truck magazine!

Articles in this issue include:

FEATURES

Drive Your Old Truck Day 2022
One Leads to Another
How Corvettes led Diane Anderson to get her 1961 Chevrolet C10
Story by Loren Hoekema, Photos by Brad Bowling
1974 International Scout II Perkins Diesel Prototype
How the Scout II Diesel was almost powered by Perkins instead of Nissan
Story by B. Mitchell Carlson, Photos by Brad Bowling
Baby Bronco
David Hatfield’s 1989 Ford Bronco II reminds us why these were such hot sellers!
Story and photos by Brad Bowling
“The Parting of the Ways”
This 1917 VIM truck with huckster body helped put the horse out to pasture.
Story by Robert Gabrick, Photos by Brad Bowling

DEPARTMENTS

Letter from the Editor
Letters to the Editor
The Workhorse: 1947 Chevrolet 3600
Books in the Bed: Reviews by Robert Gabrick
The Road Less Traveled: Napoleon Trucks
Hey Loren!
Classifieds
Show Guide
Granny Gear: Ol’ Blue and the Great West Virginia Potato Famine

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