Then you have come to the right place.

First off, don't trust any factory IH gauge unless it is fresh from the factory. These gauges are 18 years old at the least which makes them a little suspect.

Second, Do you have the mechanical gauge installed yet? Yes? O.K. Does it still run low? O.K.

The rule of thumb to go by with all engines is 10lbs of oil pressure for every 1000 RPM's the engine is running at. Therefore at idle a normal IH engine, idling a 700-850 RPM's would be at 7-9lbs of pressure. At 3500 RPM's the pressure would be at about 35lbs.

So if your mechanical gauge is showing results around these numbers than everything is cool.

On the other hand if the mechanical gauge is below these numbers than the next question is, Does you engine have a valve tap when it's running? If the answer is, yes, then it is time to be concerned.

The first thing I would do is change the oil. If this doesn't work well then some more drastic things need to be done.

After the oil change if the valve tap is still present or comes back then Go buy a product called Engine Wash. It is really kerosene that we are going to add to your engine oil. Follow the directions closely.

After the engine wash if things haven't returned to normal then it's time to start opening things up.

Part of the problems with the Scout engines is the design of their oil pans. The oil pump pickup is located in the back hump of the pan, because; that is the deepest part. The problem is that the oil return holes in the back of the engine that lead to the back pan get blocked. This causes the oil to all return to the front hump of the pan. Now I stated earlyer that the pickup is in the back so this causes the oil pump to suck air not oil.

So, in light of this I would pull the valve covers off and look for any debris in the heads. Espesially around the back of the heads. Also I would get some kind of wire and probe down in the drain back holes in the back of the heads. If these are clogged this would cause the front oil drain back problem. Clean these out real good with pipe cleanersa or something like that and pour some more of that Engine Wash or kerosen through the holes. After reassembling the valve covers I would do the Engine Wash once more to be sure that all the loose particles were washed out of the returns. Change the filter also to collect the extra sludge you have created.

This should fix the problem. If for some reason this still doesn't solve the problem, there is one mor solution. A by-pass hose from the front sump to the back sump of the oil pan. This would allow the oil in the front to drain back to the rear. This may be a problem if you are an active four wheeler as any kind of external hoses could be snagged on the trail and I don't think I need to tell you what that would do!

If all of these things don't work then you have a much more serious problem. The IH V8 engines develop their top end oil pressure from the rear Cam bearing. If after cleaning the engine throughly you still have the tapping and low oil pressure the only thing left is to replace that bearing. What happens is the bearing either spins, or shifts just ever so slightly forward and you lode all oil pressure to you heads.

So, good luck and happy Scoutn'.