1986 Thomas Pusher Conversion

[Anthony]

Woo Hoo! Just bought my bus. A friend of mine is picking it up in CO for me and delivering to my house in So Cal. We should have it tomorrow and I plan to make time this weekend to get it started.

Here are my wheels:


It was a church bus and a military bus before that. 40' long. Wish me luck!

[chev49]

since it has a cat engine, i imagane its a 3208 non turbo model.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by chev49

since it has a cat engine, i imagane its a 3208 non turbo model.

No, it actually is a 3208 turbo. I bought it on ebay and it was hard to tell which it was. We were happy to see it was the turbo. It makes up for the oil it burns....have to get that fixed.

[bansil]

GOOD LUCK

[yankeflyer]

Well ya good luck and I have pretty much the same bus. Don`t throw nothing away, it will come in handy later.

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The 3208 is the last of its kind. Mine is low miles about 30,000 on a block thats on its last reman at .040 over on the crank bearings.
In ten years maybe 15,000 miles and pretty much all of it educational. Biggest thing I did to mine was to swap out the low geared third member with a high geared 2:90 Rockwell and up my highway speed to 75mph - so fun to pass the big boys in 60mph governed semi`s - so many projects here so much talent.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by yankeflyer

The 3208 is the last of its kind.

Nice, I'll check out your thread. Mike has 285k. I got a good deal on the bus, though. My neighbor deals in buses and said he can get me a new engine cheap if we end up needing it. He thinks this one will still last me a solid ten years, but may need a little work to get it in good shape.

When he delivered the bus (he picked it up in Colorado for me), he was able to do 75 easy, but that was stock and empty. By the time we do the conversion, who knows.

[chev49]

engine overhaul is set at hours and i think bearings are supposed to be replaced at 25,000 hrs.
mine does not smoke, has good oil pressure and has 215k miles and 15000 hrs, but when i get back to the other farm i am gonna pull the pan and check the bearings.

[Tango]

Looks like a mighty nice unit to build on. And, as long as you have the pan off, you might consider taking a peek up each cylinder from below. Just rotate the engine by hand and examine the cylinder walls for condition (scratches, gouging, etc...a flashlight and mirror help). And although I don't know how it's done, I seem to recall an old-time diesel tech saying there is even a way to check the lower rings from below. If anyone here knows more about that...please share it...or confirm it as a tall tale.

Best of luck with the build and do keep the pix coming.

[yankeflyer]

Just started mine and it goes right to 75lbs oil pressure and after warm up settles in around 45/50 lbs. 140245 miles on the bus and 11034 hrs on the tack but the tack don`t always work but those hours, still should in the ballpark. I was told that after this year, cat won`t use the 3208 anymore.

Fuel cost prohibit travel for pleasure and have forced me to focus on the affordable alernitive in CNG. I would like trade up to a CNG power plant. My allison T6 transmision is good to go and has been trouble free but now that write this, the filter and oil change is due.

These skoolie projects are so perfect for our time - I-10 and the Arizona California border - many buses in the winter.

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http://www.skoolie.net/gallery2/v/Skoolies/84+Thomas/