Some of you may not like what I am about to say, but my first bus, which was a 26' little Neoplan, had the 8.2L non turbo. It was extremely underpowered, noisy, and really stunk. It would up having a bad head gasket and had to be scrapped. That little bus had it share of issues...I checked this one out a lot better.
My first school bus I ever drove back in 1984 was a GMC/BlueBird conventional. It had the 8.2 fuel pincher and never gave me a ounce of problems. Some people call the 8.2 a "throwaway" motor. I DO know that the oldest bus we have in the fleet at the moment has a 8.2 non turbo, and although she is SSSSLLLOOOWWW, she will ALWAYS start and run, and will get you there. we use it as a breakdown swap bus. very seldom used, but reliable.
Please remember, that no matter which engine that you may run across, there will be people who love it, or hate it. My opinion is the NON turbo is not that great, but the turbos had some serious head issues.
shawn
By the way, my friend had a holiday rambler 33' motorhome that had the 8.2 in it. He went cross country, not once, but twice, and the only issue he had with it was a bad alternator, and thats really not the engines issue. My consensous is just to watch your coolant levels, and get it checked pretty quick if it starts losing it...otherwise, they arent bad.
sorry for the long winded post...