Gents, some good points here:
1. Maintenance is key - I was betting on the fact that since it transported student/kids that it will be properly maintained. There's also an inspection certificate approval from Department of Highway Patrol dated 3/16/15 at 345,251 miles ago but still don't know what they did (as Benny pointed out) which means I should give it a full tune up to get a baseline.
2. Great to hear stories of engines going 400k miles and still hauling.
3. Motivating to see a Suburban conversion and gives me an idea that it can be done, but expensive.
I'll take pictures of the bus (engine/tranny) tomorrow and post it here to maybe shed some light.