1994 Bluebird TC2000 Conversion

[Pcrew]

I have been reading a lot of info on Skoolie.net. This is a great site. Lots of knowledge here to be shared. This pass week i bought a 94 Bluebird TC2000 FE with a 5.9L Cummins. It has the AT 545. air brakes 72 passenger. I bought this bus at auction for $1700.00. With auction fees and notary the total was $1890.00. I believe I got a sweet deal. A few days later I went pick it up. Drove 5 hours 15 minutes in heavy traffic and interstate travel. Was surprised that it ran so well. I finally got home and started checking things out. It appears to have an oil leak some where. There is oil all over the underside of motor and frame. Probably will degrease it and pressure wash to find leak.
I have had it a couple days and have taken the seats out already.
Also, before I picked up the bus I went to my local insurance agent and got liability with no problem through progressive. Will post pics when I can.

[CaptainHooligan]

Sorry about the oil leak. Hope you find it.

[superdave]

great motor, you can get a complete gasket set on ebay pretty cheap. hope its something simple, good luck

[Pcrew]

Thanks CaptainHooligan.

Thanks for the info superdave. Hopefully it's not bad. It sure looks like 22 years of age from the underside. Haha.

I did do 62mph at 2600rpm. Is this good?

[CaptainHooligan]

Way more experienced guys on here than me, but that seems slow-ish. I looked at a bus that did 70 @2800 rpm.

Where you at in Mississippi?

[Carytowncat]

I always say motors are supposed to leak oil; it's a great reminder to check the level often. So i don't mind a minor leak in the vehicles i drive.

Oddly enough i have a suspicion that the Shell Rotella is minimizing my oil leaks in my old pick up truck, because it seems to be leaking much less oil than when i bought it two years ago.

[Pcrew]

Wow, that is pretty fast. I wonder if mine is governed down.
I am in a coastal county MS. (Hancock)
LOL@Carytowncat I do have a 55 gallon drum of rotella.

[Pcrew]

Has anyone used the metal that is inside the back of the seats to cover window openings? I was thinking about using this metal. It would take two seats to cover one window. Let them overlap and rivet together. Would this work?

[cadillackid]

its not uncommon at all for diesel engines to have oil leaks... ever notice at rest areas how the Semi-truck parking spots are completely covered in oil wheras the car spots are usually pretty clean? as long as you arent gushing it out and as long as its not getting into dangerous areas like severely hitting the exhaust around the turbo, it probably wont hurt anything..

I am a firm believe in Rotella T oil... I run it in my DT-360 and will run it in the new bus too.. my DT-360 sometimes leaves a few drops of oil on the ground, other times not.. its wierd..

my new bus left a couple drops of oil on the ground the first time I drove it from the lot to the hotel.. but on its 1100 mile trek to florida i didnt notice any oil on the ground.. so that one is intermittent..

and always be in the habit of checking your oil often... esp until you learn how much your bus uses..

change it, start fresh, drive it around and check it every day.. if on a road trip stop and check it every 100 miles and learn how it uses it.. nothing worse you can do to a diesel engine than to run it down low on oil... your oil Pressure gauge is not an oil level indicator.. if the gauge starts going down due to sucking air you are trashing the bearings.. (yeah its normal for the gauge to drop with the RPM's of the engine)...

-Christopher

[2kool4skool]

My 5.9 had an oil leak...I thought. Turns out it was a fuel leak that was slobbering all over the underside as I drove. Diesel has wonderful solvent properties and as it contacted the oily undercarriage it dripped off.

In my case it was the o rings on the fuel filter can and the drain valve. There are several rings.

I do have a small oil drip, very small.

[Tango]

A lot of diesel engines are like the old school Harley's.

If they aren't leaking oil...something is wrong!

[cadillackid]

Originally Posted by Tango

A lot of diesel engines are like the old school Harley's.

If they aren't leaking oil...something is wrong!

maybe.. if they arent leaking oil then they arent running...

just like my dad and I always said about his 69 GTO... if the front tires were wearing out before the rear then we werent treating it right,,

-Christopher

[Tango]

When I was in high school (a hundred years ago), I remember seeing a lot of old Harley guys riding around with a coffee can hanging from their handlebars with a bent coat hanger. Finally figured it out when I saw a few of them pull up at a pool hall, get off their bikes, then put the coffee can under their crankcase. When they came back out an hour or so later, they all picked up the can and poured pint or so of oil back into the engine before riding off.

Who knew the Harley crowd was already into recycling way back then?

[cadillackid]

ha!! when i had my first car... a diesel Peugeot.. it blew a transmission gasket... not a rotating seal.. but it would drop a quart of fluid every 30 miles or so.. (that got smelly smoky and expensive).. so I bungie'd a metal lasagna pan up to the bottom of the tranny and each day did the same thing... poured the fluid back in the tranny..

until i fnnaly "fixed" the leak... when i didnt need the car for a couple days, I got underneath.. I knew where the gasket was bad... sand papered it and then smeared 2 part high strength epoxy all over it, covered the wet glue with a piece of duct tape...

let it sit for 2 days.. never added another drop of fluid to that tranny....

-Christopher

[milkmania]

Originally Posted by cadillackid

its not uncommon at all for diesel engines to have oil leaks... ever notice at rest areas how the Semi-truck parking spots are completely covered in oil wheras the car spots are usually pretty clean? as long as you arent gushing it out and as long as its not getting into dangerous areas like severely hitting the exhaust around the turbo, it probably wont hurt anything..

I am a firm believe in Rotella T oil... I run it in my DT-360 and will run it in the new bus too.. my DT-360 sometimes leaves a few drops of oil on the ground, other times not.. its wierd..

my new bus left a couple drops of oil on the ground the first time I drove it from the lot to the hotel.. but on its 1100 mile trek to florida i didnt notice any oil on the ground.. so that one is intermittent..

and always be in the habit of checking your oil often... esp until you learn how much your bus uses..

change it, start fresh, drive it around and check it every day.. if on a road trip stop and check it every 100 miles and learn how it uses it.. nothing worse you can do to a diesel engine than to run it down low on oil... your oil Pressure gauge is not an oil level indicator.. if the gauge starts going down due to sucking air you are trashing the bearings.. (yeah its normal for the gauge to drop with the RPM's of the engine)...

-Christopher

This price didn't seem too far out of line

[cadillackid]

nope and thats where I buy it too... at auto parts stores or truck stops they charge at least $5 more a gallon..

and I also found that buying 5 1 gallon jugs of it to be cheaper for an oil change than a 5 gallon pail... wierd..

-Christopher

[One Way Bus (RV)]

New schoolie conversion here !
Any advice or information on 1994 Blue Bird will be helpful.
I am mechanically capable but know little about diesels.
Also being internet starved ...finding it hard to find service manual or any information !!
Having air brake compressor issues.
It normalizes at 120-130 psi in a reasonable amount of time. Then driving at 2200 rpm at any speed pressure rises to 150-165 psi. Then makes a pressure realease noise but not from the release/Purge valve.
System does not Purge often.