New Vintage Bus Owner, Lots of Questions

[MaxnMagBusLife]

Hello all.

My name is Max. My wife and I have recently purchased a 1984 MCI MC-9 Coach. For the purposes of this post, I will put all the questions I have in order, and thank you in advance to all of you lovely people who respond to this newbies questions! Questions will be in bold.

On the MCI MC-9, what should we have inspected before a long road trip?

What is your preferred oil type on this vehicle? I have seen some people prefer straight 40w Delo, and some I have seen use 15w-40 with no issues, although there is controversy on that oil type if I remember correctly.

Secondly, this may seem an odd question, but I cannot find an answer in the manual. There are 2 T handles running into the engine block, but the manual does not mention which of these is the oil fill. One is larger and one is small with a 90 degree angle. (Can post picture for reference) Which of these is the oil fill?

How did you go about laying flooring over heating vents, etc? My bus has all major heating routed through the floor, and I want to make sure that I can lay over the heating "holes" without issue. There is also a small ramp at the front of the bus with vents there. Did any owners in a similar situation leave a small vent for air when laying flooring over that ramp?

When framing your bus, what tools, drillbits etc did you find the best for drilling into the side panels, and the metal framing above?

On that same note, we plan to drill through the floor of the bus to have access for plumbing, electrical etc in the bays underneath. If anyone has done similar, what was your preferred tool?

This coach also had a Lavatory in it, and more importantly an air activated door lock. When I uninstalled the lav, the air line had to be cut for removal. It was a dead end line for adding rigidity to the lock, and I was wondering anyone else's methods for "capping" that off permanently. (it seems odd that a line in the Lav can make the whole bus not want to come up to pressure due to air leaking) I currently have a pressure fitting with flex paste around the base doing the trick.

Sorry for such a long winded post, and if this belongs in another forum please let me know! Thank you for your time.

[s2mikon]

I’m going to assume that this is a Detroit 8v71 series engine. The oil is Delo 100 40 wt. DO NOT USE Delo 400 or 15w40. These engines MUST HAVE low sulfated ash engine oil unlike 4 cycle diesel engines.

[Rwnielsen]

Hi and welcome
Regarding the air, just unscrew that fitting from the tank and put an appropriate sized plug in the hole. You may need two wrenches to not twist the tank fitting. Use some teflon tape to seal it.
On the oil fill I would think the smaller of the two is to the tranny and the larger being oil. You would have to verify this with a visual and/or smell check. Oil will be very dark/black and your trans more of a translucent red.
Also...I could be mistaken so get a second opinion or two

[MaxnMagBusLife]

I figured as much as I posted this. It is amazing the amount of people that run 15w40 in them and choke them. My question then is what would recommend for trans fluid as far as products? You are correct on engine type. (sadly I am missing most of the manual, hence my questions)

[s2mikon]

On Detroit 2 cycle engines you must use oil with less than 1% sulphated ash. .7% is ideal. This is to protect the rings from gumming up in the lands. The straight weight oil is for the rod bearings. 2 cycle Detroit engines have more rod bearing wear on the top half of the bearings because they are under load every time they come down. I used to work for a firm that would rotate the bearings in the rods every year during down time and install new sets every other year. 30 Wt in cold weather and 40 Wt in warm climate. Delo 100 is the thing here. I think that Rotella T1 is also good too. Have to check the specs on it.Go order a couple of cases and keep it on hand. Some of the operators used to use 30 Wt in the Allisons with Allison’s blessing. We did too. It was recommended with the retarder transmissions, and for off road and severe duty use. So don’t be surprised if you find motor oil in the Allison. Good luck finding someone to work on it now. Most of us are retired, dead or in a rest home and just can’t remember.