Buying a TRANSIT BUS!!!!!!

[dbsoundman]

Originally Posted by Jipner16

Well I ended up getting the All-American and drove it the 10 hours home in -25C. The auction site manager was a saint and got it going earlier than we got there. It took me 16 hours to just get to the place driving from Eastern Canada and then 10 more driving to Winnipeg. Thankfully it drove well and took care of me. Only thing was that I couldn't get the heaters to really blast anything more than lukewarm air. I also got an engine stop warning heading past 2100 rpm. After getting home I got it gutted with the gf and now prepping for roof raise and slide out addition. Will make a new thread for the conversion. Got a couple questions and some things to work on but I am pretty happy with how its going so far.

Did you have a winter cover on the radiator? With those cold temps and the heaters blasting I’m guessing the engine coolant never really got up to temperature. 190 to 200 F is typical running temp for a C7.

The engine stop warning is weird, maybe it was temperature related too? Max RPMs for a C7 are closer to like 2400 RPMs if I recall.

[Jipner16]

No I literally just had all the fluids I thought might be low. There was a low coolant light on beforehand and the lot manager put in two gallons of coolant. Possibly the level wasn't quite high enough? Also there is about 35 feet of hose to get to the front of the bus, so in that crazy cold it might have cooled it off too much. It mostly happened when I would try to keep speed up going uphill. I could really only set the cruise control to 95 km per hour without it going off. All my gauges to me looked fine for temp, oil pressure and such. I have a blue bird bus mechanic friend that I hope can help me run the codes on it and figure out exactly what is going on. Air filter needs a change for sure and I am guessing several other things.

[Truthseeker4449]

Originally Posted by Jipner16

Only thing was that I couldn't get the heaters to really blast anything more than lukewarm air. I also got an engine stop warning heading past 2100 rpm.

The engine's water pump is not strong enough shove coolant 40 feet to the front of the bus and back to the engine. There should be an electric boost pump plumbed in to create that flow. Usually the boost pump will not be far from the engine before the hoses go through the firewall. Those pumps do tend to fail after a number of years, but check that it is receiving power and has a good ground before replacing the pump. Unity Bus Parts stocks a number of pumps.

Look around for CAT ET, the factory service software for Caterpillar. It's not too difficult to find with the subscription service cracked so it works without a proper license. You'll need it to figure out why the stop warning is triggering.

[cadillackid]

2 gallons of coolant down is concerning.. thats quite a bit.. where did it go? if it leaks externally then you have a nice pathway to fixing it but if it just keeps going down again and never leaks externally then it becomes concerning..



at highway speeds the water pump in an RE should be able to move the coolant to the front of the bus.. ive driven a few RE busses that had rear and midship heaters as well as the front.. and at highway speeds the booster pump wasnt even on and the heaters were hot.. at idle or lower RPMs then the boost pump was a for sure necessary thing..

[DeMac]

I'm not sure if there is a boost pump in our 42' RE.

Retired from central Florida, Freddy came stock without passenger (coolant) heaters or entry door defroster.

The coolant loop does exist, straight to the lone drivers defroster, then back. Idk if there is a pump in that defroster. Possibly, the RE water pump is doing all the work?


(Factory installed 3-way to nowhere)

[cadillackid]

right side / rear / mid heaters are sold as optional on busses... ive seen many from warm weather climates with just the driver heat / defrost..

[Truthseeker4449]

It has been my personal experience that the heaters in my buses put out weak heat without the added flow of the boost pump. If it's mild out that's not so bad, the bus will warm to about 55 degrees and the pipes will be warm to the touch. If it's actually cold (like well below freezing as OP mentioned) and you want the inside of a poorly insulated bus to feel toasty, you need more coolant flowing through the core. I can recall one time taking a long test drive down the interstate on a chilly night and my buddy was practically hugging the dashboard to keep warm because the boost pump was dead.

My professional experience over the last 5 years has taught me the usual culprit for weak heat is the boost pump. The buses I have at work currently have it even worse because they have Thermoking Athenia package units. The heater cores are on the roof. Without the boost pump they never get up to temp. The coolant ends up taking the path of least resistance through the defrost circuit. With the boost pump those cores get nice and hot really quickly.

All that said I must have missed the report of low coolant. A big air bubble isn't going to help either. Still you should check for boost pump operation as it makes a huge difference. Unless of course you plan to rip out the original heater.

[joeblack5]

This thread is very naked without pictures...can we have some pics of the bus you actually bought?
Is it a transit bus?
Thanks j

[Jipner16]

Sorry everyone I was trying to move the convo to a new thread that had more pictures and video. I am not super concerned about the heat right now as I have a ton of work to do to it on the property itself. This is the thread I started.
https://www.skoolie.net/forums/f32/b...ion-40863.html Will get more pictures there as soon as I can. I bailed on the transit bus in favor of the Blue Whale as I call it.

[T-bone]

Hey there, I was wondering if you have the plastic covers for the light fixtures inside? And would you be willing to sell them? I'm looking for some.