Rear Engines-Are they really that bad?

[Sehnsucht]

Originally Posted by EastCoastCB

So odd though that late last night they joined just to make that one comment. Seems VERY trollish.

Did you piss off anyone recently? Lol

[EastCoastCB]

Originally Posted by Sehnsucht

Did you piss off anyone recently? Lol

not recently.

[Truffles]

Originally Posted by WIbluebird

With CEs though you are constantly balancing on the front tires which I find awkward.

Also V8 diesels in general are harder to work on than straight six motors. On my old 7.3 Powerstroke (same as T444E) I found it a pain in the ass to do anything on the top end of the motor (good luck getting at stuff in the valley!!)

I never get mechanics that complain about working on RE buses. FE buses are way harder to work on, especially the ones with bigger motors such as the DT466 or the CAT motors which are shoehorned in there with inches to spare. Don't get me started on the FE 8.3 Cummins that Bluebird used to offer in the 90s-early 2000s.

As someone who bought a FE Cummins 8.3, please do get started explaining what difficulties I can expect.

[WIbluebird]

Originally Posted by Truffles

As someone who bought a FE Cummins 8.3, please do get started explaining what difficulties I can expect.

Front engine dognose buses are just harder to work on, thats the nature of the game. Bluebird actually stopped offering the 8.3 on the front engine chassis because it would no longer fit when the ISC was redesigned to meet the first wave of emission regs in '03.



(well also because few customers ordered it, most buyers that want the big motor also want it in pusher format).

[Sehnsucht]

Bluebirds also have that steeply raked hood which reduces engine compartment space and cooling capacity. Semi truck manufacturers learned that the hard way too, when they got too aggressive with the aerodynamics they didn't consider the reduced airflow of tiny front grills until the trucks started overheating in SoCal climbing the Conejo grade.

Back to topic at hand, overheating has also been an expressed concern with REs because they have to channel volumes of air off the sides of the bus as it's moving. Hopefully bus manufacturers take this into consideration in their design but don't be surprised if you start running hot because you're demanding more of the engine than the school district did.