First of all, thank you for everyone’s participation. I appreciate you spending your time on helping me out and answering my questions.
The video was fantastic and very informative. Unfortunately I did not see the video prior to going to see the bus; but more on that in a minute.
Since watching the video, I’ve been looking at buses non-stop and taking in the various engine types out there that people are using in their rigs. There’s a lot of of mixed reviews on the same engine (of various types) so I’m trying to weed through all of that by taking notes and getting an overall understanding for my situation. I’ve also been asking about the HEUI hose. In many of the images taken by the owners, I can see that most have been changed.
I’m going to be all over the country in this bus, therefore, I would like to make sure that whichever bus I choose, it needs to have plenty of hill climbing power and descending assistance; although I understand speed plays a big factor in the descent as well.
I’m not currently going to be pulling anything in the way of a vehicle. I currently drive an FJ Cruiser and I will not be taking it with me; however, in the future, I may get something small for in-town travel so having the power to do so will be key.
I was going to go with a shorter bus originally, but now after seeing so many conversions, I may want to stick with the longer bus — I’m not always going to be alone so if some special decides they would like to take the journey with me, there will be plenty of space for growth; albeit, I’ve seen some really nice short bus conversions that couples live out of.
If you all have any advice on sizes, I’m open to that as well — perhaps not the place for it here in this thread but I’m going to throw it out there anyway.
OK, so, as I mentioned above, I did go and see the bus; I did not look for the HEUI replacement because at that time I was not aware.
The girl that owns the bus bought it from the original owner who used it for her local school district until last year. The bus fired up nearly immediately after 3 months of sitting there. I arrived before they did and the engine had not been started; at least not before I arrived.
The issue with the radiator is still unknown as she could not articulate what her mechanic told her. She simply stated that she brought to a mechanic and they said it needed a new radiator. I looked around the radiator and did not see any issues with leaking, and I also looked at the temp gauge and did not see any issues with heating so I’m not sure what else there is to it; obviously there is something though.
The bus didn’t produce any white smoke when revving and things otherwise seemed pretty tight. What threw me off a little was there were signs of grimy oil seepage on the engine block and other areas, but nothing appeared to be leaking — no dropping and no signs of oil on the ground. Would this be common in high-mileage vehicles like this? I have no idea.
Another thing that threw me off was that it’s peak horse power (indicated on the engine plate) was a max of 207HP; this to me seems like it wouldn’t do very well with hills but it’s a short bus so maybe it would, again I have no idea.
Long story short... I am not trying to buy someone else’s headache, although, there is always the off-chance that may happen. Like most others, I’m just trying to make an informed choice while being mindful of the fact that it’s always a possibility.
Thank you all for the continued education on this! I need it.
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