Brought home my bus last night

[BigDaddyO]

I got a bus from Auction and picked it up from PA near NJ yesterday. My Son and I left at 2am Friday morning and got home at 10pm Friday night.

It's a 2009 Ford cutaway van with the dreaded 6.0 powerstroke. The bus was their backup bus for the last 5 years and only had 72k miles on it. The tires look new but I think they have some flat spots from sitting so much.

The trip home went quite poorly. It was warm and raining hard in PA when I picked it up and I stepped in a few puddles (this is important later).
The transmission didn't like to downshift at high speeds, I assume due to nothing but low speed driving it's entire life so I just accepted that for now. About an hour north it started getting cold so I went to turn on the heat... there was no heat... Then the windshield started to fog up so I was forced to use the AC to defog the windshield. The further north I got the colder it was, it got down to 18*F at one point and the wiper fluid would freeze to the windshield if I didn't get it all wiped off quickly. Oh, did I mention there was some heavy snow for the last 2hrs and my feet were wet and crazy cold. I'm just glad I didn't get frostbite.
The Check engine light came on the last half of the drive but I didn't notice any difference in driving and it wasn't flashing so I ignored it.

It's now parked in my driveway and I can't bring myself to even look at it today

On the bright side, they gave me a full tank of Diesel and new batteries, though they needed to use a 2x4 and large hammer to close the battery door.

[rossvtaylor]

Good news and bad news...but the bad news sounds easily remedied.

During the summer months, it's common to turn off the heater loop valves at the engine so that the interior of the bus doesn't get heated with the hot coolant flowing through the heat exchangers inside. Look for the heater loop hoses in the engine compartment and trace them back towards the block. I bet you'll either find a gate valve, that looks like a hose bib spigot handle, or a ball valve (with the lever arm). I'd guess those are turned off for last summer's use.

Skip to 33:40 in this video to see one example: https://youtu.be/3XkAU-iiNpM

Or, skip to about 4:30 in this video which shows the ball valve type...sort of hidden, too, so you know what you're looking for: https://youtu.be/gA30MFK0r-o

[cadillackid]

like ross said, common to close the valves.. and bright side you know your A/C works (and a good reason not to delete it!!)..


secindly the 6.0 isnt "dreaded".. you can make it pretty solid,, and on a bus you likely dont need to pull the heads to do it(no reason to stud it if you arent gonna hop it up)...


the 5R110 transmission used on the 6.0 is much better than the 4R100 on the 7.3 van chassis... remember your diesel engines dont rev like gas engines so what seems like low RPM may actually be too high for the engine if it downshifted...



on one of my busse's maiden voyages home I broke down for 3 days (and still had a good time).. you are doing good.. you got this

[BigDaddyO]

Thanks for the info.
I didn't see any valves to shut off the coolant but it's VERY tight in the engine compartment. I didn't see anything under the bus either. I sent a message to the Bus Depot manager I got it from and he said he will talk to his team on Tuesday. They have another of the same bus there which hasn't been picked up yet that they will look at.

Also, I was very surprised that my bus seems to be Aluminum. We removed all but the front two seats on Saturday. Today I was disassembling them to scavenge any parts I could use in the build and I came across a magnet stuck to one frame. I took it off and went to stick it to the inside of the bus and... nothing. only the rails on the wall and floor that the seats were mounted to and the rub rails on the outside are steel. Nothing else is magnetic. I guess I'm not going to be welding any holes closed, and I won't be able to do magnetic curtains either. I gotta try a stronger magnet tomorrow to see if the support frame is steel and also check the floor from under the Bus. I know I didn't see any rust before so, maybe it's aluminum.

[rossvtaylor]

Those interior wall skins, that have a rough embossed texture, are almost always aluminum. But the structure should be steel.

[cadillackid]

aluminum is real common in city / shuttle bus construction.. esp for a van chassis to save weight...



on van cutaways ive seen the heater valves under the bus or near where the rear heater lines connect.. one thing to check would be if your rear heater is hot yet your front is cold..


if thats the case then its possible an air mix door issue on the dashboard heat / air system.. 2009 was right around where ford switched to the new dash (does yours have the round dash vents?) if so I believe the hot / cold knob was electric and not mechanical anymore...

[Retired Roughneck]

what a journey right off the bat! dont get too discouraged. be patient and get the bugs out. i have gone camping 13 times in my bus so far and i love it. i actually drive it at least once a week to town for fun & to keep everything moving & charging.

i too have been doing some homework on the 6.0 powerstroke in my 05 E350? i hear all the horror stories and hear people give those motors away to people they dont like LOL but there has been a lot of good rumor's too. i may do some semi-bulletproofing? i would like to put some studs in the heads but not sure how easy it is? shops normally lift the cab up and work on everything. since my snub nose is under the bus body im not sure if its possible without maybe removing the whole motor from the front? i may open a question thread on a few things. i am thinking on just doing studs, new oil cooler & a EGR delete kit. its running really good so im affraid to make any changes......i am worried about breaking down in a mountain with no cell phone reception? LOL

anyway take a breather, walk away for a minute and think of the glass half full!
jump back in when your ready!

[Jolly Roger bus 223]

Originally Posted by Retired Roughneck

what a journey right off the bat! dont get too discouraged. be patient and get the bugs out. i have gone camping 13 times in my bus so far and i love it. i actually drive it at least once a week to town for fun & to keep everything moving & charging.

i too have been doing some homework on the 6.0 powerstroke in my 05 E350? i hear all the horror stories and hear people give those motors away to people they dont like LOL but there has been a lot of good rumor's too. i may do some semi-bulletproofing? i would like to put some studs in the heads but not sure how easy it is? shops normally lift the cab up and work on everything. since my snub nose is under the bus body im not sure if its possible without maybe removing the whole motor from the front? i may open a question thread on a few things. i am thinking on just doing studs, new oil cooler & a EGR delete kit. its running really good so im affraid to make any changes......i am worried about breaking down in a mountain with no cell phone reception? LOL
talked to my ford mechanic son and he said a van chassis 6.0 is easier to do work on because of the dog house.
to replace the head bolts to studs you have the room to pull the heads with help if you want to replace the gasket. (help would be nice)
the motor motor is doweled so you can place the heads and put the studs in after the heads are on.
hope this helps.
i recommend if you pull the heads to have them checked while they are off.
dont know all the 6.0 issues but if bolt to stud is a fix then i assume temp and or pressure is a concern?
i have a 1990 thunderbird supercoupe and the head studs and bigger intercooler was the game changer on it.
but that is suercharged not turboed.

anyway take a breather, walk away for a minute and think of the glass half full!
jump back in when your ready!

i talked to my ford mechanic son and he said that the van chassis are easier than the trucks because of the dog house and changing to studs should be easy with help to pull the heads if you want to replace the head gaskets.
the motor has dowel pins for the heads so you can put the studs in after the head is placed.
i recommend if the heads or off and out to have them checked by a machine shop. mainly for flatness but they might see cracks if you ask for magnaflux (if i remember right) or valve seals and guides that need to be looked at.
of course if you dont know what they are talking about ask to see it and point out there concern to you.

[Jolly Roger bus 223]

dont know how i was able to add to your post?
weird?

[Retired Roughneck]

thanks Jollyroger, more usefull info! ya i talked to a guy who pulled his heads for inspection and turned into a can of worms. he said they wouldnt weld the crack so he ended up getting brand new ones. then new injectors & so-on.

i did some headwork on a LS so i know about re-surface, torque & make up sequence. but new to the diesel world?

like caddilackid said i may not need to mess with the heads because i am not gonna hot rod it. it runs really good and dont smoke or anything!FICM seems to be working properly. freaked me out when the RPM changed by itself while idling. now i know its a good thing LOL

i found a local deisel shop with bulletproofing experience. i made a appointment for Monday to get it checked out and run diagnostics. gonna look through it and see if anybody has previously made any upgrades or changes? then make decisions from that point?

when i crawled under the bus to buy it the guy didnt even know it had a new rebuilt tranny. brand spanking new clean with all the stickers! took me like 2-3 quarts little by little to fill it up properly. no leaks and shifts beautifully! so maybe some improvements have been made on the motor that i dont know about?

has anybody heard of the acid flush that was recommended to remove casting sand back in the day?

sorry BigdaddyO to get off topic but the more we learn about the 6.0s the better! love this forum.

also i too went to use magnetic curtains and realized it was aluminum LOL

also had flat spots on the tires for sure. would get a weird vibration starting @ 60 mph. i put all new AT tires, front end alignment, tie rods & shocks and now she is smooth sailing!

enjoy the build!