95 IH skoolie........

[eggman-SKO]

met with an unfortunate end. The DT466 dropped a valve and it wasnt pretty. Current estimates to get it fixed are between $3500 and $7,000. Not happening. It is currently sitting at a truckstop near the Ohio/Indiana border off of Highway 70. Looking to get $1,000 out of it. There are 4 good tires, good AT545 tranny, good rear end with 4.44 gears, windows, some flooring, but no system type stuff. We tried to gut it before leaving it on Monday. If no one here wants it, it will go to the scrap yard by the weekend.

Jeff
618-410-5223

 

[the_experience03]

I'm sorry to hear of your misfortune.

 

[eggman-SKO]

Thats one way to look at it. However, the village was starting to give me alot of greif over it because of its size. Now I have started looking for one that is less than 30 feet long. Then I can beat them at their own game. Ordinance says no RV over 30 feet long in the driveway. Doesnt say anything about it being ugly. So that is what I am working on just for them.

I had great plans for that one and had come a long way on it. But oh well. There is a reason for everything. Now I just have to find out that reason.

 

[phillbus914]

Wow I think that everyone's biggest nightmare with a skoolie. I just checked out your other post and it looks like you've done a lot of work to the bus, I'd hate to see it scrapped.

I'd call on some used engines... Although I'd bet it'll cost a lot to replace in a flat nose bus like that (and mine :shock: )

How far do you need it towed to get it home? I've never flat towed my bus but I've pulled it out of some soft mud in the spring with my F150 (in 4-low) and it pulled it with easier than I thought.

Good luck!

 

[eggman-SKO]

The materials I have in it are 8 sheets of 3/4" t & g plywood, 8 sheets of 3/8" bead board, 3 sheets of 16 ga. steel, 6 rv windows, 8 sheets of 1" x 4 x 8 foam, and about 40 2 x 3 studs. Everything else was removed/ripped out on Monday morning.

As far as replacing the engine, estimate was $4-5K for the engine and another possibly $2k for labor and towing. Towing back to my place near St. Louis is totally out of the question. Another guy in our club bought a 95 IH with a DT466 in it, 8 window, for $3500. So, even with the material in the one already, versus getting a different engine for it, or getting that one repaired. Its all about the break even point.

Yes, I do have alot of time invested in it. However, I look at it as therapy. So doing a time working on the bus versus time at a shrinks office, I came out way ahead on the bus side of things. Time is just time. If I wouldnt have been working on the bus, I would have been sitting in front of the idiot box watching it.

 

[eggman-SKO]

So, finding a shorter bus to conform to their retarded "rules" is a nice option... Make it ugly as sin on the outside, as long as you can enjoy being inside, it doesn't matter.

I'd design an ugly paint job that had "HOA SUCKS ASS" in it somehow that wasn't easily seen and required some imaginative thought to see it... But that just how I am.

-Mac

I do like the suggestion on the paint job. However, I'll have to do it very creatively. Since its a village ordinance. I live in a small village of 300 people. Most of them are older and dont like change or anything different. And, well, here I am. Thanks everyone for your thoughts. I just need to turn a very large chunk of iron.

 

[the_experience03]

Can you atleast get your RV windows out of it or is the drive not worth it?

Still sucks, man. Now you have me worried about my drive across Minnesota and North Dakota in my bus next week.

 

[eggman-SKO]

The drive is not worth it. Only had $100 in the windows. Will look for a different design next time. Dont be scared to drive it. A friend of mine who is has been a deisel mech since the early 60's has seen that happen to engines with less than 3,000 mile on them, so its just something that happens.

 

[Coma]

I blew a motor on my first skoolie. I was fortunate enough to be cloes to home and able to limp it back home. Blew a hole in the piston. I searched for a donor engine from another bus. Wound up keeping the supposed donor bus, applied the lessons learned from the first. ****, try to sell it on Evil-Bay.

 

[lapeer20m]

it's a good thing i don't have the money or time to buy that bus. It's darn near worth it juts for the rear end. I've heard that a rebuild kit can be had for the 466 for around $1K. for that price, I might even to try and rebuild the engine, and i'm not much of an engine mechanic. That bus isn't too far from me.

i have to say that if my bus ever shoots a rod out the side of the block or some such thing while i'm on a far away road trip i would do what you did. Unload the expensive stuff into a pickup or a van and send the rest to the scrap yard.

The bus has to be worth almost $1K just in scrap. My bus is between 15 and 20K pounds.

good luck man! sorry it happened....especially whith the legendary dt466....how many miles were on the engine?

 

[eggman-SKO]

After the price of the rebuild kit, you will have to add in a new head. One of the valves wasnt very nice to the head. It blows antifreeze out the tailpipe faster than you can put it in.

The bus weighs in around 18,000 pounds. That is alot of scrap. It also has 4 good rear tires with plenty of tread on them. The engine only had 130K on it which is the part that kinda pisses me off. But I have been told that a valve doesnt care when it drops, can be at 100 miles or a 1,000,000 miles. When it goes it goes.

I was on my way back from an IH truck show, where the bus placed second in the Medium duty, street modified class. My scout was on a trailer being towed by the bus when it all went down. After making the decision Monday night, I started ripping stuff and putting on the trailer behind the scout. It made for an interesting sight on the parking lot.

Any one interested in it? Good tranny, rear end, 4 tires, good turbo. Let me know.

 

[odyssess]

Sorry about your bus eggman It's not just the sum of the parts its the time and love we put into them. It is always fun to start a new project though. It just gets better and better.