Hey!! :)

[Crystalineminddesign]

Hello everyone! My name is Rachel. My fiance Kevin and I have been lurking around here for a few months now--shoutout to Dick aka somewhereinusa for turning us on to this GREAT resource! But i thought now would be a good time to post a little intro because...TODAY WE BOUGHT A BUS!! We have been traveling the past 4 months or so, living out of a subaru legacy with rooftop tent attached to the top. Had a plan to continue for a year, all our stops mapped out, using freecampsites.net, staying with friends, and using an annual national parks pass. Its been amazing but a lot rougher on the car than we anticipated, and i dont want to destroy the car!! Also we LOVE our tent, its got a built in mattress and we stay cozy in our 20 degree rated sleeping bags, but its kinda tough when you can only cook and go to the bathroom outside! so when i saw a video on facebook about a couple transforming a school bus into a rolling tiny home i was sold, from then on it was always "if we only had a bus we could...." so we finally did it!

we are so excited to get started and im sure we will have a LOT of questions. Our bus is a 1997 bluebird mini bird with a chevy 6.2 liter diesel engine, automatic transmission--not sure exactly what kind of transmission other than that, the guy who showed it to us guessed it to be a turbo 400 transmission. Paid $2500 for it. It does need new batteries though--guy told us he'd put new ones in but turns out he didnt have the right ones in stock. Wish i knew that in time to talk em down to 2000 but its all good. Its only got 49000 miles on it! It was purchased new by this career center/technical school in Sallisaw & Muskogee OK and used only to take carpentry students from campus to job sites, as the guy who showed it to us (he was head of maintenance who'd been there over 10 years) told us. I believe its legit! We are getting ready to take it home to Kevin's parents' house in Huntsville AL. Probably gonna stay there a bit to get started on it, but we have come across so many great places on our travels where we could totally park and work on the bus and met many people who have valuable knowledge and skills that are willing to help us!

Ill attach some photos of the bus! Glad to be here!!

 

[Carytowncat]

Welcome! Oh yeah good deal, good thing you didnt talk him down that's a very fair price.

 

[Stewzer55]

Welcome! Hope you enjoy your conversion. Also, I could be wrong, but with your bus being 1997, I'd expect it to have a 6.5L 4L80E combination.

 

[milkmania]

Welcome aboard:greetings:

Sallisaw is 30 minutes north of me and the technology center you'd be referring to is Indian Capital... I've been a substitute teacher for Kiamichi Technology Center for 9 years. They're all within the same system and students all complete against each other at local, state, and national level.

Good group and have the resources to maintain their vehicles properly... They're funded entirely differently than public schools.

Edit: now that I enlarged the pics... I see Indian Capital on the second pic

 

[M1031A1]

That 6.2L engine is a steady runner! It won't be fast, but it is sooooooo reliable!!!! I have one in my M1031 with a turbo 400 transmission. My M1031 is an '88. I LOVE that little truck! That engine is so bulletproof!!!! Just run name quality fuel in her. The fuel injection distributor pump at the front of the engine is VERY picky about fuel quality! The tolerances are REDICULOUSLY tight to produce the pressure required for the injectors. Have fun with her!

M

 

[somewhereinusa]

Welcome, glad to see you made it.

 

[GreyCoyote]

Sweet bus, Crystaline!! And you get to blame SomewhereInUSA if you cant find a 12-step Skoolie recovery program. Epic! :biggrin:

 

[milkmania]

That 6.2L engine is a steady runner! It won't be fast, but it is sooooooo reliable!!!! I have one in my M1031 with a turbo 400 transmission. My M1031 is an '88. I LOVE that little truck! That engine is so bulletproof!!!! Just run name quality fuel in her. The fuel injection distributor pump at the front of the engine is VERY picky about fuel quality! The tolerances are REDICULOUSLY tight to produce the pressure required for the injectors. Have fun with her!

M

Bout damned time you dragged back in!!!

 

[Crystalineminddesign]

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone!!!! <3

Welcome! Oh yeah good deal, good thing you didnt talk him down that's a very fair price.

Agreed, it was the price i was hoping to pay from the start--but with the batteries needing replaced (listing on the auction website said it ran great, no mention of battery issues) and the bus having sat longer than was mentioned on the listing, I was like hmmm might could have made a lower offer! but all in all i'm happy with it that we paid what we did!!

Welcome! Hope you enjoy your conversion. Also, I could be wrong, but with your bus being 1997, I'd expect it to have a 6.5L 4L80E combination.

No, you're totally right--that was the original engine. We were told that that engine blew up and the 6.2L is the replacement. He said that a turbo engine is great for making the engine real hot so it can get up a hill without slowing down much but it also wears out the engine sooner, a 6.2 will have a little harder time getting up the hill but its gonna run for a lot longer! So i'm happy with it!

That 6.2L engine is a steady runner! It won't be fast, but it is sooooooo reliable!!!! I have one in my M1031 with a turbo 400 transmission. My M1031 is an '88. I LOVE that little truck! That engine is so bulletproof!!!! Just run name quality fuel in her. The fuel injection distributor pump at the front of the engine is VERY picky about fuel quality! The tolerances are REDICULOUSLY tight to produce the pressure required for the injectors. Have fun with her!

M

Good to know!!! We were thinking of converting her to run on WVO, is that not recommended? :ermm:

 

[ol trunt]

I'd rather work an extra shift every now and then to pay for real diesel fuel. That way I am ALMOST sure I won't be clogging things up with hard to process french fry grease--besides, I'm way to lazy to bother with going through the fussy procedure necessary to make WVO work. Jack

 

[cadillackid]

I say forget the WVO esp if you are going to go anywhere cold at all.. you'll have a disasterous mess!! run the good stuff esp in that 6.2, they are great engines but take care of them and they will take care of you!..

I like these minibirds.. always dug the shape of them.. body looks to be in nice shape on it too!!
-Christopher

 

[milkmania]

earlier this winter I accidentally got bacon grease on one of my outdoor extension cords! (bbq accident)

After cleaning it several times, I still haven't gotten the crap off!

I've tried several degreasers, and I can still feel it on the cord... I can't imagine dealing with a whole barrel of the stuff!

maybe this summer, I'll hit it with 190 degree water and soap from my EccoTemp water heater.

 

[Phatman]

earlier this winter I accidentally got bacon grease on one of my outdoor extension cords! (bbq accident)

After cleaning it several times, I still haven't gotten the crap off!

I've tried several degreasers, and I can still feel it on the cord... I can't imagine dealing with a whole barrel of the stuff!

maybe this summer, I'll hit it with 190 degree water and soap from my EccoTemp water heater.

Just rub some dirt on it !!!

 

[Crystalineminddesign]

hmm duly noted! thanks guys, disappointed to hear that about wvo but will definitely take it into consideration.

 

[cowlitzcoach]

I don't want to rain on your parade but I would say forget about trying to run on WVO.

The main reason most people want to run on WVO is so they can get "free" fuel from all of the fast food restaurants around the country. 20-years ago that was possible. 10-years ago is was becoming increasingly difficult. Now it is virtually impossible to find sources of enough WVO to keep a bus going.

It is one thing to walk into a Burger King or McDonalds with a bucket and ask for 5-gallons of WVO to keep you VW Rabbit hopping another 500 miles. It is a completely different proposition to walk in with a barrel and ask for 55-gallons of WVO to keep your bus moving another 500 miles.

The other part of the problem is fewer and fewer places purchase their fryer oil or grease. Most just lease it and pay for shrinkage. The owner of the fryer oil or grease many times recycles it themselves to run their equipment that is out delivering fresh fry oil/grease and picking up the used.

Once you have your bus stripped out of everything bus related you are not going to use it would be a very good idea to take your bus somewhere to get weighed.

The GM/Workhorse P-30 chassis has been used by body upfitters in all sorts of vocational and recreational applications since the '70's. It was a great chassis for what it was/is. What it isn't is a stout heavy duty truck chassis. What it is more than anything else is a 1-ton light duty truck chassis. They are famous for wearing out and breaking springs, spring hangers, shocks, shock mounts, and stabilizer mounts. Most had a GVWR not much more than 16,000 lbs. On a bus with an empty weight in excess of 12,000 lbs it doesn't give you a lot to work with in regards to build in stuff and filling it with your junk and plunder.

If you have been able to live for an extended period of time in a Subaru then moving into this bus will be like moving from a studio to a 3-bedroom apartment.

Lay out the floor plan you think will work with painter's tape and fashion some walls out of cardboard. Once you have it all mocked up you then need to take it out for a weekend or two. After a couple of days you will discover how well your design on paper translated onto the floor of the bus.

Good luck and happy trails to you.

 

[SDR76]

Hi. Congrats on the shorty!! The 6.2 is a good reliable slug. No power, fair mileage, and reliable as they get! They seem to have a hard time in very cold winters though. I would assume you have a 4L80e trans. (Based on year). Climb under and look at the design and bolt pattern of the transmission pan. Then google GM trans pan patterns. This will tell you for sure.