Newbie converter and beyond stoked!!

[crusaderII]

Hey everyone!
We just purchased the most beautiful 1981 MCI Crusader II off of eBay for the incredible low price of $5,000. She runs like a dream and is super clean!
Still need to get her gutted but here are a few basic pictures...

Thanks for looking and stay tuned!
We do have an Instagram account called @thebiglittledream so feel free to follow along there!
I'm excited to be a part of this forum, even though she's not quite a skoolie. Us coach bus owners need a clever nickname too!

 

[deftone]

Hey everyone!
We just purchased the most beautiful 1981 MCI Crusader II off of eBay for the incredible low price of $5,000. She runs like a dream and is super clean!
Still need to get her gutted but here are a few basic pictures...

Thanks for looking and stay tuned!
We do have an Instagram account called @thebiglittledream so feel free to follow along there!
I'm excited to be a part of this forum, even though she's not quite a skoolie. Us coach bus owners need a clever nickname too!

That is an awesome looking coach! Welcome to the forum!

What do you have planned?

 

[cadillackid]

I dont know how to access the photos.. but I Love to see Coaches on here... they are a different breed and im always excited to see conversions of them undertaken!
-Christopher

 

[deftone]

I dont know how to access the photos.. but I Love to see Coaches on here... they are a different breed and im always excited to see conversions of them undertaken!
-Christopher

I had to right click and open them in a new tab for some reason

 

[Scooternj]

Hey everyone!
We just purchased the most beautiful 1981 MCI Crusader II off of eBay for the incredible low price of $5,000. She runs like a dream and is super clean!
Still need to get her gutted but here are a few basic pictures...

Thanks for looking and stay tuned!
We do have an Instagram account called @thebiglittledream so feel free to follow along there!
I'm excited to be a part of this forum, even though she's not quite a skoolie. Us coach bus owners need a clever nickname too!

Fixed them for you

 

[cadillackid]

super cool bus!!! I love these with the aluminum bodies!!
-Christopher

 

[EastCoastCB]

For five grand, ya done good!
I've seen folks pay more for rusted school buses with Cat engines from michigan!

 

[cowlitzcoach]

It would appear as if you have found a great bus.

If it has a 2-cycle Detroit Diesel (8V-71, 6V-92, or 8V-92) in it be prepared for it to overheat. There is not much you can do to prevent it except to make sure your cooling system is working as well as it can.

The basic problem is the two radiators are not really large enough, particularly if your bus has an automatic transmission.

Make sure your cooling box is completely sealed. If there is any space between the radiator and the frame the air will suck through there instead of through the radiator core. On my MCI the seal around the radiators had deteriorated and no longer sealed. I would overheat anytime the ambient went over 80* and I started up a hill. Once I sealed everything up tight (I used spray foam insulation) it didn't start to overheat until the ambient went over 90* and I was towards the top of the hill.

There were two sizes of squirrel cages. The larger one can move a lot more air which is really important when you are going slow up a hill.

Greyhound was one of the operators that used misters to help cool things down. In the summer it wasn't unusual to see puffs of steam occasionally come out of the radiators as they were going up hills. If you use a mister system make sure you only use distilled water. Any water that is distilled will have some sort of dissolved solids in it. Over time those solids will accumulate on the radiators making your overheating issues worse.

Good luck and happy trails to you.

 

[cadillackid]

interesting... I never knew anyone actually used misting to keep an engine cool... ive often wondered how much waster it would take to do any good.. obviously humidity being a factor to some extent...

-Christopher

 

[somewhereinusa]

We used misters on an IMSA Corvette, it would overheat on pace laps and under yellow flags, when everyone bunched up it was also too slow.