Old user looking for new help- 2000 Chevy 3500

[Babus21]

Good day my short kings and queens!

So- early in the process but not new, owned a 28 foot bus and sold it after completing the main demo. Basically had 2 children and we found ourselves needing to settle and get ourselves together. That was 4 years ago now and our aims have changed! Rather than a full time bus-life living situation- we’re aiming for more recreational. The battery doesn’t scare me too much? I’m hoping a new battery would answer its issue..

Here’s the beef of why I’m asking a question at all)
1) The bus is a chevy 3500 6.5L w/ 342,844 on it. Would any general takes/knowledge on this engine? I drive a box truck for a living so the bigger diesel in my last bus was easy to understand haha
2) It is being sold by a local school corporation- I can view the item first, apart from rust holes/leaks/warning lights on dash- what should I be looking for to know the health of my purchase? Any specific engine things I should look for? (Ex. The authentic DT466 engine was blue, I almost got duped by a spray paint job into a Duramax *)

Thank you to any who read and especially respond! Happy to be diving back into the community!

 

[ewo1]

My limited understanding and experience, they are not 400k mile motors.. At your mileage, your real close to needing a rebuild.

low power, head gaskets and injectors, if I remember correctly, are some of the biggest issues.

A duramax, LBZ, would be a better choice, IMO.....

 

[Babus21]

My limited understanding and experience, they are not 400k mile motors.. At your mileage, your real close to needing a rebuild.

low power, head gaskets and injectors, if I remember correctly, are some of the biggest issues.

A duramax, LBZ, would be a better choice, IMO.....

I really appreciate your input here! That was at least one of my worries. Like I said, I come from the box truck industry where the engines go quite a bit longer.
Thank you!

 

[Albatross]

That is the 6.5L version of the Detroit-by-Chevy motor, which had a lot of improvements from the 6.2L version, but still had some issues. Here's a "Master List" of information and answers on that motor from Dieselplace:
https://www.dieselplace.com/threads...er-list-of-information-and-6-5-answers.53309/


In short, that is an "economy" motor, it's built to work a little bit, but mainly to be able to get 13-14 mpg out of it; it won't out-haul pretty much any other diesel, and it can probably be out-worked by a properly kept-up Chevy Big-Block gasser, to be perfectly honest. But they are pretty tough engines, with only a couple of weak spots that were fairly easily fixed, like relocating the PMD (an electronic fuel-pump controller) from directly on top of the exhaust manifolds. There were some head-gasket issues, but these were also fairly easily avoided if you maintained the thing and didn't work it too hard. Upgrading to ARP studs is nearly a must.



The transmission behind that is certainly a 4L80E, which is nice, because it can be the toughest tranny Chevy ever made, but their stock buildouts can be somewhat weak. I know there was an issue with the connector plug that goes into the front-top of the tranny that could sometimes leak, which would cause transmission issues.



There are many nicer and beefier diesels out there, but at the time, Chevy wasn't making them, instead preferring to focus on fuel-economy. I haven't seen too many with that kind of mileage on them, since most people who work their trucks went with different engines, and the rest were generally used in things like RVs or humvees where the mileage is generally not the chief concern. This is the motor that the military used in most of their trucks and vehicles for at least a decade, although those motors had different specifications.

An upside is that a repower is generally easier to do in a bus, if it comes to that.

 

[Babus21]

What a wealth of knowledge! I’m familiar with the head gasket issue at least enough to know once I see the engine itself, hopefully. Also thank you for that link too, a lot of good stuff there. Really appreciate your help

 

[AlphaHare]

That's a lot of miles on a cutaway van. Even if it's free you can probably plan on major mechanical and drivetrain work in the near future, which makes it not so free after all.

Do you know if the school bus company was the original owner? Do they do a good job on fleet maintenance? Would they let you view the service history?

If a fleet operator is selling a bus (and presumably get a new bus to replace it), then they are anticipating/experiencing maintenance costs that exceed a new bus payment. Something to think about.

 

[Rucker]

Yes, pass on this one. The dollars for a newer/less mile rig will be well spent.

 

[nikitis]

Expect that engine to need to be replaced soon, You can inspect the drive train prior to see if it's gonna need work. At that high mileage it may have already been re-worked to have gotten that far and may be in good shape. The body looks to be in good shape, so the only questions are drive train, and motor and transmission.

I would expect to replace the trans and engine soon if you go with it, the drive shaft/ carrier bearrings and rear axle may be worn too.

If all of it appears bad, I wouldn't bother.

If you can get it cheap or next to nothing though and replace engine/trans for less than 6k, it would be worth it because normally shorties are going for 6k as is plus then have to spend more to work on them, so if you can pick it up free or for even $1000, that's $5000 towards a new engine and you'd know it's new.

So you could be in for $7000k all in with new engine, or buy another one for 6K, and spend another 6k in fixing things so all in for 12K.