Project: Struggle Bus - 2006 FS-65

[phager76]

Alright, so it's been a week since I flew down to NC to buy the bus, and I've had a chance to recuperate from the drive. And gather my thoughts.

I guess I should start with some background on why I bought a bus. So the impetus for this whole thing was that we needed a new tow vehicle, since I didn't trust our Santa Fe (that I had to replace the transmission on a month after I bought it) to tow our pop up, let alone a bigger RV that our family really needs. We realized over the summer that we'd be coming into a moderate windfall at some point, and so my wife and I discussed a few different options.

Since we had the golf cart and wanted to use it for camping, we knew we'd need either a class A or C pulling a trailer, a pickup and a bumper pull or fifth wheel toy hauler, or a van/SUV pulling a toy hauler. As you can see, a bus wasn't even on the radar.

A class A was quickly ruled out, since the only way we can sleep a family of five would be a bunk house, which are hard to find and spendy when you do.

A class C was a strong contender. They pretty much always have four beds, so the kids will have separation. We also knew it would work from our trip to Cedar Point in a rental. The big concern was having to bring a trailer big enough for the golf cart and a car for getting around when we're at a destination. Still, a good option to pursue.

Much as I would have loved a truck, even a crew cab wouldn't work for our family of 5 and the dog. We have enough issues in a 3 row SUV on long trips, we definitely won't be a family of 5 for long in a pickup.

So that left SUVs or vans. It didn't take long to realize that the only SUV made in the last 15 years that can handle the tongue weight of a toy hauler is the Expedition. So that was high on the list, but we we're knocking on 10k plus to get one in the last decade or so with less than 200k.

I looked into vans, because, frankly, I've always loved conversion vans, and their available in a one ton configuration. Here again, we ran into the payload/tongue weight issue, as well as surprisingly low tow rating for a 1 ton platform.

At that point, the FB algorithm started popping up van based school busses and shuttles. That's when I noticed these were almost always duallies, so probably have better capabilities.

So I started researching and was 100% sure a short school bus was the way to go. The school bus bodies are built to a better structural standard than shuttle busses. I even had my wife on board. But there were certain concerns I had.

Since this was going to be our vacation vehicle, I really wanted to have a diesel. They tend to last longer, and with the extra weight of a bus body and pulling a lot more than my V10 Excursion ever did, the extra grunt of a diesel was a must.

As I learned more about diesels, and the rabbitholes of EGR, DPF, and DEF (oh my!). I found out I was stuck with either a pre 2002ish Ford, or pre 06ish Chevy with a Duramax. So these are around fairly often in the 6-8k range, and the whole family was kinda excited about the whole short bus idea.

And then a listing for a 2003 International CE with a T444E showed up on marketplace. I showed it to my wife and got a tonnn of push back, not surprisingly, but the thing was like half the price of the shorties, even the gas ones I was grudgingly considering. And that was enough to convince my frugal wife to give it a look.

But the bus had issues. The frame had surface rust everywhere. There were a handful of rusted through parts of the floor as well as a few rust spots on the wheel wells. I bought a welder, so I wasn't too worried about that. But on the test drive, the bus was straining on a long grade that was near the sellers place. The transmission in that truck was also the AT545, which is not a good transmission for hills and towing. The front tires were 10 years old, so figure all were due for replacement. I also found out that the T444E is essentially a 7.3 Powerstroke. Definitely a great engine, but I always think of pickups and not big truck with that engine. Not that that would stop me from getting a bus with the engine, but it could be a bad mark. Either way, it ended up being a pass, but it did tell me that a bus that size wasn't nearly as unwieldy as I was expecting, but it definitely had more than enough space to keep my family from killing each other!

I had also found some leads in other states, and was turned on to the North Carolina website, and found a couple of busses in Randolph county. The one I really wanted was a 41 passenger 2010 Freightliner C2 with the Cummins, but it had been sold. They had a number of 04-07 FS-65s, but they had the MBE-906 engine. Frankly, it's a freaking wasteland of information on this engine on the internet. The closest to a consensus I could find is that they're solid engines, when they work. Repairs tend to be more expensive, and it can be difficult to find people to work on them. I saw a few ‘my buddy works on a fleet of em, and would never own one’, whereas the few things I've heard from actual owners was that they're pretty trouble free, and routine parts aren't hard to find. My take from too many years on the internet is that they must just work for the most part. People don't rush to the internet to say ‘hey guy's, everything's good with the bus!’ So, I talked to my wife, showed her the single far away picture I had of it, and told her ‘I can't explain it, I just feel like this is the bus we should get.’ The next thing I knew, I had a one way ticket to Greensboro, NC. Oh well, YOLO, I guess!

 

[phager76]

The Plan

So, the plan for this project differs from your traditional ‘skoolie’ build. Like I said, this is, first and foremost, a tow vehicle. I don't need it to be a full fledged camper, that's what the toy hauler is for. I also mentioned having a real soft spot for van conversions, I think you can see where this is going. Obviously, I'm gonna turn this into the ultimate ‘van conversion’! I'm going to do this in a few phases.

Phase 1 is going to be getting this thing titled and plated here in PA. After talking to the notary, the best path is registering it as an RV. I'll have to do some mods, and then schedule with an inspection station for an enhanced inspection. There used to be out of state registration options, but a lot of those loopholes closed. I could register it as a ‘truck’ but the weight class puts it at about 700 a year, an rv is 198 so it's kind of a no brainer.

In order for PA to classify it as an RV, it needs to meet 4 of 6 criteria. The bus already has AC for the passenger area, so that's number 1. I also ordered up an RV charger/converter so that'll meet a second requirement, a 110v system. We also ordered a 110v/12v cooler/fridge, which meets a third requirement. And a fourth requirement is a cooking area. So I picked up a $20 hot plate, and I'll mount that inside.

The next part of phase 1 is maintenance. I have a huge folder of maintenance, and the last service was May of last year. It went out of service in July, so it doesn't have many miles, but it's due based on time, and this gives me a baseline start.

I also have quickly discovered that I need access to the computers in order to unlick the speed limiter, and possibly enable 6th gear. I also have ordered a trailer hitch, which is a ‘universal’, so I'll get to try out my new welder! I have 36 square feet of heat/sound insulation for around the dash area. The final part of phase 1 is to paint the bus. While PA doesn't specifically forbid a bus being School Bus Yellow, it does look like some states get pissy about it. so the plan is to use spray on tintable bedliner. I don't want to piss of the law in other states, it's just not worth the headache.

This will get us to a position of having the bus road ready and legal, aka, the boring part.

Phase 2 is way more nebulous at this point. The mental image is four comfortable captains chairs, either leather conversion van seats, or the fancy ‘Executive’ seats like you see in business class jets. And then a folding couch behind those seats. Behind that opposite the handicap lift, I want to fab up a pair of fold up bunks. This gives the kids options on if they want to sleep in the camper, or sleep in the bus.

I'm going to add at least one tv, as well as decent audio and connection for game systems etc. We’ll be putting in some led accent lighting, and basically turning it into a comfy, chill way to see the country.

And that leads to the BIG plan. The whole reason for a new trailer and tow vehicle is that I'm taking the fam on a road trip to see the country before ‘drill, baby, drill’ kills some of the natural wonders in this country.

With the crazy stuff going on in this country right now, and how questionable the economic outlook is, I don't know how much of phase 2 will get done. Anything used should be fine, but tariffs are going to likely be killers, so new stuff will be hard to justify on luxuries.

 

[phager76]

Don't worry, pics and the story of the trip home will come soon, it took me 3 hours to get those typed up and I need a break, lol

 

[phager76]

The Pick Up

I promised pics, so I'll start with the one and only picture I had to base my decision on. In the immortal words of Forrest Gump "I'm not a smart man”!

So originally, the plan to get the bus was to drive down there as a family, get the bus, and drive home. The reason for that is both Crystal and I have had some trepidation about flying given both the cuts at the FAA, and the two crashes that have already occurred this year. It's also part of why I was drawn to NC. It's ‘easy’ driving distance from SW PA, but far enough away to be out of the salt zone. Everything else would be a multi-day there and back, which wouldn't work with the kids school and would mean flying.

So how did I end up flying to NC, despite the paragraph above? Well, we had already set up a long weekend home from Hershey for Gwen for last weekend, since she hadn't been home for a couple of weeks. And even though she knew we had been talking about a minibus, I had kept completely silent about both the rust bus, and the Struggle Bus. Since we had already decided to get this one, Crystal and I talked, and agreed that me flying to NC the day before I need to get Gwen, picking up the bus, and then heading directly to Hershey before bringing it home. That way I could ‘surprise’ her with the new purchase. Anyone with neurodivergent kids will know this is a risky gamble, but it's paid off in the past, so once again, YOLO! lol

So I get the ticket on priceline, and the only way to get a decent price is to pick a time window for departure. Since I was planning on trying to get part way to Hershey on Thursday, and I've never driven a bus before, I figured the earliest window (2-11am I think), would be smart. Unfortunately, that led to a pre 6 am departure as well as an hour layover in DC. Queue panic from Crystal because of the Blackhawk accident.

So Thursday morning, we're up at 2:30 am, and I'm running on 4 hours of sleep at best. I slam a coffee, double check my bag, and we head out the door. We get to the airport, and I head in. I suppose now is a great time to mention that I Don't Fly! It's not really a fear thing, I know it's safer than driving. I honestly think it's pretty cool, I live hearing the engines spool up on take off, and the shove into the seat on takeoff. No, I hate plans fir the same reason I hate busses (I don't fail to see the irony) and other public transport. People generally tend to suck. And with air travel, you have to add driving to the airport, the 2 hour early arrival, and then any layovers. You end up with anything less than 6 hours away being quicker to drive. So due to this, this flight is only the 5th one I've taken in my life.

So I'm out of my element, but I got through security, picked up some food and a water, and waited an hour to board. The flights were fine. I had a row to myself on the second flight, but it did arrive late.

So I land in Greensboro, and run into problem number one. How the **** do I get from the airport to Greensboro. I had already checked rentals, but a one way rental was like 250 bucks. So I checked Uber, and was getting close to 60 bucks, which seemed high. I obviously looked confused AF, and some employee helped me out and directed me to ground transportation to check on a cab. That was gonna be $100. So, I went with Uber. After a while, someone actually accepted, and I was on my way.

It turned out that Uber only pays 16 bucks for the 30 mile, one way, trip. Having worked for doordash, that tracks, but it's total BS, you're never gonna get a return trip from there. The driver and I got to talking, and apparently he's originally from Philly, and he used to work for a Nascar team and we ended up spending a bit talking about RVs and busses. As well as plans for the bus I was picking up.

it was a bit of a pain finding the right building, but we managed it. It was at this point that things started going south! First, I walk in the door, and tell the receptionist who I am, and that I had been talking to Wendy about bus 97. There's instant confusion (I don't remember exactly what she thought I was there for, but it sure wasn't to buy a bus). So I explain further that I'm here to look at, and purchase, the bus. It didn't help that Wendy was out of town that day, but she had told another person that I was coming, so problem solved, or so I thought.

After a bit, the guy comes up front and says “So you're here to look at the bus?” and I said “Yeah, and take it home if everything checks out.” he just responded with an Oh, and continued to direct out front. Once outside, he asked where I parked. At this point, I'm getting seriously worried. They seemed completely unprepared for me picking up the bus!

So I explained that I had flown in from Pittsburgh this morning and ubered to the bus barn, I don't have a car. This brought another Oh. And then he chippered up and said, I'll just get the keys to the truck and we'll drive around. Once we get there, he tries to start it, and it fired up. We let it warm up and he says, you want to pull it up to the garage and you can look it over on concrete? I guess he saw the concern in my eyes cause he asked if I'd driven a bus. I basically said I've driven uhauls,and towed, but not a bus. He sorta shrugged and said, well hop in and pull it around and make sure it goes through the gears, lol.

So I pull it around, and these busses are packed like sardines. I managed to figure out how to get moving, and managed to avoid hitting anything, and didn't launch myself into the windshield with the air brakes.

He opens the hood, and I poke around as much as I can. I don't know heavy diesels, but there's evidence of minor oil seepage, but nothing horrible. I crawled around under the whole thing and there's absolutely no rust. I'm damn near giddy! Tires had great tread, although I didn't check the date codes, and looking after I got home, they weren't on the outside of the tires. With the maintenance history, I'm sure they're fine. I crawl out, walk up to the guy, and tell him I'll take it. There was an hour or so of waiting while they got all the maintenance records, doing the title stuff, and verifying the checks. After that, they sorta smiled and said have a safe trip, and the guy I had been talking to said, “Oh, by the way, the scanner we have isn't able to disable the speed limiter, so it's limited to 45.” So, yeah, that's a bit of a problem. He walks me through the shop, shakes my hand, and then I ask the worst question: “so, uh, how do you close the door?” The look of disappointment on his face was painful! That's when I learned about the emergency release for the air operated door. He hit the valve, and the door closed, and he showed me the door switch and said. “Don't use that button when you leave the bus, it'll keep the lights on and kill the batteries.” So with that sage advice, I hit the road… at a blistering 45 mph!

And things started to go south, even though I was headed north. I put my phone mount on the windshield, went to grab my EZpass, and realized I left it in the Hyundai, welp, toll by plate it is, oh yeah, I don't have a plate, or a temp tag for that matter. Did I mention I also don't have an A or B license endorsement. Oh well, let's hope the cops don't notice. I did have commercial for personal use insurance, which is the biggest deal, that and titke/bill of sale. So I go to plug in my phone, and surprise! I didn't see a single charge port in the bus. The phone is at 50+% so I'll be fine.
{Narrator: It was not, in fact, fine}
I didn't even make it out of North Carolina before my battery was in the teens. I stopped at a Pilot in Reidsville to get diesel and learned immediately not to use the truck pumps, the damn thing wouldn't take a card at the pump without going inside. I said screw it, I ain't holding up the truckers and pulled around to the car pumps.

After I put in 40 bucks at a dribbling pace, I ended up going in and getting food, drink, and a power bank. I thought I was set, but the damn bank gave me an extra 10% before it gave out. So I checked where my next turn would be (which was take 29 to 29, lol) and turned off the phone. This apparently caused an enormous amount of consternation among my family, since that also took me off Life360!

I was a bit concerned at this point. Driving a bus with a quarter of a million miles, phone nearly dead, and no freaking clue where I was going, other than ‘northeast’.

After a number of hours of driving, I ended up near Charlottesville VA, and saw an I64 entrance, but the options were Appomattox or Staunton, and straight ahead was north on 29. So I stayed on that. Right up until I blew past the exit to stay on 29 and ended up heading into downtown Charlottesville. I found a shopping center, turned on my phone, and find out I had been blown up by my family. I messaged Crystal, told her I was lost with my phone almost dead and I'd text them when I got a hotel. I then figured out how to get to interstate 81, which would take me to Hershey. Then shut off the phone.

Once I was on 64, I was in the clear, and it just became a matter of plodding along in the slow lane. I really wanted to make it in to PA, but by 9 o'clock I had gotten as far as Woodstock, VA. Saw a Holiday Inn Express near the highway with a huge parking lot and pulled in. I got out of the bus and immediately realized I had no way to secure it. I honestly was so tired, I didn't care. I got a room, plugged in my phone and called Crystal. Everyone was understandably worried, but was happy I was fine. We talked for a bit, and I thought about eating, and said screw it and went to bed.

I got up at 7:30, thought about getting the free breakfast, and then decided to just go. Google said 3 hours to Hershey, but I knew it would be more than that! I got in to Hershey around noon or 1, and couldn't pick up Gwen until 4, so I parked at the Giant near her student home, picked up drinks, road trip snacks, and lunch. Then I went and surveyed the bus for the first time. One thing I ended up noticing was that there was, indeed, a 12v charge port:

SMH! In my defense, this bus has a crap ton of buttons, lol. But taking a better look around, the bus was in pretty good shape, I wouldn't call it pristine, but they didn't really have a chance to do anything to prep it, and it's a school bus. I expect it to be dirty.

After chilling for a while, I picked up Gwen. Now, Gwen's 11 years old, and is as independent as I am, so I didn't know how this would go.

As soon as I pulled in to her student home, at least three middle school girls come running from behind the house just saying “What the…!” repeatedly, and one finally was able to get out “Wha..Why do you have a BUS?!?” I chuckle a little and say “Oh, it's Gwen's new ride” and shrug. Which is met with “BUT IT’S A BUUUSS!” I just smiled, said yep, and went towards the front door and ring the bell. I see Gwen walking up, arms crossed, and shaking her head. I was pretty sure I'd messed up, but she told me later it was really cool.

After talking with her houseparents and the kids, we were finally able to get on the road. We finally pulled in around 9:30 that night.
Maintenance records:

Big bus ain't so big, lol

Push the button, I dare you!

And a few parked at Hershey

I'm gonna wrap this portion up, since I've been typing long enough that Crystal's getting annoyed, lol. My next post will have some initial thoughts on the bus itself, and what’s been ordered, and actually start on the build.

 

[phager76]

Oh, and for all my fellow NC skoolie owners out there, this is for you!

 

[Jolly Roger bus 223]

your lucky yours is speed governed in the computer.
my NC bus is speed governed in the engine transmission and rear gears but i do get 49 almost wherever i go cause i am in the flatlands.
i have met the bus shop mechanics up around greensboro/graham mebane area and they had no problems talking to me and answering the questions i had.
good luck

 

[phager76]

Yeah, I'm glad that it's controlled by the computer. I still have some concerns, it's going through 5 gears and hitting 2k rpm. If I can't unlock 6th in the trans, I think it'll be a miracle to get to 55. The build sheet shows the rev limiter to be set at 2500, and the rear end is 7.17:1. I think the laptop is supposed to be here in the next couple of days, so hopefully I'll get that figured out. I was surprised that 45 wasn't  that horrible, but I'd like to be able to hang a little better with interstaye traffic.

 

[ax.man]

Aha, I think I emailed the Randolph county bus guy right after you! He said they were sold and now I know where one of them ended up. This was an entertaining read, good luck with the rest!

 

[phager76]

Initial Thoughts and What's Coming

So the irony of having “Initial Thoughts” at the end of this insanely wordy project introduction isn't lost on me. Neither is the fact that I'm technically in week 2 now, but my slow butt took so long to write this novel that I'm still calling it week 1. So there, neener neener!

So, thoughts on the bus. I honestly have 0 experience with diesels or medium/heavy duty truck. And side question, what the heck differentiates a light/medium/heavy duty truck? I've been calling this medium duty in my head, but I don't have a clue. But I've driven the biggest uHaul truck once, and probably have 20-30k miles pulling small trailers, so I knew I'd need to have that mindset behind the wheel.

So I wasn't going in blind, but I knew this would be noticeably different, and I had 800+ miles to go. The short version is, outside of the air brakes, my concerns were blown completely out of proportion.

To be honest, the bus drives really well. Outside of first gear, which is really more noise than movement, the bus moves along way better than I expected. Obviously, it's not a race car, but it's not embarrassing. I don't think the driver's seat is air ride, and it looks like the recline adjustment cable is stretched, so I'd like to replace that with an air ride seat. But even without air ride, it was really comfortable. Those who know me, know that I'm lacking in the butt department (I joke that I have a Gluteus Minimus, and not Maximus), so most seats start to get uncomfortable within an hour or so. I never got really uncomfortable.

The bus had no issues on hills, and there were a ton on the way home. I even managed to pass a semi going up one hill. Then we hit the top and I was the clot again. It also seemed like fuel economy was pretty good. I had some pump issues at the first two stops, but I managed to fill up before I picked up Gwen, so I'm going to go and fill it again and get an accurate figure. I do know I spent 225 bucks for just under 900 miles, which seems pretty cheap.

So what's the bad news? Because there's always some kind of bad news in my life, lol! Well, the whole bus is filthy! I thought my hands Being so gross was from the diesel. But even when I just did a bathroom stop, my hands were still nasty. So, yep, that steering wheel is the culprit. And the rest of the bus is just as bad.

There's also a huge amount of heat infiltration in the driver's area. There's a small map pocket to the left of the seat that I kept my vape in, and another to the right of the shifter that was my bottle holder. We'll, they both got so hot that I was worried about my vapes batteries, and my water was hot by the time I hit 81.

As alluded to earlier, there's no cup holders, there's also no radio, and possibly worst of all, no cruise control. I'm also not at all sure if the dash AC works, I was sweating going through VA though. There's also a ton of squeaks, rattles and wind noise in the driver's area.

That's pretty much the extent of the “Bad Stuff” and I think most of them are able to be improved on.

We did take it out to Sam's Club last Saturday so everyone could go for a ride. I took it in backrooms so I could see how it does on smaller roads with sharp corners and grade changes. Since this will be what we use to go to sights and activities, I need to know that it will work on small roads. It did great overall, I can tell there will be times I have to manually select gears to optimize getting up the hills and down them.

The speed limiter is a real killer on the road we took. There's lots of up and down, and so the limiter would kick in as you hot the bottom of one hill and start climbing the next. With a speed limit of 45 on the road, it would cut power as I'm climbing and I'd drop to 35-40. That'll be fixed with the removal of the limiter.

After the Sam's trip (side note, we got a ton of food/drinks, and it didn't even fill the floor of the area behind the last seats), all the kids said it was really comfortable, and they had no issues talking to each other, so it seems the loudness is limited to the driver's area.

Monday, I tried to title the bus, and it looks like conversion before titling is the safest way to go. The most sketch part will be getting to an enhanced inspection station, but I can have Crystal follow me in the Hyundai. In addition, School Bus bus Yellow is apparently cop camo, as I was passed by at least 5 various state troopers with no plates, and drove past a few dozen speed traps, and no one seemed to look twice.

So my next steps are basically two fold. First, I need to meet the requirements for an RV, so I got those parts ordered up, and the last bits got here today. I also need to take care of the heat issue, so I picked up 36 sq.ft. of 3mil sound and heat dampening material, so I'm going to start pulling panels around the dash and stick that stuff everywhere I can.

The other half is to make sure everything is current on maintenance. Like I said, I've got the full records, and everything was done less than 2k miles ago, but it was in May of last year, so almost a year. That's due in my book. So I have both fuel filters, both air filters, and the oil centrifuge (leave it to Mercedes to overcomplicate things!) coming. I also need to test the coolant and change out trans/differential fluid, as well as figure out the air system maintenance.

The only other required pre trip tasks will be to put the trailer hitch on, add the wiring and brake controller. There's also one weird issue to fix, for some reason, three LEDs in each tail/brake light stays on no matter what the key is set to, or the light switch. It's not even the full light, it's just the very center. It's minimal, but I'm gonna have to trace the wiring at some point to figure it out.

Well, that actually brings things up to current. The rest of this will hopefully be more informational and picture heavy, and less wall of text, lol

 

[Jolly Roger bus 223]

along with 6th gear i would verify that rear gear ratio.
i have 175 hp the 545 and 6.50 rear gears and do 45mph.
most people are wanting gears in the 3-5 ratio range.

 

[Jolly Roger bus 223]

also contact blackstone labs and have them send you sample bottles.
when you change the fluids especially oil send them the sample and they can tell you alot about your engine.
if you got the full records from NC then you probably have the gregory poole analysis history.

 

[nikitis]

Good read. If your gear ratio is in the 7's you are gonna want to change out the rear. 6th gear isn't gonna help much with such a high rear gear.

if you have 6 gears with a 4.11 or 4.78, you should be able to comfortably go 70, which trust me, much over that will have you puckering in a bus.

If you want faster go to 3.10, but no lower. 3.10 is gonna give you worse acceleration though once you convert it, and less torque which you said you want to use it as a tow vehicle, so if you can unlock 6th gear on the transmission then get a rear gear in the 4's. 4.10 or 4.78 is good.

7's is about the worst I've ever heard on a bus.

 

[phager76]

along with 6th gear i would verify that rear gear ratio.
i have 175 hp the 545 and 6.50 rear gears and do 45mph.
most people are wanting gears in the 3-5 ratio range.

Good read. If your gear ratio is in the 7's you are gonna want to change out the rear. 6th gear isn't gonna help much with such a high rear gear.

if you have 6 gears with a 4.11 or 4.78, you should be able to comfortably go 70, which trust me, much over that will have you puckering in a bus.

If you want faster go to 3.10, but no lower. 3.10 is gonna give you worse acceleration though once you convert it, and less torque which you said you want to use it as a tow vehicle, so if you can unlock 6th gear on the transmission then get a rear gear in the 4's. 4.10 or 4.78 is good.

7's is about the worst I've ever heard on a bus.

If I'm reading the build sheet right, that's 7.17:1. I thought it was nuts too. I'll have to look into that'll be involved in a gear change. We'll see what playing with the computer nets me, I don't care *that* much about going slower than normal traffic, but 45 is just a wee bit too slow. If I can get another 10mph, I could probably live with it, unless a regear is stupid cheap/easy, and I know that's not going to be the case, lol.

also contact blackstone labs and have them send you sample bottles.
when you change the fluids especially oil send them the sample and they can tell you alot about your engine.
if you got the full records from NC then you probably have the gregory poole analysis history.

Way ahead of you, lol! I ordered both the oil and trans kits. I definitely want to keep the maintenance detail going. I got the fuel filters today, oil and air filters will be here on Tuesday.

I also forgot that I had ordered wheel chocks, and an ABC rated fire extinguisher, since that was missing from the bus. Safety Third, I always say .

No work done today, we had to go shopping for the spring formal and prom for my eldest. A new goal is to get the Struggle Bus presentable enough for it to serve as the Prom Transport for him and his friends. It's not until late May, so definitely doable.