So this is about the same bus that I earlier posted pictures of the engine serial number.. After four trips up the mountain, today we got it running. Sounded great, 60psi oil pressure-perhaps more importantly, the air brake system pumped right up and seemed to work perfectly. This was really worrying to me, I mean it didn't matter how well the rig ran if I couldn't get the park brake released or the service brakes to work.
It got to be too late to try to finish with the dummy tank fuel system and get it down the mountain, so while cleaning up tools, I decided to check the oil, which had been full and super clean like it was just changed.
It's now three quarts over full and so light and frothy that it looks like it came out of my espresso machine :-( My guess is that it blew the gaskets which had simply corroded from 55 years of time and storage, as soon as we started it and ran it somewhat up to temp. It showed no evidence of being frozen out, and hadn't even lost a notable amount of coolant while sitting for a dozen years. It didn't run long enough to overheat. I can't fix that up on the mountain. It's got to be towed home-86 miles, with bonus extraction from an off-road campsite. It would cost thousands of dollars, I'm sure.
The RV part of the bus is spectacular-we're only even having this conversation because of the complete, professional conversion which was done about 18 years ago. The RV part all works as in lights, plumbing, etc. and it even has a (presumably working) roof A/C unit. Even after sitting, it's not moldy inside at all, there's no evidence of water leakage. That's because it is a school bus, versus a wobble box made of sticks and aluminum siding... but anyway..
Not having any luck on eBay finding anything but questionable condition 'as-is' used pulls from wrecking yards. I've been told that these engines are famous for cracking cylinder heads, too, so cores may be difficult to find. I'm open to suggestions as to next steps in terms of even finding the stuff to fix it, assuming I can get it home.
darn it! Runs great, brakes work, stellar RV conversion. But apparently the engine's shot :-(
Air brake compressor mounting aside, the 400hp/550lbs/ft torque Cadillac V8 conversion that I did on my '65 Chevy C60.. could enter the conversation. I wonder how long the engine bay of the '67 GMC 6500 is versus the '65 Chevy C60..
