Diesel motor for '70 GMC School bus

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Diesel motor for '70 GMC School bus

Home > Discussion Forum > Mechanic's Corner (general)

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All Messages in Thread	Author	Date
Diesel motor for '70 GMC School bus	Rod Johnson	10-29-01
I have a 1970 GMC RM-7500 rear engined bus chassis under my motorhome. It presently has a 401 cu. in. V6 gas motor, and I am seriously considering repowering with a diesel motor. I know the chassis also came with a 6V71 motor in those years, but I'm looking for something a bit newer. I understand I will ahve to change the gearing, and would like to go to an automatic trans aslo at the same time. I've been told to look at buying a complete later model school bus, but have no idea where to look. I contacted the local school districts but got no where. They say they just trade the old ones in to dealers, or make them available to other state agencies. Where do they all go? Where do I look for such an item. I figure I will spend about 5K to 6K is needed, for the complete bus. Is that realistic?
Re: diesel motor for '70 GMC School bus	Mark O.	11-1-01
There are many choices for repowering, some are good choices and some are not so very good. The absolute worst choice would be to put in a Toroflow diesel which was the diesel version of the 351/401/478 V-6. Low H.P., low service life, and harder to find parts for it than $100 bills on the sidewalk. The not so very good choices would include the Navistar 6.9/7.3/Powerstroke because it is not big enough for your application. Another not so very good choice would be the IHC 9.0L and the Cummins 555 because neither one was a good choice when they were new--low H.P., poor service life, and very hard to find parts now. Probably the best choice would be the Cat 1160/3208. There are a lot of used buses on the market with that engine. Another good choice would be the Detroit 8.2L. Modern design, pretty good H.P. and easy to find. GM put them in a lot of buses and whole fleets of medium duty trucks. The original choice was not the 6V-71 but the 6V-53. It is not that bad a choice except for a screaming 2-cycle series -53 is a little hard to live with, even in a rear engine application. An IHC DT466 is a great choice but it may require some interior modifications because of the length of the inline engine. If you look, you should be able to find a good running diesel bus or truck with an automatic for a whole bunch less than $5K. Good luck and happy trails. Mark O.