Particularly 350 powered ones as I'll be staying away from 6.5l diesels. The GM truck thread has inspired me, but I'll be looking to go the class C homebrew RV route. How relevant is the truck chassis information? Are the vortec and other late model gas engine (and transmission) swaps as feasible in these?
People have swapped ls engines etc into these vans. On YouTube you can find hot rod magazine with an ls7 van. 3/4 and. One ton models could be had with a 454 or the 6.2/6.5 diesel aswell.
The bus you have shown is not intended to have a passengers seat. Even with this seat removed, entry into the bus is less than ideal trying to walk in through a door that was not intended for this purpose.
...if you're okay with that.
Not necessarily relevant to your question, but the local bus company just unloaded a bunch of later model, 2000-2010, Chevy busses with the 6.0L. Of the 10 that they sold, every one of them was blown up.
In reply to John Welsh (Moderate Supporter) :
The one shown has title issues, which is sad as it's half of challenge budget and the photos are very recent. It's straight without crust.
How well do those work for an RV? I imagine dealing with all of those windows is a pain. Also, the interior is still not standing height, right?
Not exactly what you're asking for, but another option to consider. I just got this rig for $4k. E350 with a 7.3 diesel and 155k miles. The interior was still a furnished ambulance, so I started by gutting that. The ambulance boxes are 100% Aluminum and pretty beefy. They have to pass crash or collapse tests so they are build very well. Has rear and side entry doors and a pass through to the cab.
picture from the day I bought it
In reply to WillG80 :
I had a 7.3 powerstroke ambulance box body as a previous tow pig and it was glorious.
captdownshift (Forum Supporter) said:Particularly 350 powered ones as I'll be staying away from 6.5l diesels.
May I ask why you wouldn't consider the 6.5 diesel? In my experience 20+MPG with big block torque, not award-winning horsepower but plenty reliable. Certainly cheaper to maintain and less needy than the 7.3 Powerstroke in my opinion.
Toyman01 (Moderately Supportive Dude) said:Not necessarily relevant to your question, but the local bus company just unloaded a bunch of later model, 2000-2010, Chevy busses with the 6.0L. Of the 10 that they sold, every one of them was blown up.
If ya told that story about a 6.0 Ferd, it would mean that ALL 6L Ferds were total junk!!!!
WillG80 said:Not exactly what you're asking for, but another option to consider. I just got this rig for $4k. E350 with a 7.3 diesel and 155k miles. The interior was still a furnished ambulance, so I started by gutting that. The ambulance boxes are 100% Aluminum and pretty beefy. They have to pass crash or collapse tests so they are build very well. Has rear and side entry doors and a pass through to the cab.
picture from the day I bought it
You’re a thief because you stole that.
A little hint on the Ambo van. As long as you aren’t pulling a 3 axle trailer over mountain passes in July, a 7.3 will live a long happy life on a +100 hp tune. There’s not really any need to do anything to the engine at that point either. It’ll feel like a completely different animal too. And if you modulate the throttle correctly and give the turbo time to catch the fuel, it’s almost completely smoke free. I hate coal rolling.
if you want more you can of course do more. 7.3’s are kind of being “rediscovered” in the diesel world. They’ve come out with these T4 turbo mounts that allow a whole lot more options than the pedestal mounted design from IH. There’s a bunch of companies making pretty hot injectors for them too. It you want the intercooler you’ll have to update your front clip to the later van style. Pretty easy to do from what I’ve read.
apologies for the thread hijack.
I want one of these, but for a 4wd build.
It's amazing where you can go and do with 2wd ,proper tires and weight on the drive wheels.
So if i get stuck it will be because I didn't have enough passenger load.
If you don't mind it being stoopid slow, they're great. The TBI 350 only made 190-200 hp, which suggests huge torque, but alas... not that much.
Curious why not the 6.5L? Double the MPG, way more torque, bulletproof reliability.
WillG80 said:Not exactly what you're asking for, but another option to consider. I just got this rig for $4k. E350 with a 7.3 diesel and 155k miles. The interior was still a furnished ambulance, so I started by gutting that. The ambulance boxes are 100% Aluminum and pretty beefy. They have to pass crash or collapse tests so they are build very well. Has rear and side entry doors and a pass through to the cab.
picture from the day I bought it
Eh, those standards were set by the White Papers in 1977- it's certainly better than a school bus, but many are shocked by how unsafe ambulances really are.
The REAL reason you should buy an ambulance instead of a bus is because the ambo tends to be a far better base to build from- snagging one from a volunteer department means they typically are stored indoors (most buses are NOT) and the box is already equipped with plenty of electrical systems, easy inverter placement and some insulation. They have a ton of holes to seal up to the outside, but most school buses are only 16G steel all the way around.
The must not make school busses the way they used to if they're only 16 ga and considered flimsy. When my father was the president of the school board in the '80's they were given a tour of the Bluebird bus factory in Buena Vista, Virginia. They explained that due to the litigious nature of US parents, those buses were extremely overbuilt. Even much more overbuilt than busses destined for Israeli school children. Where they needed a rivet they had three I remember him saying.
The only thing that would creep me out about the ambulances are how many people died in it? I know most wont give a hoot but some of us would.
Buddy of mine's band used to have a slightly newer version with the 6.5 and a veggie oil conversion. I know it was bought cheap and barely maintained, but they still managed to take it cross country and back at least once, maybe twice, in addition to playing a number of local gigs. IIRC it was ultimately the 6.5 that failed catastrophically and lead them to upgrade to a larger school bus, but I probably wouldn't read too much into that given the info above. It was a pretty sweet rig for what they needed and what they paid for it, though.
As far as swaps and stuff go, I don't know much about the van chassis but I'm sure an LS drops in just as easily as in a C/K truck, just with worse access. Parts bin engineering, FTW. That being said, I'm not sure that's the direction I'd go in something as heavy as one of these, rather a diesel or big block for the torque. Unless turbos are involved, that is...
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