In reply to Toyman01:
Found your door replacement.
In reply to Toyman01:
Found your door replacement.
My grandpa sold "Thomas Build Buses" in the 60's and 70's. His real business was tires but we always had new buses and old trade in buses to work on. And I did. A lot. This thread brings back a lot of memories of being elbow deep in grease with skinned knuckles and fingernails impossible to clean. So far nothing that went wrong surprises me. Good luck.
Toyman - if you would like for me to move this thread to the new Adventures forum just let me know! This thread definitely qualifies. 
In reply to EastCoastMojo:
Works for me. That's a pretty good place for it, because it was definitely an adventure.
I agree and I wasn't even on the bus! Thread moved.
Toyman01 wrote: I was smelling burned rubber, burned wood, burned oil, and trying to remember whether the fire extinguisher was in the bus or the van.
Magazine worthy quote there.
For swap candidates, have a look at houred out garbage trucks. The freightliners came with MBE906's and an automatic.
https://www.demanddetroit.com/pdf/vocations/mbe900-schoolbus.pdf
They are a tough little 6 liter and you can pick up the whole truck for around $4000.00 if you keep your eyes open (Richie Brothers). You would have the whole driveline plus brakes, cooling system etc and there would be enough metal left to offset the purchase price in scrap value later.
I looked at this one for my bus but it was a little small for 35000 pounds. But you might be 20,000 pounds? and it would go quite well.
If you pick up something with the larger 7.2 liter MBE 926 they can be had with a 330 hp 1000 pound torque rating, and come standard with a built in exhaust brake plus a proper engine brake.
I wasn't here when this thread started but I loved reading it.
The old Ford fe truck engines are ridiculously reliable engines. My dad owned old ford trucks forever and in one we were running straight 50 weight and stp oil treatment in just to get oil pressure at highway speeds but it never blew up. After we pulled it out I pulled the distributor and inside the engine was basically grease.
That old truck was my grandma's gift to my dad before her death. Its been sitting for years after a terrible motor swap and is a tree magnet but someday...I'm resurrecting it.
In reply to HappyAndy :
This . Especially on an FE . Those things will drive you batty .
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