TheSamba.com :: View topic

Sun Jul 04, 2010 5:47 am

Hello all. I recently bought a group of buses together. My wife was interested in a 93 Eurovan pop top weekender that needs some work, but is in GREAT shape and for what I paid..... But the stipulation to the deal was that I had to get the other three buses that were owned by the same dude for sure cheap. So, four buses, 45 miles, now I am waiting for the titles to come back clean, they were a storage unit lien.
The Eurovan is on the backburner. We are looking for a running parts van before I even touch it.
A 88 weekender came with the deal. I think it is a Carat? It has fancy trim on the bottom of the body and alloy rims. It has a jumpseat, bed, and fold up table. I charged the battery, everything works, motor turns, but has evidence of bad head gasket. One head almost looks like it melted the gasket to the exhaust and the block. Other than that, this is one clean bus with new tires and receipts from 2009.. Inside is clean other than some smudge from stuff stored in it recently..
2 85 passenger buses also came with. One is an automatic, and is full of parts. I put a battery in and checked the oil.. Started right up and moved 40 feet to back into it's spot with no problem. Has a spare motor that came from a bus reputed to have driven into the storage yard before PO dismantled and scrapped it.
The manual 85 also started right up and seems to me to have a shot C/V joint prohibiting it from moving.. Inspecting the engine in this bus, which has 105,000 miles on the clock, I see a yellow sticker saying something to the effect of this being a rebuilt motor.. The motor is MUCH cleaner than the other buses motors, and sounds better than the automatic bus..
The auto bus is nice, but not as nice as the stick, the motor in the stick needs to go in my Carat, and the spare motor in the back of the auto bus needs to go into the stick bus..
I have swapped engines in my air cooled buses and bugs many times. How much more time consuming is it to take an engine out of a watercooled bus. How much heavier is the 1.9 litre than the 1600 aircooled. Can I take it out from above with a cherry picker, or do I jack up 4 feet and pull from beneath?
Other than the A/C in the later model bus, all of the engines seem very similar. I am pretty sure they are all 1.9. Is there going to be a differance in the Fuel injection systems causing me to have to change them out to accomodate different brains? I know there will be a difference in auto/manual trans.
Speaking of brains, mine is fine for fixing air cooled buses, bugs, lawnmowers, chainsaws, etc. Our Expedition and our Buick go to the shop. My excuse is always that I can't work on watercooled cars.. It has been a great go to line for 15 years that has kept me out from under the wife's rig. " I don't know take it to the shop " won't work anymore...
I am selling my Buick to dump some money into the Carat once the title comes back. I am half tempted to bring them to a shop here in town and have them swap the engines, but that will cost more than I paid for all 4 rigs... Is this an afternoon project with the proper tools? Reading through the Bentley seemed much more intimidating than the one for my baywindow.
Sorry for being a long winded, no picture showing newb, but I is who I is.

Sun Jul 04, 2010 6:15 am

WOW what an undertaking and congrats. I will follow this with interest. When you say 1.9 are you talking gas or diesel. I'm thinking gas or you would have mentioned diesel.