Need help with my engine swapping

Scott & Heather · February 13, 2020, 08:03:25 PM

Hi guys. My breakdown thread is too long and no longer relevant. Most of you know I'm performing an engine swap here at Jack Conrad's place in Florida. He's leaving tomorrow morning so I'll be on my own from here on. I have some specific questions that I need simple answers to. The engine I purchased was set up for a truck so I have to swap some things over like the water pump housing, fan pulley/harmonic balancer, and the water cooler thingy on the side near the bottom of the engine that feeds coolant to the tranny heat exchanger. Do I need to purchase a specific gasket for that and do I need to purchase a water pump housing gasket too? What about the gasket for my air compressor? And power steering pump?

chessie4905 · February 14, 2020, 04:36:09 AM

Cliff can probably help here. I'm sure has has plenty of spare gaskets over the years. He'll chime in after he gets out of bed lol.

luvrbus · February 14, 2020, 06:55:01 AM

Post some photos of the rear of both engines I don't think what you are try to do is going to work without changing bell housings and a auxiliary drives,? aren't the oil pans different.there is no gasket on the water pump it uses a square cut o=ring where it mounts to the block,you cannot just swap the harmonic balance from 1 engine to the other ? why do they need changing or is the pulley that needs changing

Scott & Heather · February 14, 2020, 01:44:46 PM

Here's the issue I'm running into that cliff may have been mentioning earlier. I was able to get the air compressor mounted fine in its accessory hole but there isn't one available that I can tell for the power steering. I opened both plates and nothing was behind them. There is one running off the blower drive that is just an empty pulley. Can I somehow use that to run the vickers pump? I am not using the 50-DN Alternator so I'm not worried about that. I'm going to just buy a small belt driven 24v alternator and run it off the blower pulley. I really really REALLY don't want to have to change the entire bellhousing

MC8Mike · February 15, 2020, 08:11:31 AM

I used a 92 truck engine for my engine swap into a MC8 and I had to change the block plate between the flywheel housing and block that has the gear drive for the steering pump and had to change the flywheel housing as well because the starter location was different. I run a belt driven alternator off the blower drive as you are suggesting and it works well.

luvrbus · February 15, 2020, 08:20:53 AM

Scott is a resourceful young man he will get it done lol his one day time frame may not happen though

dtcerrato · February 15, 2020, 11:01:28 AM

10-4 on Scott's resourcefulness and also on "timeframe". What we have really learned in 40 years of bus ownership is being flexible takes a lot of the pain out of it - non related to the wallet of coarse..! Lol

Scott & Heather · February 15, 2020, 09:03:14 PM

Lol ok ok. So it may take me more than one day to swap the engine lol.

Tomorrow I'm tackling removing the stuff in the way of removing the tranny from old engine so I can get to the flywheel housing and gear sets. Anyone have any more pointers? Where do I buy the copper crush washers and oil seal that I'm supposed to not reuse?

luvrbus · February 16, 2020, 04:47:31 AM

Order you end plate gaskets and washers from PC Industries 877-885-4724 or 307-885-4724 speak to Allan and use only aviation type Permatex no RTV,if you are not clear on what you need Allan can call me and I'll help you. they have a $25.00 min now on orders so order everything you need ,don't buy the copper washers from Harbor Freight use the right ones

dtcerrato · February 16, 2020, 06:44:07 AM

Cliff I was impressed when you mention Alan Johns with PC - he was very helpful as is their interactive website when we did our in-frame.
Scott if you do a bank draft with them instead of a credit card it will save you $$. At least 5% I think... Fwiw.

luvrbus · February 16, 2020, 07:05:25 AM

Quote from: dtcerrato on February 16, 2020, 06:44:07 AM
Cliff I was impressed when you mention Alan Johns with PC - he was very helpful as is their interactive website when we did our in-frame.
Scott if you do a bank draft with them instead of a credit card it will save you $$. At least 5% I think... Fwiw.

I have been dealing with Randy ( owner} long before Allan now Allan doesn't ask me for a serial number because he knows I am on a different cloud

Van · February 16, 2020, 09:38:52 AM

Quote from: luvrbus on February 16, 2020, 04:47:31 AM
Don't buy the copper washers from Harbor Freight use the right ones

Say what?

luvrbus · February 16, 2020, 10:00:47 AM

Quote from: Van on February 16, 2020, 09:38:52 AM
Say what?

They are a special cooper washer for the bell housing the Harbor Freight washers are too thin to seal

chessie4905 · February 16, 2020, 10:51:08 AM

Yeah, for this get the correct ones. The Harbor Freight ones are too hard to seal correctly.

Scott & Heather · February 16, 2020, 05:48:49 PM

So cliff mentioned that my starter location may be different on old vs new engine which might require me to change the flywheel housings over. I'm thinking of just not switching over the flywheel housings and gearsets just for the silly power steering pump. I need a new pump anyway and am hoping maybe they make a high pressure integral steering pump that is belt driven. If so, I can use the blower pulley and be done with it. Starter is located exactly in the same places on old and new engines...what say you?