I’ve been taking photos in our school bus garage since 2005 and didn’t want them to go to waste so here is a short video with random pics. There’s everything from instant snow chains to engine repair.
2005…I remember it well, we still had mechanical diesel engines in the fleet. They were semi-retired as spare buses and just this year we are auctioning off our last mechanical engine equipped units (Cat 3116 models). The 3116 Cat gave us pretty good service but nothing stellar to speak of.
I believe there were four engine rebuilds because of the exhaust valve dropping at a very bad moment. Usually the high heat pulling full load would cause the mishap. It was a lot of work since the block was solid without removable piston liners. The entire engine had to be removed from the chassis, stripped down and rebuilt from scratch. The rebuilt head ran about $1,500 Canadian. If the cylinder wall was scored then the block was sent to a machine shop, which must know the repair steps when boring and re-sleeving these engines.
There is a special jig to be used to secure the block so it doesn’t warp during the re-bore. It adds up to about $5,000 in labor and parts. This of course is far less than buying a long block. The top end on the 3116 was the weakest part of the engine so valve adjustment is crucial. The engine operating temperature is a factor as well so they need TLC or they start to heat up over 200 degrees.
The engine fan in the pusher school buses were transversely mounted so it was hard to keep the temperature down especially in warmer months. We disabled the shutters (opened permanently) and installed an over riding dash switch to turn the engine fan on full which took some horsepower out of the engine. In the video you’ll see the coolant sensor that runs the hydraulic fan solenoid.
When you unhook the sensor wire the fan runs full on. The dash switch we installed for the driver just caused a break in the circuit. It should also be mentioned that the cooling system also had to cool the transmission oil which could get up to 200 degrees. The radiator mounted sideways at the back of the bus had a hard time cooling especially when the bus was in 3rd gear with a full load climbing a hill in 80-degree weather. Thanks for viewing this post and I hope you liked the video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIZwERuTz00|550
Whelan is a regular STN contributor and has worked as a school bus and truck mechanic for the past 34 years. He is currently shop foreman for the School District No. 73 transportation department in Kamloops, British Columbia. Read more aboutWhelan’s shop experiences at his personal blog site.
