whiteknight
12-21-2004, 04:48 AM
I am looking to expand my Locksmith business and need a second van. I want to go diesel, in fact I plan to go bio-diesel. I've made a few batches so far and it seems like something I should be able to do to stretch my feul budget to undercut to competition, etc... No hippie "save the earth" things here, just money.
Anyhow, my budget is around $2K for cash in pocket and I realy dont want to put out for another loan. I still have to outfit the darned thing with shelves and tools to the tune of a few K as well. So I looked around and found a guy local here who sells used school buses. All his buses are from school districts which aledgedly did all the required maintenance and only got rid of buses based upon their required rotation cycles so there should be none with major problems. He has two in my cash on the barrel head price range, both GMC's on 1 ton van frames with diesel engines. Both look the same under the hood to my gas engine shade tree mechanic senses. Both in the late 80's early 90's
Now, several questions on the specifics here.
#1) He says he only sells diesels to people with addresses outside the manditory emisions testing areas as these busses have set for two to three years and he doenst bother testing them for emisions because they would likely fail. Is this normal for a diesel that has set for a couple years? If not, what might his game be? If they fail will running them for a few months on some B20 likely clean them up and get them to pass later on?
#2) My mechanic who fixes my GMC gas van tells me the pre-duramax engines in GMC's broke head bolts alot and he wouldn't buy one. These are both outside the duramax range, I forget the size of engine the guy told me. My mechanic said $2K to fix a broken head bolt. Is this a nightmare job? Is it a parts intensive job? How available are the parts? How frequent is the problem? If a bolt broke for the school district that had the bus, and they fixed it, what are the odds of a recuring problem? Can this be done by a shade tree mechanic like myself?
#3) Overall, how much use is my experience with gas engines when dealing with diesel engines? I have worked on almost every external item on an engine; alternators, batteries, fuel pumps (in and out of tanks) fuel filters, timing, belts, etc... I have done the top end of smaller 4 and 6 cylinder engines as well. Will the diesel be all new or will that knowledge be valuable?
#4) With all the above, am I an idiot for buying this? Would it make more sence to bite the bullet and use the 2K as a down payment and pick up the rest from the bank for a newer duramax powered van?
Thanks for any help here.
Scott
Anyhow, my budget is around $2K for cash in pocket and I realy dont want to put out for another loan. I still have to outfit the darned thing with shelves and tools to the tune of a few K as well. So I looked around and found a guy local here who sells used school buses. All his buses are from school districts which aledgedly did all the required maintenance and only got rid of buses based upon their required rotation cycles so there should be none with major problems. He has two in my cash on the barrel head price range, both GMC's on 1 ton van frames with diesel engines. Both look the same under the hood to my gas engine shade tree mechanic senses. Both in the late 80's early 90's
Now, several questions on the specifics here.
#1) He says he only sells diesels to people with addresses outside the manditory emisions testing areas as these busses have set for two to three years and he doenst bother testing them for emisions because they would likely fail. Is this normal for a diesel that has set for a couple years? If not, what might his game be? If they fail will running them for a few months on some B20 likely clean them up and get them to pass later on?
#2) My mechanic who fixes my GMC gas van tells me the pre-duramax engines in GMC's broke head bolts alot and he wouldn't buy one. These are both outside the duramax range, I forget the size of engine the guy told me. My mechanic said $2K to fix a broken head bolt. Is this a nightmare job? Is it a parts intensive job? How available are the parts? How frequent is the problem? If a bolt broke for the school district that had the bus, and they fixed it, what are the odds of a recuring problem? Can this be done by a shade tree mechanic like myself?
#3) Overall, how much use is my experience with gas engines when dealing with diesel engines? I have worked on almost every external item on an engine; alternators, batteries, fuel pumps (in and out of tanks) fuel filters, timing, belts, etc... I have done the top end of smaller 4 and 6 cylinder engines as well. Will the diesel be all new or will that knowledge be valuable?
#4) With all the above, am I an idiot for buying this? Would it make more sence to bite the bullet and use the 2K as a down payment and pick up the rest from the bank for a newer duramax powered van?
Thanks for any help here.
Scott