I have found a 1984 Southwind motorhome with a 6.2L diesel engine with 44,000 miles on it. Is this a decent engine? Is there anything I should know about it before I buy it? Would you recommend I buy it or pass on it? Anyone have a guess as to the gas mileage (it is a 27 footer)? What type of maintainance can I expect to do? Here is a Youtube walk through video if you want to listen to the engine. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jewf5zBFoxY

thats a big boat for a 6.2. it'll be slow and not a lot of power unless it has a turbo added. milage would probably be 12-15 , it'll always be working hard, but thats totally a guess

as long as you don't drive far and are going down hill all the way it will be fine.

no power, way to much load for a 6.2, as they say gutless

as diaric said, thats a lot of weight for that old oil burner, it will be slow, and wont be fast, but probobly a little better mileage than some of the motorhomes with a gasser in it i guess, this is also just a guess, as ive never owned a motorhome with a 6.2

Holy slow Batman!!!!

As said, certainly not alot of power, but it if runs well (no smoke, knocks, etc.) and you treat it nicely, you should not have any problems with reliability.

Also, keep your eye on the temp, with the motor working that hard it might like to get hot on warm days.

I don't know what a motor home weighs but I frequently put a yard of sand 200lbs of cement and a few hundred lbs of tools and drive off. I don't go over 100km/h (60mph)and it takes a little while to get there but that's alot of weight and the motor pulls it and it still gets over 15mpg. If your not in a hurry I think the motor home should be fine. If however you're planning on doing lots of 2 lane 120km/h (70mph) driving and doing that all day I'd stay away.

I have found a 1984 Southwind motorhome with a 6.2L diesel engine with 44,000 miles on it.

I worked on many back in the ealry 80s. Itasca, Southwind, Champion, etc. Most blew to pieces by 40K miles and got Isuzu or Cummins 3.9 transplants, and a few got 6.5 turbos. All the Class As with 6.2s were horribly underpowered, Best fuel mileage on a flat highway with a wind at your back will be around 10 MPG. 8 MPG will be more the usual. We had one small 22' Champion that blew the 6.2 and we stuck a Dodge 318 gasser in it. It then got 6-7 MPG. Lack of overdrive is one factor, and lack of power to run it if it DID have OD.

I don't know what a motor home weighs . . ..

They weigh around 10,000-11,000 lbs.empty dry weight and up to 14,000 lbs. loaded/GVW. Also have an extreme amount of wind resistance, very high axle gearing (4.33 or 4.56) and no overdrive. They come with TH400 auto transmissions. You cannot use aftermarket overdrive because the 6.2 doesn't have enough power to push it down the road at highway speeds unless it's spinning close to 3000 RPM.
The transplants that got 3.9 liter Isuzu turbos could get 13 MPG.

I've got a 4WD mini-motorhome with 6.2 diesel, a pop-up roof, 3.08 axles, and overdrive - and it can get a best of around 16.5 MPG. Weighs around 7200 lbs. loaded. It is also underpowered in hilly areas but drives pretty well in the flats.

I can tell you it'll get better MPGs than my old '73 Dodge class A that had a 440 & Thermoquad-that thing averaged THREE miles per gallon, couldn't pass a gas station! A 6.2 would be EXTREMELY SLOW in a class A-you will probably have a Turbo 400 with about a 4:56-1 rear ratio, it'll STRAIN to reach 50-55 MPH on flat ground-and an '84 6.2 won't tolerate much power buildups before something bad happens-blown head gasket, broken crank, eventual block cracking. Hard to believe somebody would put a 6.2 in something that heavy & non-aerodynamic.

WOW 10 000 lbs. My truck weighs a little over 2000lbs empty and a bit more than double that with sand etc.. I can't believe that a 6.2 was ever supposed to pull that kind of weight. Don't buy that motor home severley underpowered.

I can tell you it'll get better MPGs than my old '73 Dodge class A that had a 440 & Thermoquad-that thing averaged THREE miles per gallon

I had a 73 Dodge Champion Class A. A small one at 21 feet. 318 industrial gas engine, 4.56 axle ratio and a Torque Flite three-speed auto. When I got it- it could get a best of 6 MPG. I then pulled it all part and converted the industrial engine to a regular auto engine (different cam, heads, and higher compression). Also put a special RV intake manifold, headers, etc. Took it on a long trip with great expectations - and guess what. Got 6 MPG.