Blast O Lene S’Cool Bus

Most people see V6 engines as small economy car power plants. GMC Truck saw them differently. Steve examines the history of the GMC Truck 60-degree engine family and reveals the existence of HUGE V8 and V12 variations with over 700 cubic inches.

[@_Dave_S]

I am also 58. I recall the busses I rode in school being Internationals with the Blue Bird bodies. Manual transmissions of course. It was always fun to sit way in back and get bounced when the driver hit a bump lol. Great video Steve!

[@napalmholocaust9093]

When I was the last kid on the bus the driver would gun it over the humps were the train tracks were pulled-out. They were big, nearly hit the ceiling. Big enough by brother put the rear struts through the towers into his trunk in a rabbit and 3 heavy guys.

[@ostrich67]

Same, but most were automatics where I lived. Jimmys and International Loadstars with Blue Bird bodies.

[@SpatialDragon]

Yep, I am 58 too Steve. Lot of similar memories.

[@johntuttle5396]

Fun Fact: Bus had dual windshield wipers so kids would not be drenched by sheets of water being swept off windshield when bus was stopped while they were standing waiting to board or exit, driver could keep the left side running and wouldn't have to wait for wipers to start up and take a few "wipes" to clear his side of windshield before he took off after stop. Seconds count in transportation! 😀

[@rupe53]

years ago I drove a fire truck with the V-12 version. Just looking at the thing told you it was a monster engine, with two heads on each side. As powerful as it was in our hilly rural area, using that manual transmission was like rowing a boat. You almost never had two hands on the wheel because you were busy shifting gears!

[@chilee6994]

I didn't realize there was such a large CC range in these v6s. And the spark plugs in a different location that's all new to me thank you.

[@sjperry54]

That tragic bus fire was in Carrollton, KY, not Ohio. The church group on it was local to me and I knew several of those on it.

[@nfullenwider]

Also happened in 1988, not 1978 as he misstated.

[@edp9743]

The original school district that owned the ill-fated bus opted not to purchase the cage around the fuel tank.

[@larrykroger3100]

Drove a stick like Ronnie Sox !!!! S'cool Bus indeed !!

[@thomaslouis5626]

Think about all the kids who rode on this bus, happy to go home because it was Halloween, Christmas, going to hang with friends, laughing and having a good time on this bus. The kids who had good grades and couldn't wait to get home to show their parents, and the kids who didn't have good grades and did not want to go home lol

[@savedin87ify]

I drove School Buses for 16 years. Loved it best job I ever had.

[@fastinradfordable]

U know what’s the best thing about highschool girls… We keep getting older..

[@frankdenardo8684]

@@fastinradfordable I met someone who was a school bus driver and he drove for the district for 35 years. He got the job after a four year hitch in the United States Air Force, the GMC was what he drove. Besides the GMC, there were Ford, Chevrolet, International Harvester, and Dodge. Bodies were supplied by Carpenter, Blue Bird, Superior Coach, Wayne, Ward Body Works, Thomas, Gillig Bros. All the buses had gasoline engines, manual transmissions. Around 1970. Ford school buses started being equipped with the transmatic automatic transmission. Automatic transmissions started coming in about the late 1970's and by the mid 1980's they were phased out and gasoline engines were replaced with diesel engines. Advantages of the automatic transmission is less down time being you eliminate changing the clutch plate and resurface or replace the flywheel. He started in the fall of 1968 and retired in June of 2003. The last bus he drove where International, Blue Bird, and Thomas buses, Thomas is under ownership of Mercedes-Benz and International school buses are sold as IC Integrated Chassis, a subsidiary of Navistar Corporation a subsidiary of International truck and bus. He was a member of the Teamsters Union.

[@oldyellow8120]

I rode to elementary school on a GMC bus just like this one. It must have been a "Superior" because I remember the console full of toggle switches to the left of the driver. Our bus driver was a local farmer named Clyde. He was a really nice guy who greeted us everyday using our names, and on holidays, he always had a box full of Hershey Chocolate Bars on the floor next to him and would hand each kid one as they got on the bus! What a great guy he was!

[@xfactorautomotive1496]

I can remember in grade school, the bus route had a turn around. The driver backed up a little too far and the bus got stuck in the snow. The driver had all us kids get out and push the bus out. Think that would happen today?! We got covered in snow being flung from the duals thought it was great! Lol Ahh...good memories

[@sporty196071]

Around 79 I worked at an automotive parts warehouse as a mechanic, I worked on Hi-lo's and 2 gmc switch tractors with 401 V-6s. We had an idiot yard driver always tried to do burnouts and would break motor mounts drive shafts and axles. The 401 has monster torque.

[@americanrambler4972]

My memory of the GMC v6 truck engine was how bad the drivability was. Especially when cold. They would cough and backfire/spit back through the carburetor a whole lot. Seemed like every time you stepped on the throttle, they would cough, spit and sputter. And it was a problem that was never resolved. My dad carried a fire extinguisher in his truck. And he had to use it more than once. It seemed like every GMC v6 I saw and heard had that trait. not just my dads truck. That motor had a lot of torque, but no rpm. You were all done by 3500 to 3800 rpm. Seldom if ever saw 4,000 app on the tach. I think my dad had a 4/10 rear end with posi traction. More than once I saw him roasting both rear grip tires pulling a boat and trailer up a boat ramp. 70 plus mph was really starting to push it. Pulling or hauling a load was never a problem. Going fast was.

[@jefferysmith3930]

As a kid in the 70’s often high schoolers drove the school bus. Hard to believe today, but that’s how it was in my rural NC upbringing. Our old 4 spd Ford school bus would do about 30 mph up the mountain highway to my home with good ole’ high school senior Ronnie Scott constantly shifting between 2nd and 3rd to coax that beast up the mountain. He would often give it a rev when we got off the bus, key the ignition off then back on so it would give a hellacious backfire just as we walked to the back of the bus after getting off. Pissed us off then, but hilarious to think back on. I couldn’t believe it when I later moved to Florida in the early 80’sband rode on an air conditioned bus with an am/fm stereo and automatic transmission driven by a middle aged driver. Such luxury!

[@bobbyheffley4955]

Did the Ford bus have a straight 6 or V8?

[@rhigh100]

Here in NC students drove the school buses up until the mid 80's. There were no adult drivers. You had to have your drivers license for six months before you could get your bus license.

[@nfullenwider]

My mom told me about that! She was in school in the 60s.

[@jaybartlett4090]

Texas School in the 90s, we had International Blue Birds that were limited to 55mph. But we had this one old school substitute driver, and when he filled in, he always went to the back of the bus yard and pulled out the "76/77 Chevy, v8 power standard shift. That old thing would fly!!

[@BigMikesHooptyBarn]

That's awesome! I have a 1966 GMC 4000 dump bed truck with the 351 magnum V6. It is a torque monster!

[@talfacprez]

If one of our school bus in high school was broken down there were two of those GMC V6 school busses they kept around to take us to school. I have ridden one just like that one too.

[@Bbbuddy]

I recall as a kid in about 1968, my school bus lost its brakes. I remember the driver frantically trying to downshift.

[@bobbyheffley4955]

Unsynchronized transmission

[@aaroncone6778]

Some of those early GMC V6's in the early sixties had tartan (Plaid) valvecovers. Kind of a rare bird, to see a GMC MV series/bus body. Another great video Steve!

[@thedelawareranch2379]

I was always told the plaid valve covers where something that was a replacement and they did that to know if it was done or not ? I have no idea how true that is

[@UberLummox]

Plaid? Like an actual plaid pattern on the valve covers???

[@va4cqd]

From what I understand, there was warranty issues on the rocker arms and gmc used those valve covers to identify which trucks had the repair done

[@DanEBoyd]

@@UberLummox Yes.

[@UberLummox]

@@DanEBoyd Bizarre! Love it.

[@kennethsouthard6042]

I remember being driven home on a school bus from 1stvgrade on a bus.during 69 -70 school year. If you misbehaved on the bus not only would the bus driver yell at you, when you got off she would say "tell your parents what you did." I think the most kids were so terrified of her that they actually told their parents.

[@MrTheHillfolk]

I remember once the bus driver was yelling at us about throwing something around, and she says it's always funny until somebody gets an eye poked out. Of course I stand up and I say: then it's funnier. Lol darn near got dragged to the office by my ear when we got to school 😂

[@jackmehoff4613]

Steve, thanks for the piece on the long lost, often forgotten GMC V6's.

[@Prowbar]

Lil' correction Steve: the Magnum engines have different, better flowing heads, intakes and exhaust manifolds. The only V6 with a 1 barrel was the 305A, an early version that was quickly phased out. The rest all had 2 barrel carbs. They are slow but have lots of low end torque. The V6 crankshaft makes a SBC crankshaft look tiny. Main bearings are over 3 inch diameter. I have a 65 GMC with the 305 V6, building up a 478 V6 to go into it.

[@AZ-JKUR-HR]

My buddy had a 68 camper special with the 305 and we took it out and tore it down and stood the crank next to a small block crank!!!! Lol. Your right, so much bigger!

[@josephdipalma5989]

Another great video! In the early 70's I rode a, then old mid 60's GMC Bluebird school bus with a V-6. They made a great sound like no other engine. Back in the 90's I had a 1961 GMC dually flatbed with the 305, powerful but slow, but still very cool. Steve they used cowl & chassis to make school busses. Just a front clip firewall and dash.

[@MAGA_Trump_Warrior]

When I was a kid my dad bought an old GMC school bus like that to store stuff in. It was an old prisoner transportation bus so it had the metal grates welded over the windows. We had many good times pretending to drive that bus in the summer.

[@timtompkins150]

Things evolve and the school bus I've been driving for the past 10 years has a rear mounted Cummins 6cyl. The torque needed to pull a 90 passenger bus is amazing. School buses are the safest form of transportation in the country.

[@outdoorfreedom9778]

Well kid, I'm 75 and all I remember about the buses we rode in, high school, is that they were yellow. I never rode a bus to school until high school. They made us walk. Junior high was a lot of miles walk too but we were in good shape! I never heard of those big V-6 engines.

[@oldrustycars]

I've worked on GMC V6 engines. You have to blow away all the crud that accumilates around the spark plugs before removing them, or it ends up in the cylinder.

[@rickwhite3181]

Learn something new on a lot of your videos Steve TY I grew up in Lenox Ma. ( The Berkshires) so I love watching junkyard crawl I now live in Tampa FL. Again thanks Steve, i

[@scottbivins4051]

I was on a school bus in 1984 in Cedar Springs, Alabama that flipped over on its side because a truck came around the curve in our lane, and the lady bus driver overcorrected and on our side, we went. A senior kicked out what was left of the front windshield and we older little kids opened the back emergency. We were not going fast, so nobody really got hurt thanks to the dark green padded seats.

[@funlifebananas1061]

You’re maybe not a professional comedian but I enjoyed your impression and joke. More please 👍

[@selah62]

yes I'm laughing at his impression of that bus driver lady.. lol

[@funlifebananas1061]

@@selah62 As an Englishman, I hadn’t heard the bus door joke before,it cought me off guard and I nearly spat my tea over the iPad.

[@wes11bravo]

Many years ago, my grandparents were driving near the Wayne Corporation in Indiana, thousands of new school buses were parked in rows, ready to be delivered, and my grandma remarked to my grandpa, "That must be an *enormous* school!"

[@Chris-bz6wl]

Uncle owned Timberlane Transportation in Plaistow NH years ago , he’d hire us to fly into Dayton , catch a bus to Wayne to drive buses back. You’d get cash and whatever you had at the end you got to keep, A LOT of guys ran out of fuel with just a few miles left to go lol !

[@aaron71]

Love seeing old busses and junkyards are one of the only places they still exist! Always full of bees though 😅

[@brucejones7389]

We had a single axle grain truck with a 305 v6 and a tandem grain truck with a 478 v6...were very reliable and powerful

[@frankrodriguez1977]

Awesome. Thanks

[@themanfromphoto]

Man what a trip down memory lane. I remember the Superior I rode in in the mid 60's in Montreal. That switch panel took me back. Our driver would let us shift the big ol' shift lever as he was driving. Learned all about clutches and shift patters from that dude in 1966. So much for safety back then. I'd always sit at the back in the last seat. When he hit bumps, you'd go flying. There was a floor heater back there under the seats and the hose came loose and damned near scalded us with radiator coolant. Thank goodness we had rubber winter boots on. 😂

[@nathanlapp2244]

In the 70’s-80’s, our school district in GA used mostly Bluebirds (made in GA) but a few Wayne and Carpenter busses on Ford, IH, Chevy or GMC chassis. All sticks.

[@barryphillips7327]

You would hardly think that little V6 would have enough power to drag around a big bus, ours was a Bedford, at times the driver did not make good gear changes, we would joke 'change them don,t rearrange them' 🤣

[@philippetays4263]

i have seen the V12, and some were used as irrigation pumps

[@MrTheHillfolk]

In the early 2000s I worked in an engine shop and sometimes we did some work on school buses. Had one with a Cummins ISB giving us a problem, since we were a Cummins dealer I was able to plug in with the laptop and defeat the speed limiter. Got that sucker to 94mph on a test run. Blue bird brick just hammering that air with that flat front end. And I think I forgot to put the limiter back 😄

[@markdodd1152]

As soon as I saw blast o lene thought of the Jay Leno special. I'm 60 and rode to school in international busses with the 2 speed rear end . I learned about double clutching from the driver Mr Allen

[@darrininverarity4297]

1976 our school bus smashed into a garbage truck in the fog,they never had any foam on the seat bolsters and hand rails,just chrome pipe and some kids lost some teeth,pretty scary moment.

[@anibalbabilonia1867]

You know talking about weird engines! Believe it or not! When I bought my 2001 Jeep Liberty limited with the 3.7 v6 also had the spark plugs on top of the plenum next to the fuel injectors! For me that was even better! Because it made a lot easier to change the spark plugs. Now like you as a kid growing up in the 70s in Puerto Rico, I remember riding on them school buses, and where I lived in the island was nothing but hills and mountains and the roads where very restricted and dangerous! I remember the driver doing a lot of shifting and barely having the bus moving up the mountain hills! Maybe doing 25-30mph! Because for one being fully loaded and having them smaller engines, and being heavy, made the bus just huff and puff on them hills. I actually dreaded the thought of riding in such buses! I remember a real bad accident in Aguas buenas, it happened in February 16, 1978. It plunged 500ft down a ravine, killing 11 and injuring 30 others, I believe the bus was overloaded at the time of the accident! But anyway! That was one of the worst school bus accident that happened in the island at that time. After that I really never wanted to take the school bus anymore! It freaks me out! Boy I gotta tell you them bus drivers where ruff and though! And if you didn’t listen back then! They made you walk the rest of the way home!!😂 great story and video Steve!👌😎👍

[@brinleynicholson4588]

It was Carrolton KY 1988 Steve

[@63bbray]

Actually the gas V-12 was only used in cabovers. The long-nose 9500's used big diesels like the Detroit 8V-71's.

[@daveridgeway2639]

Hi Steve, your 58 years old, I'm 62 years old. From the late 50s to the early 80s, GM and Ford did produce gas powered big truck engines that where not available in light trucks or vans. Theses engines are not used for racing or hot rodding because there outside dimensions are too large and they weigh about twice as much as a car big block engine. These engines have been replaced by diesel engines. You see as we got into the early 80s, ALL big truck gas engines required emission controls as cars. At that time, no desal engines had emission controls at all. All diesel engines NOW have the same emission controls as gas engines do now and this includes farm tractors and bulldozes and the desal industry is very upset about it. Please reply. Dave...

[@napalmholocaust9093]

Gas tank straps and a move to diesel was also implemented around the time of the roof escape. You can probably credit the straps and diesel to me being here, my bus was t-boned in icy fog in the 80's. Car damn near slid under blowing a stop. Hit the tank and folded the fender into the tire. It was one of those buses.

[@napalmholocaust9093]

I guess it wasn't exactly the same if it was diesel.

[@hugieflhr03]

Zoom in on those torque numbers Steve! These engines were cool, they had no timing chain, they had timing gears! I’m assuming they weren’t eco friendly and that s why the engine was discontinued

[@TrashcanGarage]

The v6 in my 2011 Mustang dailydriver cranks out almost 310hp and is geared great. Faster than anything we ever had back in high school. 😏335k on the clock now. 62yo here. Miss those old Superior body buses.

[@VWbaru]

Great Video! Look forward everyday to a new junkyard crawl!

[@jeffreybond6491]

Steve, I grew up in Lima, Ohio and when moved there in 1962, Superior Coach workers, would drive around on the east side of town; in new front engine School Bus Chassis only, dressed in grey coveralls, sitting on old wooden crates, smoking cigars... My School Shawnee; always had Superior rear engine "pusher" School Buses, with AM Radios and 5 encased speakers of industrial steel, mounted down the ceilings bend, above the seat windows... Starting in the 1960s the rear engine buses were GMC V6 Gas; while older pushers versions had different engines and 3 then 4 and 5 speed manuals transmission... In pushers buses; there was always 1 passenger seat; with larger spacing between seats, creating a row, for the exit by a side emergency door... The Superior Bus "pushers" 1950's to 1970's; had at least three seats with window frames; that were decal marked emergency exit and the entire window frame would swing out... The thing I remember most, about the GMC V6 gas engines: is that leaving School, with a mass of busses lined up; the "EXTREME" lean smell of fumes... !! A benefit of GMC V6 engine was: placing the spark plugs and wire set next to the intake manifold valleys; prevented engine water flood out failure... *The GMC V6 engine was so strong and durable being a Comercial engine: that GMC successfully converted it to a Diesel Version; with not any issues... !! Maybe GM should have utilized GMC V6; instead of the Oldsmobile V8 Diesel disaster... !!

[@eth39232]

From 1972 to 1978, I rode the church bus to a local Southern Baptist church in Asheville, NC. Their fleet had many 1962 through 1964 GMC buses with V6's using Carpenter, Thomas, Ward, Superior, Blue Bird, and Wayne bodies. They also had some 1963 and 1967 Internationals, 1964 and 1965 Chevrolets, and 1963 and 1964 Fords. When I would get bored, I would look out the window and study the buses and their configurations. Also, Kosciusko is pronounced Coz-ee-es-ko.

[@mikebrown8065]

Ahh yes. The old GMC I rode in , in Elementary school was a Carpenter body.I unfortunately don't know what engine was in it, but we could hear Mrs. Harrison coming down the hill in either first or second gear ⚙️ 🤔 and the RPM's were definitely maxed, lol 😆 eventually, by 8th grade the engine quit one cold morning. A sound like no other : an engine turning in it's maxed RPM range and an instantaneous explosion, to dead silence as it echoes off the other mountains ⛰️ 💥😱😱😳😳🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@johnz8210]

This and a little earlier were peak years for GM. The most powerful company in the US. Cool stuff.

[@quinVentures]

steves channel is kind of like one of those informative tv programs that are on really early in the morning

[@vettekid3326]

Those GMC V6's were very popular in commercial applications. My uncle that owned a commercial painting company in the 1960's had a fleet of GMC pickups all powered with the V6. They were more reliable and heavy duty than a Chevy straight 6 in hard usage applications.

[@Ron_Lockwood]

I love the GM V-6. Thanks for the content, be well.❤

[@kleverich]

I live near the Thomas Built factory. I occasionally see a group of buses going by with French wording on the side. Undoubtedly a convoy of new buses destined for a school district in Quebec.

[@googleusergp]

That would be High Point, NC where Thomas is located. Some upfitters were located close by. Sartin Services was one of them.

[@RoofysGarage]

Very informative video! However I've gotta confess that I'm more than slighlty surprised and disappointed that your zombified Deer head didnt accompany you in this video! I was honestly expecting it during the interior tour. 😅

[@MauiWauiPineappleExpress]

I'm glad it's gone, doesn't ad anything!

[@88SC]

I rode school busses off and on during the 1970s. There was one, “Bus 9” which we all recognized by the sound, that (as it turns out) was Detroit Diesel powered. Most at the time, were Internationals with whatever big, gas V-8 they used.

[@MrTheHillfolk]

Big ol 549 international engine. What a heavy underpowered slug ,but I guess they were sort of reliable. I did rebuild one of those in the early 2000s. 2 of em actually,they come in waves 😂

[@u121921]

I used to drive the Blue Bird flatnose with the Cat 3208 and the low restriction side pipe exhaust . You could hear every cylinder of that V8 . We had all but 2 buses with the Allison automatics , when you brake torqued these the exhaust sound could drown out anything around the bus . It was like an amplified gatling gun . Today Blue Bird uses a Roush converted super duty Ford V 10 that can run gas ,NG or LPG and puts out 340 horses , a huge amount of torque thru a 6 speed allison auto and can out accelerate many cars , pick ups and minivans

[@schumannresonanceswithverte]

As usual. very informative. Always learn something when I watch. I have seen the video of Jay Leno's Blast o lene, and that's what got my attention on this one. I'm glad you gave some background on it, because that lets me appreciate Jay Leno's ride my better.

[@reallyaintbuynit2018]

You bypassed the 2 speed rear end switch!!!

[@Truckguy2007]

When I was a kid, the busses were all International Harvester. Mostly 5 speed manual some 4 speeds

[@ccg1171]

Great video as always. I enjoy these especially being from Massachusetts myself.

[@randyauer7303]

Cool stuff Steve

[@oldrustycars]

The trolley museum in Kennebunkport, Maine has a B model Mack school bus, also a tandem axle school bus. Both are in the boneyard, hopefully awaiting restoration.

[@chrishottle4376]

Pleasure meeting you today at the car show Steve.. I have that 61 Impala. Your knowledge amazes me. Such a nice guy too.

[@rightlanehog3151]

Steve, I had never heard of this family of GM truck engines. BTW we are the same age. The full length (😉) Ford school bus we took in the 70s also had a proper manual transmission.

[@Dayandcounting]

Use to have a piston from one that I used as an ashtray, the bore was around 5". Sure it's still around somewhere put that stuff out sight and mind when I quit smoking a decade ago I went to school in the 70-80's I don't recall an roof hatches, not sure my county hand any newer buses though. They still had the rounded buses in service into the mid 80's and they were from the at least the 50's.

[@edwardpate6128]

Those GMC V6's were very good engines designed for heavy duty truck use.

[@toddbob55]

They were junk another GM flop

[@maineiacman]

I'm glad you got to the buses I saw in the background in some earlier vidoes.

[@douglasburskey6411]

I'm 62 and my school had the same GMC V6 Supeior body school buses with some Chevys as well. Later on they had some Internationals and Fords

[@The_R-n-I_Guy]

I like the 4 in 1 gauge to the right of the steering wheel. That would be handy for a hotrod dash with no space

[@nonamesplease6288]

I also rode one of these about 50 years ago. I was a young gearhead, so even then I noticed details about our buses. Ours were Blue Bird diesels for the most part, but they were really slow and underpowered whether gas or diesel. Our buses were an eclectic mix of manufacturers (Ford, GMC, International, etc....). The flat front buses with the engine in the back were quite common in my school district as well. I don't know who made the rear engined buses, so that would be an interesting video if they had one in the yard.

[@haroldbirge6881]

🏆Learn so much from your knowledge🏆 it's awesome 😆 Steve you really 🍀get R done 😎✌️

[@markp0752]

I worked at a GMC dealer from 1974 to 1977. I worked on a lot of these. You could idle them down to 200 rpm to set the valve clearance. I did one replacement on a dump truck that was converted from a tractor. It had the 478 magnum. What a power house! Great engines. Not so much the toro flow diesel version

[@danapicray9040]

We called the diesel version the turoflop

[@markp0752]

@@danapicray9040 We called it the terrible floo

[@markp0752]

@@danapicray9040 flow

[@danapicray9040]

I know, we called it turoflop because it was a flop. If it was warm you had to push it to get it started because the starter wouldn’t turn it over fast enough, even with a grader battery on it.

[@ExilefromCrownHill]

As a child in the early 1960's, our school district had "Reo" school buses. I thought they were cool, they had an exhaust the farted and popped whenever the driver took his foot off the gas. Now these buses are long forgotten. Any history on these?

[@johnjohnston9661]

I'm 62 and have fond memories of riding a school bus all through elementary school in Jacksonville, FL. I remember the bus I rode was an International Harvester with a Ward bus body. I'm guessing the first was a '65, then later we got a newer '68. Like the one you're showing it was a four speed manual. Years later (early 80's), I would occasionally drive a bus for our church. It was a '72 GMC with a Bluebird body. Interesting thing about it, the manual transmission had a hi-lo range with a button you would pull on the shifter. Essentially, it was an 8 speed. It could keep up with interstate traffic with little trouble.

[@imabebebebe2496]

The bus IS the classroom!

[@daviddamico4288]

You are truly a car guy Steve …

[@philjones9339]

In high school , those busses had no problem on the highways.

[@Freedomquest08]

I never knew there was ever a V-8 version of these.

[@geoffmooregm]

There was also a diesel varient called the Toro-Flow.

[@mikechurch2359]

O ya remember this well can you amgin shifting the gears at all the stops and this clutch pedal was hard to push down great video Steve as always

[@samuelvickers7910]

We went on a field trip to the hadam CT. Power plant two together they raced down rt.9 at 65 then the governor kicked in

[@dupe3d]

Very informative, as always! Thanks Steve.

[@Sebastian_Dinwiddie]

In the winter, we would try to get the seats that had the heaters under them. 😊

[@greggc8088]

Wow! I was aware of the GMC six but never researched them too much. A 60 degree V with as much as a 5.125 bore. That's a huge freaking bore. Plus they molded two 351's together for a 702 V12.

[@damhall9300]

The good old days ))

[@raythackston1960]

When I started out on the road with my band...we had a 1967 Ford school bus that we traveled in. Kept our gear in the back half and left the seats in the front and made a bed on the last 2 seats at the back. It was really cool.

[@willhorting5317]

All of the buses in our school district when I was in school ('60s-'80s), were Blue Birds... regardless of GMC/IH/Chevy/Ford. The current district buses are still Blue Birds.

[@paulmontbatten5445]

Good video. Glad those school days are over.

[@davidciesielski8251]

Thanks, as I say every time " I had no idea" ...I would love to see a v12 in a truck, now that I know about them.

[@frankfurther3828]

Waylon's Wire on YT

[@davidciesielski8251]

@@frankfurther3828 Thanks man!! Must handle great being mid engine and all...

[@trekkie1995]

The Carrollton bus fire was actually in 1988. The church bus that was involved was a 1977 Superior/Ford.

[@henryf.ky.3415]

In Kentucky

[@billynapier7551]

My dad had a truck with the 305 v6 in the early 80s. I think it was a 68 or 69 ,dark green 4wd.

[@frankdenardo8684]

I remember as a kid. I rode on those buses to and from grammar school. The school district had a mix of Gillig, GMC, Chevrolet, International Harvester, Ford and Dodge. I remember Superior Coach, Wayne, Ward Body Works, Thomas, Gillig Bros. who provided the bodies for the Chassis. Buses had 4-speed manual transmissions petrol engines, and drum brakes, later on the buses had to be equipped with escape hatches. Later on they started being equipped with diesel engines, automatic transmissions, and disc brakes. The diesel engines are more economical than gasoline engines, automatic transmissions save on downtime and the same with disc brakes. There are now three manufacturers being Blue Bird, Thomas built buses which is owned by Freightliner and Mercedes-Benz, and Integrated Chassis which is a subsidiary of Navistar Corporation which owns International trucks and bus.

[@googleusergp]

It's pronounced "COS-SEE-OS-CO" like the bridge that connects the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens in NYC. Correct, Superior was sold by 1980 and prior to that the Sheller-Globe Corporation (a big conglomerate) owned them. In 1981, three former Superior employees would buy pieces of Superior's bus business and named it Mid Bus, which was eventually bought by Collins Bus in 2008. Collins Bus was bought by Allied Specialty Vehicles which was renamed the REV Group in 2015. The REV Group owns many companies in the fire, rescue, ambulance, RV and bus markets including Ferrara Fire Apparatus, E-One, Kovatch/KME, Wheeled Coach, Horton, Collins Bus, Spartan EV, Smeal, Fleetwood, and others. I've been to several REV facilities over the years both prior to and after them coming under the REV umbrella. Another major bus manufacturer is Thomas Bus. They are located in High Point, NC and are owned by Daimler. Wayne and Carpenter were two others. Carpenter was dissolved into Spartan Motors around 2001. Wayne was gone by 1995. I have met Bob Collins a few times, his family was involved in Collins Bus. My aunt drove a bus (a smaller GMC/Chevy based bus) for a time in the 1980s and one day she went to a housing project to get one of the students and there was a gun battle in the courtyard with bullets whizzing by. My aunt then refused to go into that courtyard after that point in time. The passing of the April 1, 1977 standards were mostly for structural integrity, restraints (seat belts), fuel spillage, and emergency exit/window interlocks over escape hatches. I believe these GM chassis were made in Pontiac, MI prior to the opening of GM Truck and Bus in 1972 at 2100 South Opdyke Road in Pontiac, MI. Back in 1979, the school system determined that we lived "too far" to get bus service and then for a time there was a strike, so my parents (and others) had to drive various routes to prove that we were eligible for bus service. I got the yellow bus from kindergarten to sixth grade, after that it was the "Footmobile" home, but sometimes one of the parents dropped us off in the morning and we walked home or got picked up. Somehow without cell phones, we were always where we had to be. My friend's mother would pick us up in a 1975 Coupe DeVille and she was all of 5'0", or my mom would pick us up in the 1980 Trans Am, and my mother was 5'2" and the most atypical Trans Am driver. I still have the '80 Trans Am, even though both of my parents are passed away. This GM chassis was called the "B Series" and the first generation ran from 1966 to 1983, the second from 1984 to 1991 and the third and final from 1992 to 2003. After that the GMT560 style platform could be used for bus duty, however with a cutaway style arrangement. That would continue until 2009 when that platform was discontinued. This is more of a "cowl and chassis" than a "cab and chassis as the body work from the windshield back is all done by the bus body manufacturer. Paint code 520 in 1968 was "Yellow" and I'm sure the bus OEMs had their own "School Bus Yellow" from the likes of PPG, R&M, Dupont, Ditzler and other paint manufacturers.

[@MrTheHillfolk]

A buddy of mines gearhead father told us a tale of how he was broke but needed to paint his car. He pilfered some paint from the town highway garage and painted it. A cop stopped him and told him :we know what ya did but we can't prove it.

[@WildBill236]

My school district has bus service contracted out, whereas some larger districts owned their own buses. From 6th thru 12 my route from middle school and high school used the same bus, it was a brand new Amtran in 6th grade, with the Navistar DT466E, rear engine, flat front model. By senior year, on days I didnt drive my own car, that same bus had over 120K on it, and I think 6500 hours. Its automatic would often buck on downshifts, even in early days. Im sure its been crushed by now, and flat front models arent used by Crash A Rama figure 8 races or demo derbys at Erie County fair, Holland, or Lake Erie Speedway.

[@googleusergp]

@@MrTheHillfolk LOL, easy to spot.

[@googleusergp]

@@WildBill236 I believe the ones that we had around here were GMs like the one shown here.

[@MrTheHillfolk]

@@googleusergp yeah oops ,he didn't think that far ahead 😬

[@Fljeff7]

The bus crash was in Carrollton Kentucky I just drove by the site a few days ago. They have a sign marking it on interstate 71

[@henryf.ky.3415]

71

[@Fljeff7]

@@henryf.ky.3415 corrected thank you

[@mikemaccracken3112]

I’m 56 and we had International and Fords that were built by Thomas and Wayne MFG. The Fords had 289 and 302’s. Those 289’s got the snot rung out of them on hills😂

[@stevevlossak2443]

Really kool bus miss the stiks

[@lab1042]

7:45 I believe you're referring to the Carrollton bus crash that occurred in Carroll County, KY. It was a former school bus (built in 1977 just before the new safety mandates took affect). It was a church group on their way to Kings Island in Ohio. Bus was hit head-on by a wrong way drunk driver on I-71. The collision jammed shut the front door and shoved the suspension back which pierced the fuel tank, starting the fire. Crash occurred May 14, 1988. Twenty-seven deaths out of 67 passengers.

[@timothyjaggers6321]

Correct

[@googleusergp]

Correct. At issue was that as you stated, the bus was made right before the standard took effect.

[@nfullenwider]

@@googleusergp One week, if I remember correctly.

[@googleusergp]

@@nfullenwider Yes I believe so.