The motor is not original to the bus. Have checked the engine block serial number out and the number begin with AE - so this tells me that it is a 1600cc and was made in the year '71. The engine doesn't turn over at all - hasn't since it arrived and when I turn the key all I can here is the sound of the crickets.... thats right nothing!!.
As I said in an earlier post, not sure what the story is, could be the starter motor so once it is out I will have a decent look at it. Is much easier as the starter is in a difficult place, attached to the bell housing of the transmission. Much easier to have a look over everything while it is out and will give me a chance to replace the shift rod bushings at same time.
Engine looks in good shape externally - all the tinware appears to be in place and in good nick. The heat exchangers however are stuffed..... completely rusted out and hanging loose from the pipes into the manifolds. Will have to replace these as they are beyond repair and although the muffler is ok apart from a bit of surface rust, have decided at same time to replace this.
Ok so the rear corners are rusted completely out and although I don't need to drop the motor to fix it, I want to do a good job so have decided to get the motor out to give me plenty of working room so I can grind away the rotten metal and replace the substitute tin properly.
Although the previous owner modified new metal and put it in with a generous helping of silicone sealer and resin (the resin was still soft and sticky under the bondo - you can see it in the picture), he really only positioned these over the existing rusting metal and the trays were sitting too high. The rust has kept on festering away and I suspect is much worse now that it was way back when. Luckily though it hadn't eaten into the main structure around the engine door opening.
I know that sometimes there may be a need to put a thin, really thin, film of bondo over welding joints to feather out the panels but seriously, there is no place to go heavy handed on the bondo. The previous owner disguised a very bad repair with a half inch of bondo in places.
