1990 Orion Transit Bus w/ GM 8.2L

Hi everyone,


We're considering buying a 1990 Orion II Transit Bus for a brewery bus tour business in Utah, and we have some concerns about the engine.


According to the VIN, the bus has the GM 8.2L diesel engine, also known as the "fuel pincher". We're also assuming its the naturally aspirated engine, not turbo due to the 145hp rating.


According to the seller, the engine has about 50k miles on it.


We've read some pretty bad reviews about this engine. Does anyone have any experience with this 8.2L used in transit buses, and would local diesel mechanics know how to work on it?


Thanks!

They came as NA & turbo, they were very popular in school busses and used to repower older small transit busses. The one I drove 18 years ago was in a 1957 GM TGH 3102 transit bus that had been repowered in the early eighties. Not a bad engine if you don’t overload it or run it out of oil. Problems were with the head gaskets and finding someone that knew how set the injector height properly. We never had any problems starting the bus. Only problem we had was one driver wouldn’t check the oil and ran it low. By the way that bus is still running in a private collection.