well, someone added a second blower directly to the other side of the motor...dont know why or how effective that would be...

That sounds like it could be an air pump? I don't have one on mine but according to the Baywindow FAQ they were common on '72-'74:

On the 72-74 dual carb engines there is an air pump mounted on the fan shroud and it was powered by a belt running on an adapter attached to the main pulley. Hoses are connected to the pump and go through the tin to the cylinder heads. The system is an emission control setup for taking fresh air and injecting it into the exhaust stream to help burn the unburned fuel.

If the PO has removed the pump, you need to block up the holes on each cylider head. I don't know what the thread size is but you have to use a shallow bolt that's the right size or have the holes tapped to a known thread size. Some folks just block the hoses off if thet are still attached to the head. Quite often new bus owners notice soot coming out of them or simply that they smell exhaust all the time but can't locate it.

I kept getting more and more bad news about my bus as friday wore on... and as the dollars kept adding up my pockets kept getting scraped and I ended up deciding I had better hold off on any other spending for now... the total cost to get my bus out of budget brakes came to $1500  :shock:

I ended up picking it up sat. afternoon... and on the drive home I also noticed while stopped at a red light that the motor appears to be making a slight knocking sound at low rpm's (oh please tell me its not a rod bearing). Anyways, I really could use some help getting this motor timed right and carb adjusted to make sure its nothing worse...

well... I got a new brake master cylinder, new rear wheel cylinders, rear brake pads, rear wheel drums, rear wheel bearings, and all 4 cv joints replaced.

on another note, for some reason my automatic gearbox will only go through second gear... I didnt go over 45 coming home since the transmission seemed like it wouldnt even try for third for some reason.. is that a hard fix?

It will shift from first to second, although it does seem to wind out first before shifting...  oh yea and it likes to squeal  the tires in my garage when shifting into either drive or reverse from park lol Almost enough to wanna kill the motor unless I'm rolling the gas pedal at the same time to keep it running.

lol yes I did but the motor was already warmed up before it was brought to me so it ran fine warm and the holes in the exhaust made it too loud to really get to listen to it.  (the next day a "bus guy down middle valley road" messed with the carb and I havent been able to shift out of park without giving it gas to keep it running since.)  I knew the brakes needed work and that the cv joints needed to be replaced but the rear wheel bearings went just after I bought it. I didnt drive it over 40 when I test drove it due to wanting to be able to stop if needed during the test drive. I'm wondering what controls the shifting for the automatic... and if something just needs to be adjusted to get it to go into third....

I'm just the type I guess that fixes things that might go in the future to save myself the trouble.... rather be safe than sorry  :lol: