oiltreader:
Leyland600:
Oily this AEC Reliance belonged tom Maidstone & District in their distinctive green &n cream livery, East Kent buses and coaches were cherry red and cream.
Cheers, Leyland 600
Hello G ta for that now sorted and to make amends a couple of East Kent coaches.
Cheers
Oily
I maintained and occasionally drove WFN 513. The bus a similar 2MU3RV chassis to 390 DKK, however early in its life it had been fitted with the AEC D197 six speed overdrive 'box to improve journey times on the newly opened M2 Motorway. This combination with an underfloor engine makes gearchanging a precise matter requiring concentration with a load of noisy passengers. This turned it into a real flying machine. I can vouch for its ability to achieve in excess of 70 mph. 
. It not only ran an express service from Canterbury to London but toured Europe extensively; unless they have been sold off when it departed my care it still has blinds for many European destinations as well as the major UK Towns.
I was involved with it for some six years during which it covered a fair mileage for a preserved bus. It was not without its problems however including the dreaded head gasket failure. My theory was that not only did the design suffer from the engine related issue but the entire cooling sytem design was very poor. The saloon heaters were above the level of the coolant header tank so they air locked, but worse the header tank was so small and badly sited that it was very difficult to see the actual coolant level, consequently it was very easy to overfill it. There was no pressure cap, just the old style flip-up oil filler type cap . This encouraged the coolant to overflow when hot and to continue to syphon out unless the level had been very carefully set on departure. In fact unless it was almost overfull one had no idea how much coolant was in it. The result was repeated complaints of ‘cold bus’ and much bleeding of heater pipes.
Its other major failing for some time was its inabilty to achieve more than about 19/20 inches of vacuum. On the road this was not a real problem but roller brake testing does not simulate the conditions in motion since the engine is on tickover rather than over-run. A vacuum brake draws down the assistance level on the gauge very noticeably when applied. Once mastered, the skill of left foot braking at MOT while keeping the engine revs up to a moderate level, then there was never an issue on test. The low vacuum had continued even after a ‘new’ old stock exhauster was fitted, but a few washers added underneath the ‘snifter valve’ spring overcame the problem permanently.
Shortly after purchase the bus had been sent away for conversion to AC charging, this had required a rather Heath Robinson addition to the generator drive shaft. The Alternator clearly did not approve with consequent frequent failures of the input bearing. Eventually a modification to the resilient couplings at each end overcame this and the considerable noise produced by the protesting bearings. The same problem arose with the fan drive shaft bearings which became increasingly noisy. Their renewal and a specially-made more aggressive fan improved not just the noise but engine temperature on hot days.