Good work! Subscribed im in

 

...what has to be done to mate the crankshaft to the torque converter. That's a splined shaft isn't it? Anyway, keep it all coming and good luck all the way. Watch those tumbles on the bike, though. Hope your feeling better.

 

We are currently working everything out. I'd be lying if I said that it was 100 percent thought through the moment I decided to do this swap.

Thankfully, I just had one day off work from my tumble. A few bruises and scrapes, but no worse for wear. Thankfully I was wearing a helmet, jeans and long sleeves.

Anyways finally got my British Racing Green high temp paint in, and I started painting some stuff up.



That was after just one coat. I did one more after the picture was taken and plan on one more tomorrow.

I know you guys are hoping for some juicier details and pictures and I just haven't been able to do anything do to my schedule. Hopefully I will be able to on Friday.

 

The stuff you haven't thought out is what I'm looking forward to the most.

Solving the problems you're facing will be fun to watch.

 

You mean something like this?



Not my Disco, but its a Disco that had the same swap done (including retaining the auto, albeit this is a ZF4HP22). My good friend who is a machinist (he makes parts for the Navy Nuclear Program, needless to say he is pretty solid) is working on something for me.

 

What kind of hp/trq does that Merc deisel put out? Just curious if you've had to make any plans to beef up the transfercase/diffs etc. if its considerably more torque. Also curious, whats the weight of that new motor compared, did you have to get hd springs for the front to keep it level?

ps. looked up the specs for the 1983 300SD... wow you have a power challenge there, I can barely merge with traffic in my 00' with 285's

 

I was kind of laughing as I read the first part. As far as suspension set up, I have a set of TerraFirma HD rings and some 1.5 inch spacers. That should give me enough spacing to clear the oil pan and keep it fairly level. If not, we will play around with the spacers.

As for the power issue. You might think that the old engine is seriously underpowered, but think about it, the 6.2 Detroit Diesel that was in the Hummer only put out 140. That is 140 from a 6.2 Liter 8 cylinder engine.... I get just a few horsepower less from a 3.0 Liter 5 cylinder engine.

As for adding on some power, there is a lot you can do. First thing you can do is bump up to the boost. Depending which turbo came with the car, the stock boost was only 8 psi (for the Garrett) or 11 psi (for the KKK). We intend on pushing about 16 pounds of boost maybe more once we work everything out and most importantly get it going. Another possibility is a twin turbo setup in the future. More immediately is the addition of an intercooler. I don't I need to go into why they are important.

Another trick we will be adding, to which I had no freaking clue about until I started looking into the diesel culture is Water/Methanol injection. I don't know a ton about it, but it is seemingly a great idea. I have a hard time explaining so here is a video:
The kicker? The fuel pump. Those things can be modified to push some extreme amount of fuel into the cylinders, and if you can get enough [cold] air in there, you can get some serious performance numbers. There is a diesel pump builder in Sweden called DieselMeken and he does super high performance fuel pumps. Some of the pumps he makes can put out a serious amount of horsepower. Here is one really good example of what he can do:
Lastly, I mentioned in my very first post, I didn't expect this to be fast, or quick or anything remotely close to either. I live in a place where the average speed limit is 35 MPH. I don't need it to be quick. I need it to get me from home to work [and back] and more importantly to the beach. I want to keep it on the road.

More updates to come on Friday.

 

Awesome. I'm excited to see how your project goes! I too love diesels, but have finally retired the last of my Mercs. The OM617 is a great, stable platform, but you'll not make big power out of it like you might a cummins, etc. The problem you'll run into is the heads just won't flow. It's not to say that it can't be fixed, but after all the time and energy... it'll be less than efficient for a reasonable project. The good news - regear the diffs and it'll be acceptable anyway. The inline 5cyl has plenty of low end power, right off the line, AND the two vehicles are similar in weight!

I've had an '81 300CD(coupe), an '84 300D(Turbo Sedan) and an '84 300TD(Turbo estate) so if you have any odd questions about the engine, I may be able to help, feel free to send me a PM.

As for an 80k engine... I wouldn't hold your breath, certainly not for $800. Maybe you're that lucky, but I'd bet not. Most of those cars are pretty high value with those kind of miles. That said, an OM617 with 180k is still barely broken in. This is afterall, the million mile motor. Do the valve adjustments often and check the timing chain once in a while for stretch and you'll laugh all the way to the bank anyway.

Dave

 

Subscribed.

If you succeed I'm going to do the same thing . Already have the om617.

Best of luck!

 

What do you mean the heads won't flow? I think I know what you mean but I want to know for sure before I make a comment about it. We may be regearing the diffs, but I'm also getting some bigger tires soon and I'd like to see how those are before I make any decisions to go with a certain gearing.

Thank you for the offer, I will more than likely take advantage of that before I'm done with the build.

I promise you the guy I bought it from said he was the second owner and he has put maybe 30K on it over his first 10 years of owning it. He said he would drive it a very short distances to the beach and whatnot, but it was never his daily driver so it never packed on the miles. He said about 2 or 3 years ago it went from being weekend toy to almost never being driven and sat in his garage and then eventually a mass storage area for cars. He would run it twice a month to make sure there wasn't issues. Oddly enough and luckily for me he one time he was running it he got into the accident, and decided to sell it off as it wasn't worth keeping. He had intended to give it to his grandson! The VIN checked out and the odometer didn't look like it had been tampered with. Even 100K miles would be solid. I know with some care, maintenance and valve adjustments it could make 500K plus.

Anyways, I was hoping to get some work done over the labor day weekend, but alas it wasn't to be. Friday I ended up working late, Saturday I was busy with duty, and then Sunday I had a get together that I couldn't miss (saw a friend that I haven't seen since we went to school together), and Monday the shop was closed. Hopefully before I leave island in a week I will be able to get some noticeable work done.