Mercedes OM606 turbo Diesel 80 series Land Cruiser (5 Viewers)

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Joined
Apr 4, 2013
Threads
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Location
Springfield, OR
Greeting's members of MUD. I have been working on an OM606 swap for a little over a year now, most of that time was spent gathering parts and having adapter parts made. I started the actual swap process July 30th 2017 with some minor disassembly on the 28th. I have been chronicling the swap in my 3-link thread in my signature line; hardly anyone has seen it there so I decided I will start a new thread dedicated to this swap. Seeing as more and more people are asking if a 606 in an 80 series has been done and google search results don't seem to show it I decided to bring it into public view .Be patient as I will be importing pictures from my other build thread and trying to keep things chronologically organized. If you have questions concerning the swap please Message me instead of asking a question in the thread. This will hopefully keep the thread fairly clean until the Swap pics and information are all there. Then I will address commonly asked questions and you'll know its a free for all after that post.

The next 45 post will be reserved for pics and info so please excuse them while I'm working on this
 
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I received my original OM606.962 from a yard in PA on the 4th of October 2016. Once I had the motor in my physical possession I ordered a 7.5mm element 400 hp mechanical injection pump from Diesel Pump's UK. The pump should provide 60cc/1000 shots off boost and 150cc/1000 shots on boost. I proceed then to take measurements for a locating pin to be made to facilitate the adapter plate development. The pin fits snug inside the crankshaft pilot bearing hole and has a 3/4" diameter 1.5" long stud on top. The backside is drilled to 3/4" at a 1" depth. The pin is designed to fit tightly into the crank and allow a plate with a 3/4" hole to be fit over the top. The plate was a piece of 1/4" polycarbonate sheet. This allowed me to make a working template of the engine. Since I used a Jeep 3/4" input shaft in the transmission the 3/4" hole served to help align the sheet centered with the engine template. A lot of measuring and remeasuring and coordinate plotting later I had a working template. I transfered the coordinates onto a piece of card stock and checked for alignment. Then once I was satisfied I transfered it to a piece of 1/2" 6061 plate and had a machinist drill and tap all the holes and cut out the center and flywheel holes. Later I decided to go with a rear sump oil pan from an OM648 to make things easier, this changed a couple hole locations on the lower end.

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Next I ordered a flywheel I had decided on using and went about learning CAD using FreeCAD to develop the file for a 2 piece adapter for the flywheel. The pictures are of the 2nd iteration of the bottom adapter. The first was made on a mill and was way out of tolerance. The next was made on a lathe as originally requested and was spot on. The idea was that the pictured adapter would pilot into the crankshaft and bolt on. A similar adapter would bolt to the outer 8 bolt pattern and the flywheel to the inner 8 bolts. The idea was to make it easy to get a replacement off the shelf flywheel that would need no modifications. The outcome was an undesired one. When I bolted the adapter plate on the engine and bolted up the flywheel adapter, and bolted the FAUX transmission together.... there was a gap of about 1/8". The input of the transmission was riding on the flywheel adapter which was already at minimal thickness as figured out by the machinist who was a materials engineer by education. So, either I needed a double thick adapter plate or have a flywheel made. I chose the latter as you can see.
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The aforementioned adapters and the flywheel. The Flywheel is made of 1050 steel like the McLeod racing flywheels. I was originally going to go with one made of 6061 aluminum with a 1050 steel insert. The insert would allow you to replace the insert with a fidanza jeep 4.0L insert. The insert sits in a shipping envelope. You can start to see a trend in areas where I could have saved a few bucks right? That is the cost of producing something never before done. I used a Dodge Dakota Bellhousing for an AX15 transmission, the reason was to allow me to have a larger flywheel. Larger Flywheel = larger clutch disk, Larger Clutch Disk= More holding force. Then there is the Centerforce Dual Friction clutch. The clutch and pressure plate are spendy, but should provide adequate holding power.

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I sent the intake, oil filter housing, turbo compressor housing, valve cover, motor mounts, accessory mounts and the transmission and transfer case housings to the metal cleaners. Then I decided to paint the aluminum parts. Some got a cast aluminum paint job, others red. I wire wheeled the pulleys and some other parts and painted them gloss black. Hindsight, should have waited until the swap was done to paint stuff as the paint job on the turbos and valve cover didn't fair well.

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I have no idea where the OM648 oil pan photos went, probably on the cheap camera I bought to take photos. I haven't pulled those photos or several others from my phone yet. The OM606 has the oil dipstick tube mounted in the front timing cover. The OM648 has it on the pan right below the filter housing. The tubes are different and the OM648 tube is NLA. This meant making a dipstick. The process was fairly straight forward, I made a rubbing of the mounting flange. Transferred it to a piece of scrap steel. Drilled it and cut it out. I then filled the engine with the proper amount of oil and bolted the flange to the pan. I then put the cleaned dipstick and tube in the flange. I checked the level and adjusted as necessary. Once I found the proper level I marked the tube, cleaned and welded the flange and tube together, o-ringed the tube and bolted it together.

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I ended up getting a screaming deal on a 38mm split-case from a 89 Fj62 off of e-bay. It came in a large box, large parts wrapped in medical absorbent sheets and the others in baggies...yep...a puzzle. Cases went to the metal cleaners, the steel parts went were disassembled and went through my bucket O' diesel. Everything was thoroughly cleaned in diesel and then as they were assembled they were cleaned with brake cleaner, paper towels and blown off with air.

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I assembled the case as far as I could while I waited for my goodies from Japan. Thanks to Dave at Japan 4x4 for all of his help. A lot of parts came from him. Like the transfer case adapter housing and shift linkage and shifter pictured at the bottom. The Transfer case was converted to a manual shift transfer case. The original 38mm split case was vacuum actuated.

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The transmission was then torn down and sent through the Bucket O' Diesel and then brake cleaned etc... The transmission was a good low miles unit but it needed the input shaft swapped over to the larger pilot ax15 input and I decided to beef it up. New Toyota bearings, a Marlin Crawler bearing retainer plate and hardened thrust washer were added. The R150f transmission is known for blowing thrust washers and having bearing issues at the intermediate plate when power is put through them. The boys a Marlin Crawler solved these issues, so foresight said to replace what needed replaced while I was in there.
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You can see the new machined bearing retainer plate and thrust washer from Marlin. Waiting on the retaining plate held the project up for several weeks but was worth it in the end to do things right. You can see the bigger coarse splined input shaft and the complete transmission assembly freshly painted.

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It was onto fabricating the compound turbo setup. All kinds of parts were purchased and not used in the end. Hindsight is 20/20. I did all of this prep work just to find out none of it fit. The turbo setup put the compound charge pipe against the inner fender liner. The Low Pressure turbo, The HX35/Super40 with billet aluminum compressor wheel and 12cm^2 turbine housing hit the shock tower with the wastegate adapter I had made. But it sure looked pretty. I cut the compound charge pipe apart and salvaged those expensive mandrel bends for my other setup.

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The 90* cummins elbow on the HX and the super expensive V-band clamp weren't used in the end. More money waisted. The wastegate adapter and exhaust parts were wrapped in DEI titanium wrap and matching turbo blankets.

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Everything was plumbed using various brands of AN fittings and Fragola 8000 series Pushlock hose. The idea with the pushlock fittings was trail repair with standard oil line being possible. No special tools required...except gorilla strength hands.

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I couldn't find a drain flange to fit the block and I couldn't find -12AN drain flanges for either turbo. I ordered nice threaded billet aluminum ones to modify by drilling them out and welding -12AN fittings to them. Then the girlfriend whose dad was supposed to do the AC TIG work broke up with me out of the blue. Solution, I ordered steel AN fittings and cut my own flanges. Then I DC TIG welded everything together. My first time doing TIG work was on this engine. But Hey, I had this swap gave me an excuse to buy a new Multi-process ESAB Rebel 215IC. I've used the crap out of the TIG, MIG and Aluminum Spool gun. After welding I blended the inside for smooth draining and fastened everything with stainless fasteners.

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After the fittings were mounted I figured out the drain plumbing and made a temporary intake adapter. At some point in the future I will make a custom intake manifold.

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The new drivetrain fully assembled and ready for transport. Hindsight once again, should have borrowed the utility trailer from my brother and taken the sides off. He was thoroughly convinced we didn't need to and we spent probably 2 hours wrestling this thing into his ricketty utility trailer with tall panel sides.

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This was the first full day of the swap. Disassembly went quickly and smoothly. Every nut, bolt, screw and part was bagged, tagged and stored in boxes labeled Interior and exterior.

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I removed the front lift coils and spacers and swapped my unused 4" front coils in to make it easier to get the engine and transmission in and out, also it helped to level the truck since my brothers shop and gravel driveway are about 2" difference. Motor mounts were carefully cut away with a 4.5" angle grinder. All score marks left behind were filled and flap disked smooth so as not to leave any grinder marks behind. The core support was removed and the new drivetrain stabbed in as far as it could go. Preliminary measurements showed the new drivetrain was going to be really close to the old one and I should be able to use the transmission crossmember where it was....But the funky oil filter housing on the back of the motor prevented it from sitting back far enough.. Trying to get the motor and transmission situated was the hardest and most time consuming part of the swap. The engine and transmission went in and came out over a dozen times, 2 days were wasted doing this myself before I called a friend to come help. He is a teacher, a car guy and was on summer vacation. He kept asking me how the project was and if I needed help so I broke down and said yes. So much easier to manipulate everything with someone steering the cherry picker and someone steering the transmission etc. I just couldn't get the drivetrain back far enough or situated until he came down for the day. I made a temporary trasmission crossmember and the rest was easy.

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