OM617 diesel repower

[acylon]

Have a 1996 80series with spun rod bearing.
Bought a 1982 OM617 Mercedes 5cylnder turbo diesel with tranny for $800.

Want a working daily driver.

Should I:

A: put the OM617 in with the MB tranny and a divorced transfercase

B: adapt the MB Diesel to mate to the existing Toyota automatic and use a aftermarket EMS or manual switches to control the tranny.

C: give up, put in a stock engine, sell it and go buy a suburban diesel. Any offers on the OM617?

 

[ginericLC]

I've done a lot of reading on this and most conversions use the stock Mercedes tranny. 4x4labs.com has experimented with some Chevy and Toyota manuals. There was a Chevy Tahoe converted to a Mercedes 5 cylinder on Ebay about a year ago. He built a custom bellhousing to mate the Mercedes engine to a 4l60e. He had to reprogram the tranny. He told me it cost him about 4k to make the mods to the tranny and have the custom bellhousing built. Which is insanely expensive. You'd find it much easier to drop a 6.5 Chevy diesel in there if all you want is a diesel. There are kits for this. Being that you have a 96 you face some more challenges using your tranny as it is electronically controlled. If you do it make sure you document it and take lots of photos.

 

[acylon]

Thank you for the info but I have dicided to go with plan C:

So if someone wants to buy the OM617 turbo with tranny for $800, thats what I paid for it. Looks real clean and the guy I bought it off of said it was a very good running engine and trans.

-email me at Acylon@hotmail.com

 

[stayalert]

I think you will never know what would have become of plans A & B but rest assured you are smart to go wil plan C. I am working on resurecting an '85 with the 617 and its a gresat motor but I would not want one in an 80 series. Where is this engine and tranny?