67 Mercury Cougar, Diesel

[scrounger]

http://green.autoblog.com/2008/05/20/craigslist-find-of-the-day-67-mercury-cougar-with-mercedes-die/

[8v-of-fury]

Wooooowee, that hits my sweet spot Sadly not a diesel though.. and nowhere near the condition

[scrounger]

I saw this and thought of you Jeremy. Took a big leap to take a fairly stock car and cobble in a Mercedes Diesel.

[8v-of-fury]

Honestly, the best thing that could have happened to it. I am a ford guy (obviously).. but they don't have a diesel as good as the OM617!

[bajacalal]

Those are great little engines, I'm surprised you don't see more MB diesel transplants, at least where speed isn't the deciding factor.

[8v-of-fury]

At least where speed isn't the deciding factor.

But they can easily do 300-375 ft.lbs which is comparable to a fairly modified V8, so I'd think itd do alright with moving the light Mercury around.

[CrazyAndy]

Those are great little engines, I'm surprised you don't see more MB diesel transplants, at least where speed isn't the deciding factor.

Hmmm good point.  Just another candidate I can add to the board for if I do my dream swap of a diesel engine into a VW bus/van.  A nice turbo I5, be it VA, Audi, or MB, would be great for pushing all of that boxyness.  They did it with the W123, and it's heavier!

OM617 + anything. Has anyone put these in a boat?

[R.O.R-2.0]

Those are great little engines, I'm surprised you don't see more MB diesel transplants, at least where speed isn't the deciding factor.

Hmmm good point.  Just another candidate I can add to the board for if I do my dream swap of a diesel engine into a VW bus/van.  A nice turbo I5, be it VA, Audi, or MB, would be great for pushing all of that boxyness.  They did it with the W123, and it's heavier!

OM617 + anything. Has anyone put these in a boat?

its a SHAME that more companies didnt use OM617 engines..

[scrounger]

Here is My Mercedes with its 617.952.

The valve cover is off to do a valve adjustment.
It is a real moose compared to the 1.6TD.

[8v-of-fury]

I shoulda bought the Wagon I was looking at

[scrounger]

These are definitely old school diesels. You roll up with the window down and they have that same clattery diesel sound. I can't hear the turbo though.

[bajacalal]

I wish our engines were set up like these, a set screw for valve adjustments instead of shims.

[rs899]

Yeah, there's a lot to like about the OM616 and OM617 engines.  Easy valve adjustments.  No worries timing chain and cast iron head.  Mercedes chassis, as solid as they are, though, are a order of magnitude harder and more expensive to rebuild than the strut-based VW designs.

[scrounger]

Hi,
An order of magnitude is that to your mind twice, squared or maybe 10x as high?
I have not seen anything to support this.

It does have a drive shaft and a differential which are parts built into the vw transmission. It is pre-electronic for the most part. It uses a vacuum pump that does most of the functions that electronics do including shifting the transmission running the door locks and heater controls.

I have done some maintenance to mine every part was relatively inexpensive. For instance changing the cable to the hood was 10 dollars for the cable assembly and 4 dollars more for a new lever as mine broke. It takes 8 quarts of oil guess that is more. I put a new 6 dollar gasket on the cam cover when I adjusted the valves.

The fuel injectors and glow plugs are pretty much identical price points  to the VW IDI.
 

[theman53]

The vacuum leaks are horrible on the Mercs, maybe more so on the gassers. I maintained an 82 300D for about 6 months and it seemed most everything I bought for it was "just a bit more" than VW. I never had anything less expensive than VW, but look at it realistically...VW were cheap economy cars and a Mercedes is a Mercedes.