First, sorry if the title is off or this is placed in the wrong section.

I'm from CNY (Central NY), currently active on HRCS and MightyRam50, and mostly through with swapping a 1978 Daimler-Benz OM617 inline 5 diesel into my 89 D50 4x4.

Most of the major hurdles are finished, I'm mainly working out the kinks and adding creature comforts, like brakes, exhaust, and lights. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" />

I'll give the shortened rundown of what's involved, along with a link to my build log for those who want to read the whole thing, no sense in coping it all over here and clogging the board.

Truck had a 2.6 with a blown head gasket when I first got it, still have the engine sitting round.

Originally i was swapping in a 2.4L inline 4 Benz diesel, but due to complications that arose(IE bad injector pump), I went with the 3L.

I'm using the stock mitsu transmission and throwout bearing setup, a slightly modified Benz flywheel, the Benz pressure plate, a custom clutch disk(it's a total freakjob...), an adapter plate made from 1/4" plate steel(I'm second-guessing it might be 3/8", its been a while since i measured it.), and some custom motor mounts.

Also had to notch the front frame crossmember to clear the crank pully, harmonic balancer, and oilpan, as well as the bell housing to accommodate the starter.

The Mitsubishi alternator was shoehorned into service in place of the Benz original, so that was another adapter that had to be made. Incidentally, is there a >75A alternator that fits a mitsu?

The swaybar will have to be removed or dropped down with spacers as well, since there's only 1/4" or so of clearance between it and the oilpan.

The Benz radiator was used with some ingenious mounting and plumbing, check the build log for that fun time...

Other than that, it's been mostly plug-and-play.

Nothing had to be done fuel-system wise except to pump out the gasoline and hook up the return and pickup lines to the engine.

Power steering is working, thanks to some custom hoses, as is the vacuum assist for the brakes. Little known fact time. The Daimler-Benz Diesels have a vacuum pump built into the engine to power the brakes and most other things in the car, such as the door locks, climate control, and etcetera. I must have pulled 2 miles of vacuum lines from the interior of the donor car...

Since my truck does not have AC, the York compressor is relegated to onboard air duty.

As promised, here's the build log link.
http://www.hotrodcoffeeshop.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=164

Let me know what ya think.

300D50

I think the Starquests ran a 75 amp alt, I know w/ the 2.4s the van ran a 75amp. Cant remember w/ the 2.6 tho. On my ol 2.6 I ran a gm 120amp alt

Kerb, are they a direct bolt-in?

Looks like an interesting swap. I like it. What kind of power are those Benz diesels making? Thanks for being a good forum poster! I appreciate it! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

Since i'm lazy, I pulled the torque curve from the buildlog (love the fact that BBCode is universal)


I have a turbo I'll be putting on sometime in the future, so it will jump to [email]123hp@4500rpm[/email] with 185 ft-lbs [email]torque@2400rpm[/email]

Either way, quite a bit of torque.

I'm pretty sure that's the pre-drivetrain engine dyno data.

I'm an admin on 2 other forums, so I've been on the receiving end of it all before. Kinda puts it all in perspective, haha.

Thats a HONKIN bumper!! What did it come from?

Thanks! It is pretty slick.

I honestly have no clue what it was originally meant to go on. Someone gave it to my dad, and he said I could have it.

The stock bumper will eventually be used as a trim piece to reduce that "somethings missing" look.

Yeah, that's cool and welcome <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" />

No chance of using a smaller, but fatter (3 row) radiator so you can move that bumper up to the 'stock' position?

Thank's for the welcome!

You bring up an interesting topic.

It wasn't actually a clearance issue that caused the bumper to be mounted like that.
Since the new bumper has a winch on it, when i made the custom mounts I tried to get it as centered and on the same plane with the frame as possible.

A setup Like the stock mounts would have put a downward rotational force on the front of the frame during winching, which I wanted to avoid.

Took the time to draw up a quick and dirty diagram to explain it better. Force is represented in blue, not to scale, may cause blindness in phytoplankton.


The radiator fits between the bumper mounts behind the winch, and was installed after the bumper mounts were finalized, fabricated, and installed.

As a side note, I don't think it affects my ground clearance, the oil pan and swaybar are dictating that right now.

Walt pretty certain they are ask Vannoy he otta know.

And your bumper is huge. It may not effect your ground clearance but your approach angle is different now.

Building bumper for the d50s is a huge pain there mounts are horrible to make work in a simple/easy way