deisel

[TYBronco]

Check out mercedesdiesel4x4.com if you are interested in putting a Mercedes diesel in an early Bronco. They currently specialize in putting them in Jeeps, but they are working on adapters for Fords and others, and their prices seem pretty reasonable. I would like to upgrade my '69 Bronco to an AX-15/NV3550 anyways, so I was thinking of getting their adaptor for Mercedes OM617 diesel to AX15 tranny, then elsewhere I have seen adaptors for the AX15 to Bronco D20 transfer case. Would just need to figure out motor mounts. The stock ratings for the OM617 engine is around 125hp/175ftlbs, you can up the power to a good 150hp with free mods, I've heard the stock engine will handle up to about 250hp reliably. There is a company called Myna (in Finland?) that modifies the injector pumps for these OM617 engines to put out some decent power, and I think they even make them user adjustable so you could adjust for better mpg/power. Oh yeah, these engines came in early 80's 300 series Mercedes, so there are tons of them out there for cheap (I've seen entire cars for $500), and the engines easily last a good 500,000 miles, supposedly one of the longest lasting diesels out there.

 

[TYBronco]

Update: Mercedes4x4 site now has prototype adapters for ford Automatics, as well as adjustable motor mounts for the OM617 (3.0l Mercedes turbodiesel).

 

[75junebug]

I looked at a bronco in Indiana that had a 5 cylinder Mercedes benz diesel from a car in it. The owner claimed the tranny was from the car, and was an almost bolt up fit to a transfer case from a unimog. It also had unimog axles. Lots of firewall hacking and frame hacking to get it all in from what I saw. This was several years back(09), and no camera.. Quality of the hack job was definitley a 1, but the cool facter busted a 10!

 

[lowbush]

IIRC the Mercedes diesels will mate to a ZF auto which is mated to some decent transfer cases in the Land Rovers like the Defender. They are no NP205's but they will hold up, IIRC they are Borg units. I don't remember the drop on the Defender it's been a while since I had mine. Also the Mercedes diesels have one weird aspect to them, they are balanced by the flywheel, so you have to have it machined to bring a ford flywheel to weight to balance it, nothing major, just something to be aware of. There is a lot of aftermarket performance support for these engines. I have seen people pushing 350 HP out of them.

Edit I am wrong about the ZF, I could have sworn I read somewhere that it was a bolt up. The 4wd Mercedes transmission is called a W211, if someone ever wanted to go that route, they can be picked up on ebay for $500 to $700.

 

[jlewan001]

My brother is putting a an OM603 six cylinder Mercedes turbo diesel into a 98 Dodge Dakota and mating it to the dodge 5 speed tranny. He claims it would be the same amount of work to mate it to a Ford transmission.
I'll post some pics on here of his work mounting the flywheel etc.

I saw the engine run. It runs a lot smoother than the Cummins 4bt I have in my '72 Bronco.

 

[jlewan001]

I uploaded some pics to this other thread:

http://classicbroncos.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2156993#post2156993

 

[blazinchuck]

i heard there was a EB with a mercedes diesel here in SC...havent seen it yet

 

[Krawlin5]

diesel

There was one forsale in Aiken Sc last year on Craigslist but it was 2wd no transfercase. Wish I still had pics.