Mercedes Diesel Swap options

[MasterYota]

Found this new conversion being done by a company called 4x4Labs - www.4x4labs.com. Mates a Gm manual trans behind the 5cyl. Merc. turbo diesel. Looks like a well thoughtout conversion judging from the pictures. I know its not done to a mopar, but the Landcruiser engine bay is about the same size as an FFPW or M37. The nice thing is these Mercedes diesels are very common and fairly easy to get parts for.

Just more food for thought... Plus its another engine choice thats still within the "family" so to speak...;)

[Jason Mills]

I have wondered about the same swap.. but at best the stock 617 turbo will produce 180 Lb-ft @2400 RPM, and I am not sure that is really enough grunt to get a load moving... even with a turned up pump, I dont think they give much more than 200 Lb-ft. A VNT turbocharger would help the low end, and they do have a great RPM range for a diesel.. also the Oil pan sump located in the front...
If I was to do it, I would be putting a ford ZF-420 5 speed behind the mercedes engine, and then a Right hand drop NP 205 fitted with NP 200 internals, so as to have the offset rear output....

still it would be a lot of work, and I am afraid I would always be in 2nd gear, crawling up the hills..

[MasterYota]

I would think that the rpm band of the mercedes would allow you to keep the deeper gears, and aleviate the lesser power numbers. I would probably go with the NV4500 5spd, as it bolts directly inplace of the GM 4spd, thus reducing the need to re-engineer the adapter to fit a ford transmission.

I sort of like this idea as it seems (around here anyway) that the Merc diesels are easier to find than the 4bt's. Plus there is no searching for specific parts, as once the adapter is installed, all the GM parts behind it are all the same... Makes life easy in that regard.