Mission accomplished!!! (1994 Suburban w/ Mercedes turbo diesel swap)

[Christ]

Mileage figures:
Gas Mileage of 1985 Mercedes-Benz 300SD

Go figure, even the EPA can't get it right... "Gas mileage..."

[dcb]

Originally Posted by dcb

...and I'll bet you could beat 20.

I looked at the garage, The best here for a suburban is 13.7 mpg, so 20mpg average would be quite an achievement...

EcoModder Fleet list - EcoModder.com

...or a sign that it is waaay underutized

[Christ]

Originally Posted by dcb

I looked at the garage, The best here for a suburban is 13.7 mpg, so 20mpg average would be quite an achievement...

EcoModder Fleet list - EcoModder.com

...or a sign that it is waaay underutized

Any of those 'Burbans diesel?

Let alone 5 cylinder and turbo?

This one's a diesel slusher. He's getting 12.81, but hasn't updated in eons.

I'm seeing weight specs on order of 6,000+, which is close to 2x the weight of the MB chassis you took the engine from, which, IIRC, had a curb of ~3,500#.

Also, with a .45 Cd and ~40 square feet of frontal area, you're pushing a sheet of plywood on a pedal bike, my friend.

I'll think good thoughts for you, though. I really hope it works out for you, though I may have to revise my previous statement of a potential 30 MPG. Probably not going to happen, at least not easily. I'll shout for 20, though. I'm sure you can do that.

[b13bliss]

I'm really interested in this project and it's mileage/drivability results. I have a '99 Turbo Diesel 4x4 Sub and get 16mpg bumping around town, 14mpg towing a #7000 work trailer, and an honest 20 on the road at 65-70mph with 8 people and all our gear. I dont know the relative efficiency of the MB engine, but it should be decently loaded at speed to do well. I wish a rig as capable as the Suburban would have been avail with a more efficient configuration (6 speed,and some nod to aero).

How did you mate to the Sub tranny? Nice job completing the swap!

[Christ]

You can get better mileage by "fixing" the aero penalty that you suffer... some weight reduction wouldn't hurt, either. 6100# is obese, by any means.

You could get better mileage by changing your gearing, as well, not in the axles, but changing the transmission. Maybe you could get the newer ZF 6 speed to bolt up?

[alohaspirit]

you do know burbans already come in diesel



of course you did... =P

but thats a great feat.
you got an easy to work on engine in a nice bit of workspace under the hood.

the truck is heavy. the engine is heavy.
id like to see a video of it on the road

[Frank Lee]

Wooda been much more effective to keep it sleeved but oh well, too late for that

[Christ]

The burban doesn't come with a diesel... it comes with a re-broken gasser that happens to burn diesel fuel. Yeah... 350 FTW? LOL.

The MB engine is alot more efficient (gallons per horsepower hour) than the Chebby's diesel, also, as far as I know.

[max_frontal_area]

the OM617, the one with turbo makes 150hp @ nearly 5k! kkk makes a k26 turbo which is next size larger direct bolt on with integrated wastegate. the factory turbo was a bit too small therefore the high rpms required to make any power. mpg will also benefit from
a properly sized involute! some guy ran 26psi of boost for a long time without hurting
the engine... there is great potential with OM617
if you ever do any work on it port the head and look for an intake manifold off
another benz i can look up if you are interested.
intercool and consider water injection to manage your egts now that you are dragging around another 2-3k Lbs with 2x the CD to boot. do use ram air to feed your turbo if you make no other changes!

once you get it tuned you can expect some interesting MPG!

the 700t is it 4 or 5 speed, you made the adapter from scratch?
what did you do for a flywheel/clutch? do you have any pictures?
what kind of rear end do you have

i have been wanting to do this for a long time to an early 70's f-350....

[Christ]

Originally Posted by max_frontal_area

the OM617, the one with turbo makes 150hp @ nearly 5k! kkk makes a k26 turbo which is next size larger direct bolt on with integrated wastegate. the factory turbo was a bit too small therefore the high rpms required to make any power. mpg will also benefit from
a properly sized involute! some guy ran 26psi of boost for a long time without hurting
the engine... there is great potential with OM617
if you ever do any work on it port the head and look for an intake manifold off
another benz i can look up if you are interested.
intercool and consider water injection to manage your egts now that you are dragging around another 2-3k Lbs with 2x the CD to boot. do use ram air to feed your turbo if you make no other changes!

once you get it tuned you can expect some interesting MPG!

the 700t is it 4 or 5 speed, you made the adapter from scratch?
what did you do for a flywheel/clutch? do you have any pictures?
what kind of rear end do you have

i have been wanting to do this for a long time to an early 70's f-350....

The 1985+ 617's made ~120HP w/ the turbo from the OEM spec. They could be turned up and the wastegates locked to make up to ~150 or so, but after that, real mods had to be made, such as pump upgrades and larger/different turbo, exhaust and intake mods, etc.

Prechamber mods aren't necessary up to about 300HP, from what I've been reading, as well, and the stock internals seem to be OK with that level of performance.

The 617 would be a great motor for an F350, if not a performance upgrade, considering that Ford used the 300 Inline 6 cylinder almost exclusively in those "work" versions of the F-series, including 2.5 ton dumpers. They were crap to acceleration, and had to scream to stay at 65MPH, but you could move a mountain with low gear.