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I FINALLY found some actual info on the web about other people who have done Mercedes diesel swaps.
There are threads on both the Pirate4x4.com and ToyotaDiesel.com forums.
One guy took a Mercedes 300D 5-cylinder engine WITH its automatic transmission, and put it in a Toyota pickup truck.
He had to really shoe-horn in the 5-cylinder in-line engine and make quite a few modifications to the truck. Lifted the body, made weird engine mounts, looked like a lot of work.
The other guy put a Mercedes 5-cylinder diesel into a 4x4, using the truck's original manual transmission. He modified the flywheel and transmission to mate up with each other and go to the 4WD transfer case. It's a really nice setup, but sure looked like it took some machining skill. Not to mention having the truck torn apart for an extended amount of time.
After reading both those threads, I am confident that my OM616 4-cylinder diesel engine is a good choice for me. Many of those other guys would say that it's WAY underpowered, but I am looking for economy and ecology. It's just a little bigger displacement than my current engine, and will fit, rather than have to be shoe-horned in, the way the 5 cylinders did.
The main thing I still really have to figure out is what vehicle I will put the engine in. I really have been very happy with my truck, with the exception of some interest in 4-wheel drive, for both winter driving, and the possibility of hybridizing through use of the transfer case.
If I am just doing a straight up diesel engine swap, I think I will just do that to my truck, and try to figure out transportation in the mean time. (Beg borrow, steal, buy a beater, etc.)
Maybe I could find a decent condition 4x4 with a dead engine I could get cheap? A bio-diesel 4x4 S10 or Ranger sure would be a useful vehicle.
Maybe hybridizing a bio-diesel truck is just a fantasy and a way of adding too much complexity, but it sure would be a unique project.
In the mean time, I will keep digging through my Mercedes service manuals and figure out what I am actually doing here.
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