Originally Posted by Gurkha

The enthusiast in me jumps at the thought of all that horsepower available with ease but the skeptic in me thinks otherwise. How about temperatures in a cast iron head engines, reliability, EGT, what methods are being used to offset or counter these factors as I am sure no HP comes at free of cost. The figure of 280bhp is quite huge considering what the original engine makes. I have a Euro 300 turbo diesel as well as the Gurkha with OM616 turbo, the temptation of gaining all that bhp truly fascinates me to no end. When I had a chat with MB engineers here who were fitting the Gurkha with the OM616 turbo, they told me that 130bhp was available from this engine with ease but factors like long term longevity, economy etc. made them dial it back to a conservative 91bhp. Here I would side with the MB engineers, it maybe low powered, slow and boringly conservative, but it sure is reliable.