The OM617 engines (especially the turbos) are seldom rebuilt. It's just too expensive. The main rebuilder, Metric Motors, charges $8000 for a rebuilt long block. There are so many decent engines floating around, the normal decision is to source a replacement engine from a wrecked car, the junk yard, a rusted hulk with a good engine or some other form of donor source and just replace it. Turbo pistons are not available any longer, so even a rebuild has to be done with used pistons.

The reason you're getting so few responses is that hardly anyone has been through this process, at least in many, many years.

You might want to pause and take stock of where you're at and what it will take to finish the project and compare that to what it would take to just swap in a replacement engine.

I was at two junk yards this week and between the two there were probably 15 (and maybe 20) 617 engines - mostly turbos. A complete diesel engine would run $300 plus core. There is a half price sale coming up the end of the month, so that would bring it down to $150 plus core.

I picked up a spare engine a few months ago for $400 including a transmission. It was complete down to the monovalve. glow relay, down pipe and A/C hoses. The idea is that when my current engine fails I can have a replacement in within a couple of days and be back on the road.

Just a thought.

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Current Stable

• 380SL (diesel)
• Corvette C5
• Manx
• Baja Bug
• F350 Powerstroke
• Auburn Boattail Speedster replica