Granted there not a mercedes, but there are a good number of people in the semi truck business with some seriously leaned on motors that last a long, long time. There is some excellent general info online. Ditto the Cummins dodge truck guys.

And then there was the VW Rabbit GTD(iesel)
A fellow here in the states went pretty deep into building up a 1.6L TD, plasma coted pistons, cryotreated everyting, head studs, custom head gasket, alternate turbo, recalibrated injection pump and injectors, there was a whole slew of stuff people always talk about but he actually did. If you search around on VWvortex.com's forums you can find him. He was beating import 4 bangers on the street with it, and that's saying something. He was also still getting well over 35mpg and no longevity problems showed up. I believe he just wanted more power and eventualy started looking at a TDI or a 1.9IDI, I don't recall.


I'm reasonably content with the OM617.

The 603, or 604, whatever the SDL had, stuffed into a w123 might be fun..

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One more Radar Lover gone...
1982 VW Caddy diesel 406K 1.9L AAZ
1994 E320 195K