Callaway Turbo 240D - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

winmutt · #1 06-26-2009, 06:19 PM

Reeves Callaway drove a 240d (which speaks volumes in its own) AND he turboed it. After putting leather recaro's and after market steering wheel in. There was a kit sold for a period of time even. 67hp -> 95hp.

It was so odd I had to update the Callaway Cars wiki article

TheDon · #2 06-26-2009, 06:28 PM

ok?

Shawn T. W. · #3 06-26-2009, 07:10 PM

My understanding is N/A engines don't generly have a "long and fruitful life" when turbos are installed, they don't hold up well to the extra strain . . . what was this kit?

barry123400 · #4 06-26-2009, 07:23 PM

There was a kit available in England or Europe if I remember.

vipercrazy · #5 06-26-2009, 08:02 PM

i live 30 minutes from their factory. never been though...

compress ignite · #6 06-27-2009, 12:27 AM

Biggest differences:

1.Turbo Pistons (AND their internal Oil Cooling galleries).
2.Non does not have Oil Jets to cool pistons.
3.Turbo Crankshafts are "Nitrided".

If "SomeBody" made a "KIT" with these in it...it would be about $5,000.00 USD.

winmutt · #7 06-27-2009, 09:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheDon

ok?

Callaway, as in Callaway Corvettes etc.

charmalu · #8 06-27-2009, 10:02 AM

HMMM......A 240D in a Corvette.........what an interesting concept

. ZOOM>>>>ZOOOM>>>>>

I have seen the 240D turbo kits sold on e-bay a time or two.

Charlie

diametricalbenz · #9 06-27-2009, 10:58 AM

Winmutt, have you tried contacting the factory to see if they had documentation or ads for the sale of the turbo kit and or it's engine modifications?

callaway · #10 07-24-2009, 03:42 AM

Hello guys,

Here is an article about this Callaway 240D

they also did a Mercedes 190

I would love to get all information you find inside the Mercedes community
as I roam internet for information day and night , I cannot go out and visit the car meetings and talk to all owners I ask you to keep your eyes and ears open

The kit is no longer available through Callaway they stopped their C1 turboprojects mid eighties and started focussing on the Corvettes.

I do not know if posting a link to another forum is permitted here, so moderaters feel free to remove the link when not ok.
http://callawayturbo.no-ip.org/viewforum.php?f=5

here is the text, and you can find the article scans on my forum.

Quote:

> Source: Motor Trend, May 1983 v35 p76(2).
>
>
>Full Text COPYRIGHT Petersen Publishing Company 1983
>
>Diesel With a Difference
>
>Throw a leg over the bolster and slip into the Recaro's palm. Feel the soft
>glove leather and fondle, please, the buttons for the contour bladders. Then
>lock your hands on the 3-spoke wheel, using the leverage to snuggle your
>buttocks to the seat. Pull the shoulder belt across your lap and hook it home.
>Twist the ignition and watch the gauges snap to attention. The lights burn as
>steadily as coals through the dash panel and the machine steals a few seconds
>to ready itself for business. Time is measured by the pumping in your chest
>and the wait seems much too long . . .
>
>Okay, okay, stop twitching. You weren't waiting for an electric pump to stoke
>the Webers, you were indulging another electronic function, the one that
>supplies juice to the machine's uuuuuhhhmmm, aaahhhh, pre-heat system, the
>kind of system that brings life to a--yes!--diesel!
>
>(Fade to black. This little psychodrama was brought to you by Callaway Turbo
>Sytems in Lyme, Connecticut.)
>
>Standing in the silence of the marrow-cracking January cold was Reeves
>Callaway's sleepy 240D Mercedes, the unwitting cohort in a project meant to
>freshen his perspective somewhere between twin-turbo 928 brain-busters and the
>midnight shriek of the 4-cam Cosworth on his overworked dynamometer. Callaway
>was fully aware that the 240D has been the subject of hotair experimentation
>by others, but the Mercedes was largely unknown to him. He found something
>special. He found a wonderfully over-built automobile, a product created for
>the outer limits of the autobahn. But he also found the 240 to be a first
>cousin to Torpor, the pavement sloth, and sluggish automobiles have no place
>in Callaway's calculations.
>
>Perhaps more impressive than the M-B's bedrock physique was the way it
>handled, even with the comfort-prone Continental radials. Enough potential,
>reasoned Callaway, for certain owners to enjoy the car from a driver's
>standpoint. Everything in sight exuded indestructibility, so could the inner
>engine be any less substantial? His thought was to make the car respond at low
>speed and undergo maximum pressure by the time it reached 60 mph.
>
>As Callaway puts it, "The conversion is a simple one and diesels are hard to
>hurt. The diesel benefits from a turbocharger more than a gasoline engine
>does, and it operates at an inherently lower exhaust gas temperature. The
>strain that a gasoline powerplant finds with turbocharging is just not
>realized in the diesel. The excess air generated by the turbo cleanses the
>combustion chamber, recovers heat energy, and yields a boost in horsepower.'
>
>Underhood provision for the installation is prodigious. Despite the
>4-cylinder's stock proportions, the distance from engine to fenderwell ensures
>proper clearance and ventilation for a hot turbo housing. Since the standard
>equipment is well engineered, Callaway's "Turbo Twins,' Don Miller and Kelly
>Parsons, preserved as much of it as possible.
>
>For men of their experience, the 240 conversion was pure child's play. Rather
>than create an exhaust manifold of their own, they simply cobbled a new one,
>adding a stanchion on which to mount the turbo housing and modifying it
>further with the addition of a wastegate. Then they fabricated an elbow to
>link the turbo to the intake manifold; pre-production samples were tube steel,
>but the production piece in every conversion is cast aluminum.
>
>At this point, an aftermarket oil cooler would have been included, but the 240
>already had a good one. Aeroquip stainless steel lines complete its
>integration with the turbocharger. The brushed-aluminum air cleaner was moved
>forward a few inches to finish the job. The exhaust system has extremely low
>back-pressure (about 4 psi), so it, too, was left intact. (If there is need,
>Callaway will bolt up the even larger pipes from a 300D.)
>
>By the boss' estimation, the result of this manipulation is a 45% power
>increase, boosting the 240D's 67 hp to an estimated 95. Fuel consumption for
>this vehicle with automatic transmission is 28 mpg, which the Turbo 240 has
>dutifully retained during 12,000 miles of operation. The automatic
>transmission has lost none of its harmony, and it shifts as smoothly as the
>day it hit the pike. But the 240's 0-60 ramble has been reduced by nearly 5
>sec to the respectable vicinity of 15.5 sec, attesting to the turbo's healthy
>contribution to low-end performance.
>
>Applying heavy leather initiates the hotair rush almost immediately and gives
>the driver a feeling of muscle in reserve. Even without exciting the
>turbocharger, Callaway finds that sluggishness has been transformed into
>willingness. The effect is that of hacking tomatoes day after day with a
>butter knife and then finding the joy and happiness that a freshly-honed blade
>can bring. The buzz that permeates the normally aspirated 240 at 60 mph is
>greatly subdued in the Callaway Turbo, and even at 70 the Mercedes feels
>completely relaxed. At lesser speed on a secondary road, one gets the
>impression that the engine finally has reached parity with the car's
>suspension.
>
>A 300SD it is not. Years of Mercedes-Benz development have made the 300SD a
>strong candidate for the title of ultimate turbodiesel. The 300SD whistles to
>60 in the mid-12-sec range, which makes the 240D Turbo a matter of economics
>and preference. At minimum, those four fleeting seconds will cost $6000 (the
>price difference between a new 300SD--suggested retail $37,000--and the
>Callaway 240D Turbo). The conversion includes everything we've mentioned, plus
>a boost gauge and an exhaust gas temperature meter. It retails for $1800 and
>will hinge itself to any 1977-82 240D.
>
>Those who design to do the work themselves (we'll bet against it) will
>discover that the changeover requires about six hours, and putting the gauges
>in place another three. The leather Recaros and special steering wheel are
>Callaway's favors because he feels that man cannot live by turbo alone.
>
>And who would contemplate this aberration? That's right, lawyers, doctors,
>"investors,' et al., with a strain of cayenne pricking their otherwise
>immutable demeanors. Demand is going something like this: The Twins were
>dissecting a stickshift mini-Panzer at the time of our test, shaking their
>heads in disbelief over the dozen 240s already waiting to become schizoid
>sports cars.

charmalu · #11 07-24-2009, 10:31 AM

Interesting article, thanks for posting it.

Now if I could read/speak German that would be be an interesting forum to poke around in

Now something else to search for at PNP, turbo 240

Charlie

auspumpen · #12 07-24-2009, 03:28 PM

That's Dutch

Brandon_SLC · #13 07-25-2009, 12:27 AM

The father of one of my friends had one of the first 77 300d's available in North America. He complained a lot about it being slow. He had a very steep, somewhat long driveway and lived at the bottom of a hill. A friend of his had a Turbo installed on his 240D, which he was very impressed with, because it made his 240D faster than the 300D. I saw it one time, and I remember that it looked cool, but I couldn't swear witch mods it had. Luckilly or un-luckilly, depending on how you look at it, the 240D began having problems after about 30k miles. I don't recall for sure what happened to it, but it was described to me as having "Blown up", way before the car had 100k miles. IIRC it was about 40k miles between conversion, and destruction.

So the 300D never got converted. It got replaced with a 280E. But once the jury was out, that the W116 300SD's were very good engines, he bought one of those and drove it for many years.

Anyways there were a few of them I'd heard of driving around the Seattle area, as well as Turboed VW Diesels. Also, ill fated conversions.

While a 95 hp manual trany 240d sounds fun, I think in this day and age, I'd convert in the opposite direction. By that, I mean start with a decent 300DT and swap in a 5 speed manual transmission.

callaway · #14 07-25-2009, 02:00 AM

The posts are done in English and when you register there is an option to choose english layout.

charmalu · #15 07-26-2009, 05:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by auspumpen

That's Dutch

It`s all greek to me

.

Charlie