OM603 #14 head finally let go I think. Wish I would’ve made a build thread for all the cool stuff leading up to the catastrophic failure but oh well.

Long story short, replaced original head gasket around 7k ago due to cold pressure and eventual radiator bursting. Put the car back together with new head gasket, head bolts, radiator, and the old #14 head which surprisingly didn’t show any cracks. Even ported the head too. The car was already turned up at this point: stock injection pump maxed, 18lbs of boost, and water/meth for cooling + extra fuel. She really moved out nicely but then came the dieselmeken pump. Managed to blow the stock turbo out of the water THAT NIGHT hitting 27lbs with the baby stock Garrett.

The very next day managed to fab an HX35 Holset turbo onto the car even with crazy ass USA manifold. Involved notching frame rail and chopping oil drain plus some intake crossover pipe welding. Man the hx35 is a slow spooler but once it’s lit... wow.

Even with the 7.5mm pump turned waaaay down, rolling second gear burnouts with a welded diff 32lbs of boost was wild and I can’t believe the trans was holding even with the mods. After romping on it for a couple weeks like this, I was cruising then BAM, it just spit all the coolant out the tailpipe IMMEDIATELY. Pegged temp off the gauge. Managed to drive it onto the trailer the next day but it was partially hydro locked and maybe running on 4... I’ve totally signed off on this head + bottom end I think.

So ironically a day or so before it let go, I’m browsing car part and find a 606 somewhat locally but stupid high miles. I kinda laughed it off at the time but I think now it’s my only option LOL. In all honesty I had planned on swapping in a Chevy v8 if this happened but after experiencing how good the diesel pulled and having a pretty penny tied up in a superpump, I’ve gotta keep rollin coal for the diesel gang

So.... checklist for swapping into a 300SDL? I’ve heard the main concerns are oil filter housing and oil pan + pickup? (Pan and pickup potentially only other chassis concern I hear; aka non issue in w126 with no toll bar)


I’ll get you guys a couple vids uploaded of how this thing pulled... the 40-120 was mental. Hung with an S4, S6, and a tuned 335i twin turbo. Total grandpa-mobile sleeper til they hear the spool

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{2010 Mazda 3 266,000mi} - daily since new, Airlift suspension + some chunky sway-bars: fastest pass 17.7@77MPH
{1987 300SDL 256,000mi} - stock turbo @ 22lbs straight piped + a whole bunch of pre-turbo water/meth injection, 722.3 with increased line pressure, special sauce, and shift kit: fastest pass 16.5@82
{1992 964 Carrera 4 Frankenstein ??,???mi} - 993 forward dated, Speedster conversion, GT45 + E85: fastest pass 12.5@113