Hey everybody!

Two years ago I had become fully infatuated with diesel engines. Modern high-pressure, computer-controlled, common-rail fuel injection systems where becoming available as after-market upgrades. Being located in Terre Haute IN meant that every year I was able to bear witness to the famous Scheid Diesel extravaganza. I saw what a good tuned turbo diesel could do in a big wonky truck, so in a CAR....

I began to seek out the best turbo diesel engine I could get my hands on which would be reasonable to place in a car chassis. After much research I settled on the semi-obscure Mercedes OM603 series. I decided that since I planned to wrench on it, risking issues with the 'weak' 14-series head and potential damage from the trap oxidizer was worth the risk to own what I had determined to be, quite simply, one of the finest examples of small-displacement turbo diesel engines ever made.

After months of searching it was mine! A slightly rough 1987 300D was in my possession. It was a model built and sold very late in the year it was introduced, and it's trap oxidizer had been replaced before it was ever sold. Having ridden in a number of 5-cylinder diesel Mercs (one was even naturally aspirated) I was expecting a very slow car. I was astonished to find how well the 6-cylinder OM603 pulled compared to its odd-numbered brethren.

I yearned to do what I think all of us diesel Merc enthusiasts want to do: place a 24 valve head from the later naturally aspirated 3.5L models on the stonking 603 bottom end and then throw as much fuel and boost at it as could be mustered.

Sadly it was not to be. One misfortune after another saw my funds for the project dry up and my mechanical help disappear. I turned my attention to a more affordable project and the old merc sat solemnly in my garage.

Things have turned around lately. I once again have access to some excellent tools. I've gotten too far along on my alternate project which is going quite well to go back to my mad Merc idea. The new project also has sentimental value as the car once belonged to my now deceased grandfather. I feel too strongly about the Merc to sell it whole or *shudder* scrap it. So I hunted for the most enthusiastic group of Mercedes lovers I could find. Boy, did I hit the jackpot with you guys! I would love nothing more than to see my old Mercedes live on through the projects of others.

So, on to the car:

Its a 1987 300D. 152k miles on the odo. It has been garage kept for its whole life and there is minimal rust. The paint is ruined and many of the panels are quite dinged up. That combined with a mild rear-end collision it experienced shortly before I stopped driving it surely make it undesirable as a complete vehicle. I have the tools, facilities and knowledge to strip it completely to the bone. Please understand that I am a starving college student and really need to part it out so that my new project may get on the road properly. I'm not looking to rip anyone off, prices will be very fair. I had a big pile of pictures of it, but I'm having trouble finding them at the moment. For now I will give you a video of the all-important cold-start test:

Cold Start Test

As you can see, the car is starting from dead-cold. There is barely any smoke produced at all, certainly not the huge blue plume that is often the sign of a motor which has sat too long/is in poor repair. At the end of the video you can see a decent amount of smoke emanating from the engine bay. Sitting for a short spell has given this motor the ubiquitous breather-valve-stuck-open issue. Its a quick fix to get it routing blow-by gas into the exhaust like it should.

I will be posting many pictures immanently. If anyone is interested in specific bits I can take pictures and write detailed descriptions. Thank you all for your time, I hope that the death of my Mercedes project means that other projects can progress/be completed.

-DM

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Once proud Mercedes owner

Longed to tune up my rare OM603 motor into a V8-eating grumbly monster. Doing research on the potential build made me realize the astronomical costs involved. Drove it stock for two years, body is too far gone to be a practical restoration. I now wish to part it out, so that parts of my once-glorious machine may live on in the form of others' projects.

Hi, Mad Merc er, DM.
Well, you came to the right place to unload any parts.
I love the 603 engines and own an '87 in the exact color scheme as yours, smoked silver with middle red interior, it was my first '87 turbo and it's my wife's car now since I finished the "blue bomb," an '87 300D in Nautical Blue with a grey interior I got as a mechanics lien sale, its my hot rod. Both have over 250K miles on the odometers, run #14 heads and can go anywhere, anytime. I re-ringed the blue one but the silver is still on its original rings. I rebuild the heads on both, and shot-gunned almost all the things that go bad, especially belt tensioners (twice) cooling systems 100%, etc.

I'll wait a while until the vultures have swooped in and done their thing on whatever you throw out to them. I only need a small interior part in red, a sill plate. I bought a pull already but it turned out cracked. Still want to get it back right (I dropped a tool on mine and broke it).

I hope someday you can get a new lease on a Benz and make your project a reality. There's some V8 diesels around that would make a real kickass dieselcar! check this thread I started: OM628 OM629 V8 engines on CL, WOW!
DDH

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'95 E320 Wagon my favorite road car. '99 E300D wolf in sheeps body, '87 300D Sportline suspension, '79 300TD w/ 617.952 engine at 367,750 and counting!

pm sent

PM sent.

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Just say "NO" to Ethanol - Drive Diesel

Mitchell Oates
Mooresville, NC
'87 300D 212K miles
'87 300D 151K miles - R.I.P. 12/08
'05 Jeep Liberty CRD 67K miles
Grumpy Old Diesel Owners Club

US 3.5s came with the same 12 valve heads as did 3 liter 603s. In fact they also use the 603 designation; 603.96 for 3 liter, 603.97 for 3.5 liter. 24 valve heads came on the 606 which has the same bore and stroke as your 3 liter engine. AFAIK MB never offered a 24 valve 3.5 liter Diesel even in Europe. You can get a 606 turbo from a 98-99 E300 for about $4000 these days, which is more cost effective than forcing a 606 head onto a 603.

Sixto
87 300D

has anyone heard back from this guy?
I PM'd and E-mailed and nothing.

SORRY everyone! Luck would have it that I would become massively busy right after making that initial post. Also, I was not expecting to get responses so quickly! Guess I came to the right place.

Anyway! Work on the car commences today. I've assembled all the tools and then some and have arranged for some assistance on sunday.

A lot of you have PMed me and asked how I will be pricing parts. My strategy is to find completed ebay listings for the parts in question (have been able to do so thus far) take the middle average price and then chop a good 10-20% off of that number. I know that you guys are enthusiasts, I'm not gonna try and rob you. The reason I came here and not ebay is because I feel fairly bad about parting out this car. I would much rather see the parts go into the hands of spirited car-nuts to be lovingly used on one of their own precious projects than to disappear into the ebay void. Therefore I am not above haggling. However I'm not about to try and hide the fact that I do need the money. Revenue from this project is going to help me liberate myself from my currently car-less state. Driving my girlfriend's car, as nice as it is (Subaru Outback), is already wearing thin on me.

I will be answering everyone's PMs imminently!

Ah, damn, well yes, that. Being that I never got even close to enough funding to make that project a reality I never looked into it heavily. I knew from my Mercedes Bible that the potentially imperfect aluminum head was the one weakness on my motor and it was possible to get a 24 valve head swapped onto my stonking '87 OM603 bottom end. Gah, I'm still obsessed with that prospect. OM603 + 24 valve head + inter-cooled sequential turbos + modern Scheid Diesel fuel injection system = win. Of course, that probobally amounts to a $20,000+ project even if I was able to do all the work, which I probably am not. I don't think that my fascination with that wonderful engine will ever end, but my chances of re-acquiring one look bleak and I know that the rare-in-America motor is easily the most desirable part of the car. I certainly don't expect any of you to be as absurdly ambitious as I was with the lump, but I do want to see it live on. At 152K the thing is barely broken in yet, it deserves to drive many more miles.

-DM

__________________
Once proud Mercedes owner

Longed to tune up my rare OM603 motor into a V8-eating grumbly monster. Doing research on the potential build made me realize the astronomical costs involved. Drove it stock for two years, body is too far gone to be a practical restoration. I now wish to part it out, so that parts of my once-glorious machine may live on in the form of others' projects.

OK, nice to see that the DM is not gone away (on some drunk or something
I hope you have a warm place to work on it, and plenty of time for the vultures, still circling!
DDH

__________________
'95 E320 Wagon my favorite road car. '99 E300D wolf in sheeps body, '87 300D Sportline suspension, '79 300TD w/ 617.952 engine at 367,750 and counting!

recently purchased a 300sdl as a parts/project car,may need a transmission, or engine and trans ( need engine for another project ) $ ?

Cool, get them while you can! but please tell us more about that project for the engine, a transplant of some sort?
DDH

__________________
'95 E320 Wagon my favorite road car. '99 E300D wolf in sheeps body, '87 300D Sportline suspension, '79 300TD w/ 617.952 engine at 367,750 and counting!

I need some parts - the stereo fader knob, blower fan, and center console wood. Also, in the cold start test video, I noticed that the trunk says 300D+turbo, but the fuel gauge says "PREMIUM UNLEADED FUEL ONLY." What's up with that?