I think I read somewhere that the oil pan design is different and that the W123 OM617s won't fit with ease. I'm not sure about that though...

Oh yes and here's a picture of a non turbo OM617 - see for yourself - does it look the same?



Picture taken from this thread:-

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/showthread.php?t=289886

Sounds like you want to bolt on a turbo at a later date - people have done this but there are several differences between the OM617 and OM617a that were incorporated by Mercedes when they did the original modification. If you are going through the effort of doing this job I'd look into making the OM617a fit from the outset.

__________________
1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!