I have ran across 2 different people who say I can put a 81 240D ( 616.912 ) into a 1975 115 240d car (615.916 )
one said all i have to do is move the oil filter, and another said i would have to have the engine with the harness, another said it would require fabrication of the motor mounts.

i recieved one such engine with the harness off of it, and the company i had trying to put it in said they would have to cut a brace off of the car to even get it in. and still they didnt see it as a match.

i talked to a MB dealer in the town parts dept, and they didnt think it would fit.

Yet the company wanting to sell me a 616.912 still swears by it and says he has mechanics who say all you have to do is to switch the oil filter to the back, take it off the old 616.916 and put it on the 616.912 (its located to the rear or closer to the tranny from its mid like location on the 616.916) and that all that has to be done.

Since i have ran across 2 different people who swear it works and say others have done this, i would welcome any feed back, opinions, and especially details of anyone who has actually put a 616.912 (81 240D engine 123 body) to replace a 616.916 (74-76 240d engine 115 body). Also any compatable problems with the tranny. For instance, a second person who talked about putting the 616.912 into the 616.916 place mentioned also besides that the harness was needed, metioned a 5 speed transmission.


thanks rob

You will have to change the oil filter housing to the one appropriate for your chassis, the motor mount arms to those appropriate for your chassis, and you will have to use the plate that mounts the transmission to the engine for the appropriate chassis.

This job would go best if you had the donor car nearby so that you could get the necessary parts as you might need them.

Good luck,

I have always been curious about this.

So... the OM615 and 616 blocks are the same? The oil filter housings interchange? That's news to me...

Has somebody done this?

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80 300SD (129k mi) 82 240D stick (193k mi)77 240D auto - stick to be (153k mi) 85 380SL (145k mi) 89 BMW 535i 82 Diesel Rabbit Pickup (374k mi) 91 Jetta IDI Diesel (155k mi) 81 VW Rabbit Convertible Diesel 70 Triumph Spitfire Mk III (63kmi)66 Triumph TR4a IRS (90k mi)67 Ford F-100 (??)

I can not speak to the oil filter change / chassis configuration question. Someone has done this and posted about it..

But in general the blocks are the same. The differences which I know of amount to these :

The piston and bore were reduced a very slight amount in later models so that the tax in Europe would be less per year for registration. They got it under the 3 liter mark for this.

They changed the 'precombustion chamber to piston' style and fit. You can not mix these items.

Then they drilled more holes in the precombustion chamber.

Then they made the holes larger.

At some point they increased the lift of the cam lobes for better breathing.
This may be the same point at which they changed from cast iron to chilled camshafts... which requires matching the cam followers to the cam you have.

These are some of the ways the horsepower were increased over the years.
I feel sure that there were also some tweaking of the governor and IP regulating cams.

In summation ... most of the changes from 615 to 616 , except for the piston top style, ( which still does not qualify as a block change ) occured in the head.

At some point they went from 3 main bearings to 5.

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1985 Euro 240D 5 spd 140K
1979 240D 5 spd, 40K on engine rebuild
1994 Dodge/Cummins, 5 spd, 121K
1964 Allice Chalmers D15 tractor
2014 Kubota L3800 tractor
1964 VW bug

"Lifes too short to drive a boring car"

Since there is doubt about this, let me clear why I think my statement to be the case. I saw a 115 car with a 616 engine at an indie shop some years ago. I asked about the engine fit and they told me the engines were basically the same.

I have NOT done this before, so I am merely regurgitating second hand information. For you guys it is now THIRD hand information, so proceed carefully.

Good luck with it,