I'm glad I found this thread, I have a 1957 Chevy short box that I had originally (several years ago) planned to drop a 454/Turbo 400 combo in, but with fuel costs what they are nowdays, I've been thinking about a turbo diesel swap. I'll be interested in how it all comes together.

I have seen so many 116's that were hiding so much rust, I've come to think of them as being mostly trashed. If it had been any other kind of Merc, I'd have already asked why it was giving up its motor and transmission!

...Great. Now I am stereotyping Mercs.

__________________
- K.C.Adams

'77 300D Euro Delivery
OM617 turbo / 4-speed swap
404 Milanbraun Metallic / 134 Dattel MB-Tex

Current status:
* Undergoing body work

My '77 300D progress thread

nice find. bookmarked for future projects.

__________________
1984 123.193 372,xxx miles, room for Seven.

1999 Dodge Durango Cummins 4BTAA 47RE 5k lb 4x4 getting 25+mpgs, room for Seven.

LOL Jaguars that run . com

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1979 240D- 316K miles - VGT Turbo, Intercooler, Stick Shift, Many Other Mods - Daily Driver

1982 300SD - 232K miles - Wife's Daily Driver

1986 560SL - Wife's red speed machine

Nice. My old neighbor did this with his '66 Chevy pickup:

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/showthread.php?t=208935&highlight=chevy

Scott

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Scott
1982 Mercedes 240D, 4 speed, 275,000
1988 Porsche 944 Turbo S (70,000)
1987 Porsche 911 Coupe 109,000 (sold)
1998 Mercedes E300 TurboDiesel 147,000 (sold)
1985 Mercedes 300D 227,000 (totaled by inattentive driver with no insurance!)
1997 Mercedes E300 Diesel 236,000 (sold)
1995 Ducati 900SS (sold)
1987 VW Jetta GLI 157,000 (sold)
1986 Camaro 125,000 (sold - P.O.S.)
1977 Corvette L82 125,000 (sold)
1965 Pontiac GTO 15,000 restored (sold)

Very cool project, cell! One of those things I'd love to do (616 into a 20's-30's vintage pickup) but have neither the ability nor the money.

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1980 300TD-China Blue/Blue MBTex-2nd Owner, 107K (Alt Blau) OBK #15
'06 Chevy Tahoe Z71 (for the wife & 4 kids, current mule) '03 Honda Odyssey (son #1's ride, reluctantly) '99 GMC Suburban (255K+ miles, semi-retired mule) 21' SeaRay Seville (summer escape pod)

Huzzah! Forced, you are my savior! I've just called and left them a message

updates and more pics coming this evening.

sweet, my adapter is on its way, 2nd day air

Actually there wasn't much wrong with it at all, it was just cheaper for me to buy an engine with a car than an engine by itself. Plus I got to drive it around for a few months. Unfortunately, I started to fall in love with it, so pulling its engine was a bit of a bittersweet moment.

I took a slew of pictures of it up here:

http://jason.pepas.com/photos/300sd/



If anyone is interested in the remains of this car, and you have the ability to come trailer it away, I'd be willing to take almost nothing for it. Its in Bellville, Texas (between Austin and Houston).

the weekend's progress:

got the cab pulled:











made some shims to compensate for engine mount compression








now for the transmission mount. I decided to start with the existing mercedes transmission mount and work around it.















and now the truck is on a trailer and ready to go to the drive shaft shop



eventually I'll get around to editing and posting some of the time lapse video I have shot.

got the adapter flange and dropped off the drive shaft at N.W. Drive Train.

the flange looks great. it appears it will fit two varieties of mercedes 3-fingered output flanges: a smaller and a larger diameter bolt circle. my 1979 300SD appears to use the smaller diameter bolt circle.









The mercedes bolts which came with my flex disc (which I no longer need and will be selling...) won't fit into the smaller diameter bolt circle holes:



interestingly, they will fit into the larger diameter bolt pattern, but that's useless to me:



I went to the parts store and picked up some american allen-head bolts (3/8") which were some sort of fine pitch SAE thread. They worked out great but I haven't taken pictures yet.

the flange is meant to mate with a u-joint via a flange adapter made by Dana (part 2-2-329), which they had in stock at the drivetrain place. this isn't my picture, but it looks similar to this:

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a160/lifted97ranger/1986%20Bronco%20II/100_4427.jpg

The drive shaft should be done by monday afternoon. I'll report back then.

Damn wish you were closer. Im about hour above Dallas. But Shiat TX is so big I might as well be in Alablama... bought same distance.

__________________
"If anyone knows other lessons I need to learn, please tell me. I'm tired of learning them the hard way".
by JerryBro

The Glow Plug Wait: This waiting period is a moment of silence to pay honor to Rudolph Diesel. The longer you own your diesel the more honor you will give him". by SD Blue

My normal daily life; either SNAFUed- Situation Normal... All Fouled Up, or FUBARed- Fouled Up Beyond All Repair

62 UNIMOG Camper w/617 Turbo, 85 300SD daily driver- both powered by blended UCO fuels

You're doing great work there. Time to wire-brush and Por-15 those frame rails!

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'81 300CD - 180K, cannot be killed by any conventional means
'99 Ford Escort - good MPG

got my driveshaft back. it looks great!













I only had time to perform a cursory "will it fit?" installation (I had to drive back into Austin for the work week). I looks like the driveshaft will definitly fit.

The only possible issue is that there may be a slight fitment issue between the circular lip on the u-joint flange and the hole in the adapter flange. I didn't have enough time to take it back apart and take another look at it before I had to hit the road. Guess that'll have to wait until next weekend!





oh, and this is me:

ok, more progress made this weekend.

so it turned out that I managed to get the 1 in 10,000 part which had a manufacturing defect. I measured the hole pattern and it appears to be "square" (its actually a rectangle, but it appears the sides and diagonal measurements are symmetric), but the pattern is off center.





anyway, I made the drive back into houston and the guys at NW Drivetrain replaced the part for free in about 5 minutes. The new one mates right up:



got the driveshaft installed.







installed a new "rag joint".







note to anyone removing the rag joint off a chevy c10: you have to *completely* remove the bolt (not just loosen it), as the steering shaft is clearance so that the bolt sits in a little nook in the side of it.



also installed new polyurethane body mounts.









then I put the cab and front clip back on. I haven't bolted the front clip in place yet (ran out of time), but I wanted to get it all back together to answer the final question in this conversion: will the hood shut?

luckily, it does!



I tried to get some pictures of the engine clearance. there is about an inch between the timing chain cover and the hood, but it is hard to represent that in a picture:



the transmission has more clearance than I remembered it having before I took the cab off (I think the new body mounts actually gave me some extra lift):









also, the transmission filler tube has plenty of clearance, and the oil filter looks like it will accessible as well:





it wont be long now...