OM617 Performance/Maintenance Items

[bratwurst]

Hi,

I have a 1984 G-Wagen (ground up resto) with a swapped in OM617A from a car that lived in a field near the end of its life. With 480,000km (300,000 miles) on the clock and being thoroughly ignored it had all the usual problems- leaking oil, lots of smoke, poor starts, wouldn't stop, etc.

I actually thought it would be a "temporary" motor because of the high mileage, but now its running great, starts easily (even well below freezing), slight blowby, and with some engineering now stops without incident. I'd like to perform all the "wear" work on the motor so it just keeps running. I'm assuming that if I maintain this motor I could get another 400,000km without a rebuild.

There are only three problems I have at the moment. 1) Light smoke at idle and 2) low power on the freeway (can't maintain 60mph on hills) and 3) high fuel consumption (about 14mpg, I'm expecting 20mpg from prior experience). The G does weigh a lot more than say a 300D, but I know I can get more out of this motor.

So far, I've done the following:

- new GP's
- new gaskets at oil pan, valve cover, oil filter housing
- valve adjustment
- diesel purge (twice)

I'm considering, in rough order:

- injector rebuild
- timing adjustment
- timing chain
- vacuum pump

Does anybody have other thoughts, based on my goals of keeping this motor running for several more years + giving me the slight performance boost over what I see now?

Cheers,

Michael