I thought you ran the engine and checked the valves before it went in?

 

I've had bad luck with engines. The first engine I ran and it had a pretty gnarly tick to it. I thought injector knock maybe but upon further inspection I found two dead cylinders. The current engine has the first engine's injection pump and head on a block that is supposed to be low miles and run good. Well I am guessing I got taken. Yes I should have run it and had it been for anyone else but me I would have but honestly I got in a hurry and had several other projects breathing down my neck. I am going to yank it and go completely through it like I should have and treat it as if it is a customer job and not mine. The pressure to get it done is off now that I have a car that I can put a bazillion miles on and not care. I am going to drive the Merc for now and take my time on the Toyota. I am going to have to turn down some customer work for the shop but I need a break from the shop anyhow.. maybe by mid Feb Ill have it on the road. Honestly I am pretty bummed out about the whole thing and royally pissed at myself because I know better. Oh well. Sorry for the rant just a little aggravated at the moment.

 

Reading this thread is like reading a good book, with a sad ending though... hopefully the "books" not done yet.
Really impressed with your build. I've considered the diesel ever since I've had my truck. Bein a metal worker and not a mechanic it a lil far out for me though.

Hope you get that motor up and runnin though... the sound of a lil diesel motor is just... well bad @ss

 

That's a sweet little blue benz you have there... don't chop her unless you have to... if you keep her whole the benz gods will smile on you and your other 617 will come together sweetly... plus you need a nice car to drive around in and the benz has lots of extra space for... shall we say "date night fun"...

 

Delmert- Thank you for your kind words. Rest assured the book is not done it is just going to have a few extra chapters. I can guarantee you you will hear it run at some point!

Aviator- I have made the executive decision that I am going to keep the Benz. It really is pretty cool. Haha well lately I have spent date night on the truck lol. One of the joys of being single I guess.

Stay tuned guys engine is coming out tomorrow. It is then going straight to the car wash to get a darn good bath.

 

Lmao, that's what I was thinking, car wash the engine. That should make those guys happy. And as far as this project and having a girlfriend, I think it's one or the other lol.

 

Good choice on the benz...

So your dating your truck eh? I heard you farm boys do strange things but never believed it... well there are worse choices you could have made I suppose,
and at least you know once you finish "massaging her mechanicals" she's going to put out for you... and you can't say that about everything...

did I just go too far?...

 

Joe that is so true.. plus with as much money as I have dumped at this project now I couldn't afford a girlfriend either lol.

Aviator- HAHAHA at least its the truck and not a tractor eigh? In all seriousness that was really funny.

Well the weekend update is here. I ran a compression test and it went as follows.
1. 150
2. 200
3.110
4.120
5.115
Gee wonder what my problem is. So after that I yanked the engine. Took me and a buddy all of about an hour and 15 minutes lol. I didn't get any pictures cause it was spur of the moment thing and I didn't run down to the house to get my camera. I got the engine on the stand and washed it. Pop had some crazy wicked degreaser that he had me use on the engine and all I can say is wow. That crap is crazy! So here it is as of now. I am giving myself a 2 week deadline to have it back in the truck assuming that I get parts in a reasonable time. Here is the engine on the stand after the wash. I feel so much better about working on it thus way!.



Im going to try to get some better pics of the adapter parts too. I still have to track down that dumb fuel bracket for the tank as well!

 

What's the degreaser called? Mine looks identical to what yours did.

 

Did a little reading and thought I'd share. Peak torque on the om617 is around 2400 rpm and as far as I've concluded, that's around where you want to cruise for best fuel economy. I was astounded to hear some mpg claims from guys running 40" tires...low to mid twenties on highway. So I did some digging and assuming you drive this rig down the highway occasionally I have compiled some gear ratio and tire sizes that put you at around 2400rpm when doing 55-60 mph. Now ofcourse the bigger the tire, the heavier, meaning more rotating weight, and thus more energy required from burning fuel. They are as follows;

4.10 gears and 33" tires
4.10 gears and 35" tires
4.88 gears and 36-40" tires

Keep in mind that I have adjusted the tire size to it's actual tire diameter so the 35 listed above was plugged in to the marlin final speed calculator as a 33.5 to compensate for weight of vehicle and such. Also, this assumes you are in fifth gear and your fifth gear is 1:1 which I believe is typical of the g, w, and r series transmissions.
I know I keep chiming in at random about stuff but I learn too much from the rest of you not to contribute.

 

1:1 is 4th
0.85 (overdrive) is 5th

http://www.marlincrawler.com/tech/tr...ar-ratio-chart

 

Thanks for sharing this. This goes along with what I think. So 4.88's should be perfect for the 65 MPH Kansas highways and 37" rubber.

 

Hey Joe, enjoying your thread, thinking though about what pyro said (i.e.) he wouldn't do this swap with a na om617, in your searches did you come across many of the 2.4 turbos? Also if you were me, mine is a complete engine with auto tranny attached. power steer and alt, ac comp-whats the best way too sell this stuff in our part of the country-thanks and good luck on yours Dan M. Warsaw Mo (yota dan)

 

I stand corrected. Can't believe I missed that.

 

Now that right there is what you'd call one of them CLEAN engines... you could def. cook on that mill...

I'd paint it classic mercedes tractor grey... the modern lime green would show any leaks right away but would look plug ugly in the bay...

good luck fixing the compression issues...

 

Joe- I am not sure what it is. Pop dug it out of the back corner of the shed, handed it to me and said this ought to fix it. lol

Mountaingoat- I am not sure of the rear in my truck but I know that at 70 the 3vze was running 2750 on 31's. I plan to do some suspension mods and re-gearing later on. I really appreciate the information as I am sure others do as well. That is what this thread is all about! Rest assured the engine will be no funny colors. I have some neat plans for it!.

Dan- In reference to the 2.4. Are you referring to the OM616? Or the 2L toyota? If you are going the turbo benz route why not just add a turbo to your 617. I know I will probably get flamed for saying that but IMO as long as you keep your boost under 10 psi and watch your egts you should be fine! If you want to sell it try i sell and craigslist. Those seem to be the best. Like I said you are welcome to come see mine if you want!

Aviator- I plan to paint it the grey and black just like it was I really like that color combo plus when I pop the hood I want no mistaking that its a benz.

I hope to be taking the engine apart tonight! Pics will follow!

 

Because electronics are not my forte, is it necessary to keep the toyota ecu for any reason? Probably a crazy question just dont know much about the computer. I'm guessing its not necessary.

 

I believe it's an emissions control unit. I asked once before if I could delete it. The guys said it actually is supposed to help though. I think that's what the readings from the O2 sensor go to. No more need for it now though, now you can hide drugs there lol!!

 

Mountain goat and Joe- I believe the Ecu may be necessary for some of the factory gauges to work. I am not sure. I hope not though as I need the ecu for my upcoming swap of the 3.0.

UPDATE- The engine is completely disassembled and I have it all laid out.



The head is at the machine shop right now. I am hoping for it to be done next week some time. I miked the crank and bores and both were within spec. The bores have no taper or elliptical wear to speak of. If anyone would like those specs I will be glad to post them for reference. You can see from the pics the rod bearings were pretty well shot. I'm glad I took this thing down. One thing to note on this engine. The tolerances for the cylinder bore maximum diameter is literally less than .001 It isn't much. That being said I elected to break out the ball hone. Unfortunately I didn't have one on hand for this bore size but the local tool shop had one. I don't use them that often but for close tolerance work I prefer them to to the stone hone.

Ill get some pics of the cylinder walls tomorrow. So tonight while waiting for parts to get here I masked the block off and started working on getting it cleaned up. I primed it and hit it with a few coats of paint. I'm going to let it dry and hit it again tomorrow.


I also started on the exhaust manifold and the intake as well.


I am going to hit things pretty hard tomorrow as I only have one class at school. I'll be sure to keep you all posted.

 

Wow, after reading all your problems. I think I'll compression test my engine. I won't be needing your adapter plate templete after all.
I see you used the stock Toyota engine mounts, how do you like the look and the fit of the mounting system you came up with?
Who you using to supply parts for the Mercedes engine?

Looks good. Thanks for the updates and problem solving.