BlownV8

The V12 bi-turbo Mercedes engine may be the one for you. I had over 800 lb-ft of torque at around 2000 RPM and 600+ hp in my bi-turbo CL600. You would have oomph and vroom all in one smooth package.

justthebest

Good man.

PLEASE tow an Airstream with a CL - make sure you get tons of pictures though.

pteam

Seriously, you didn't mistake my car for a vette did you? The v10 even before the supercharger should hint that its not a vette but a viper... Not to mention it says "supercharged viper" on the motor in the picture I posted

chsu74

Its a V10 available from '04 to '06.

mdadgar

You are correct - my bad.

Audi showed a V12 TDI in some concept Q7s and I was upselling myself to that.

- Mark

Joyride

They did and I believe still do produce the V12 TDI Q7, but only in limited quantities, and only for a few select markets. NA doesn't and won't get it. I have seen a few in Russia though...

StevethePilot

ERP!

Mah bad.

BlownV8

Uh, the engine - not the car.

pteam

No problem, just busting your ***** back a little

StevethePilot

Well, I started this discussion with a pertinent question. If my being a moron is not a problem, no biggie.

Me want big (non-American) diesel. No want big gas guzzler, I've had that. I had a V-10 Excursion for a while. Gorgeous engine, ran like a top, fast as heck, cost me $12 to start it. Petrol engines are overall highly inefficient in comparison to diesel. If I were only worried about speed and noise, I'd go gas. But I'm interested in highway, towing, and efficiency. It's why I got rid of my LX470 and moved in to the GL. So far, nobody's brought the car I want to the US.

mdadgar

GM has had a 4.5L Duramax on the shelf for over two years. 320hp, 520 lb/ft of torque. All that's left is vehicle integration and it's not ever sounding like it's going to see the light of day.

I got tired of waiting for them to put it into a Suburban.

HELLOOO, GL350!

- Mark

pteam

ya there are 6.6L GM diesels refurbished (not even brand new) on ebay for $15,900 and thats not even including installation...

BlownV8

OK, got ya, Get the 420 diesel, and ECU shipped over from another country and have it installed in your 320. You will need the dealership or someone very STAR savy and have them code your system to pair with the new ECU with non-matching VIN's.

On the other hand, I'd bet Kleeman could reprogram your ECU with the 420's programming and a little more oomph to boot. The Kleeman tuning takes the 420 engine to 400 hp and 674 lb-ft of torque.

StevethePilot

Okay, not that this is now ever looking like it'll be reality but ... seriously? The STAR checks the VIN matching? What if you've blown your engine and need a new one put in anyway? I mean I can see a situation where the VINs wouldn't match.

Crazy.

BlownV8

ECU's are coded to the cars central computer by VIN. If you use an ECU from another engine, it can't be substituted as your ECU until the Star computer matches it to your central computer.

You will also need the exhaust fromt the 420 too. If you are serious about doing to engine swap, call Kleeman and I'd bet they could do the conversion for you.

Joyride

Found what you are looking for:

http://cgi.ebay.de/Motor-Mercedes-ML...#ht_874wt_1129

37,500 km on the clock.

StevethePilot

Dude, I am stunned. For less than US$9,000 (plus shipping, handling, etc.) I could actually have a V8. (Not that I'm going to do it, but just the idea of it! Wild.)

I am also kind of shocked you found one. I did find numerous MB V8 diesel engines but none was the GL 420's - they were all industrial ones, a couple in The Netherlands and places like that.

Very cool that you put eyes on one for sale.

STP

Rod B

You mentioned that you want a bigger trailer (than the airstream) but I'm just curious if the v8 version has a higher towing capacity? I tow with my '08 320cdi (7300 lbs at one point through the Canadian Rockies) and it tows like a champ. IMO the engine does not limit the towing capacity, it's the hitch/vehicle size weight, etc.

I've never looked into it, but I'd be interested to know if the towing capacity is truly higher with the 420cdi??

Also, just an observation: If you are going to swap the motor anyway, why not play around with the tuning options on your 320 and run it until it blows up! That way we'll all know if it truly IS a longevity problem. TIA!

Cheers,
Rod

StevethePilot

Ooo, I actually know this one! It's a compilation of things but one of the biggest limiting factors is, as you say, not necessarily the engine. Amongst towing vehicles of similar size and powerplant, one of the major limitations is braking ability.

Now, as for knowing what the towing capacity of the GL450 is, that may be quite difficult as the certification for a particular towing ability might be very different between the US and the EU (and the rest of the world).

And as for your last suggestion, since I've kind of given up on the whole engine-swap deal, yeah, I think I'll pass on tuning my V6 to the point of failure. It could be an interesting project - for someone else?

nic101uk

simtek UK maybe able to help you so long as the gearbox fits they can supply an ECU that can handle the engine side if things with also the idm management they've got land rover tdv6's running out of vehicles as well as bmw twin turbos

hubert

I got a good question since its on a topic about GL420 V8 diesel. I heard many times that all GL's are produced here in the USA Alabama plant, how about the GL420 V8 diesel??? I think it will be cheaper to slowly ship in the engine in parts from Europe than try to bring here the whole car...

xxGenericSNxx

100% of X164 GLs are made in Alabama except for a few that were made in Germany in 2007 (according to Wikipedia). So I'd imagine almost all GL420s are made in Alabama.

justthebest

I'm pretty sure that while GLs are assembled in Alabama, the majority of the parts are made elsewhere. If you can find a window sticker, it will clearly lay out the sourcing of the parts on a percentage basis.

xxGenericSNxx

Yes that's true. For example, all engines are shipped over from Germany.

hubert

So the 420 V8 diesel engine is shipped from Germany to Albama and than the whole car is shipped back to Europe to be sold? Than one just have to find out when and where those engines are being shipped and pay the truck driver a good amount of money so he sells you one of the V8 diesel and just put it... Lol just kidding, it's all so confusing with the automobile market.