Hello all,
I have spent much of my forum time at MBWorld on the AMG side as my daily driver is a W220 S65, but recently I bought a very clean black/black 1993 W140 with the infamous "rod bender" diesel. I have recently ordered Dieselpumpuk's OM606 400whp power plant, complete with a 5 speed auto, and thought I'd chronicle the transformation here. My S65 is a 800hp sleeper of a different kind, but something about a 400whp W140 as the ultimate sleeper gets me fired up. I anticipate a 2-3 month build. Pic of car pre conversion here:

 

Good luck and post many pics

 

Subscribed for I want to do the same thing with my SaDie.

 

journey begins:

 

Luke at Dieselpumpuk is really getting cranking -



Glow plugs out for seat re cut




7.5mm 170cc pump 5800rpm installed+ plugs + dpuk tps kit




Steel water pump upgrade + block cooling mod, gasket face re-seated




Part way through twin scroll manifold build




Inlet fitted

 

big snail!

 

That's a pretty big turbo! We need to know more about the exo-caged Defender in the background!

Someone forwarded me this article the other day, it combines your S65 and your w140! I love the stance of it.

http://totalcarmagazine.com/classica...es-benz_ko860/

 

custom manifold

 

Thanks Ryan! Maybe we should stuff the s65 motor in instead!
Ryan is the guy doing the install of the om606 on this side of the pond, and he is also simultaneously engineering a TEIN Coilover kit for my S65 as the thing keeps blowing suspension bits. After losing my front and rear valve block nearly simultaneously, I figured enough is enough, and coilovers are going in.

 

ready to head across the pond:

 

The car came into the shop yesterday and we made some progress.

First, we took off the bumper and did some measuring for an intercooler. With this turbo and horsepower goal we need to run 2.5" piping from the turbo to the intercooler, then back up to the intake manifold. There isn't much room on this car so this is going to be a fun project of relocating a ton of stuff. The good news is that the stock airbox is massive so we have a huge space there to put our intake. We will be doing some fabrication to better seal the area from engine heat and bring in more cold air from the factory intake ducting next to the headlight while also adding additional intake ducting from behind the bumper in front of the passenger side wheel. The intercooler is going to be a little smaller than what this turbo is capable of producing but since this build was designed for reliability and street-ability, we aren't pushing max boost anyway. Sizing is still in the air a little bit since we really have to start cutting and test fitting but it looks like we will end up somewhere around a 28" long, 6" high, and 3" thick intercooler, right in the middle up front. It's going to be massively tight for space so we will see. The factory oil cooler will be replaced with a smaller, more efficient cooler and moved to in front of the driver side front wheel, behind the bumper. The bumper beam will be notched for clearance and then reinforced to keep the strength.



After that we test fit a couple of wheels to see what wee might be able to run for sizing. We are going to run the era-correct AMG 5 spoke wheels and I think we have decided on a 255 front, 285 rear. Things should be SUPER tight for space so we will have to test fit and make adjustments as necessary, possibly stepping down a size or two if we have to. The car in the photos is still sitting on stock springs. In the end, the car will sit about 1.5" lower front and rear and the shocks are going to be replaced with some really nice Bilstein B8s.






Then we pulled the old 603a out along with the 4spd. A new 5spd will be going in behind the 606.

 

And the new motor arrived just in time. Now we need to drop the motor in the car and figure out the motor mounts and custom transmission mount as well as measure for the new custom rear driveshaft. Once we have all of that, we can get the info out to the respective people and start getting the custom stuff made. Then we figure out intake and custom downpipe, the intercooler mess, and start making sense of the rats nest of vacuum lines everywhere. Lots of little things to figure out from here.



Cute little bugger...

 

We had some other work in the shop today but were able to get the motor in the car towards the end of the day. Clearances are super tight and it looks like the manifold may need to be re-worked which isn't a totally bad thing since I really wanted to do an external wastegate on this anyway. We also need to swap the oil pan out as it hits the front crossmember. Everything else is looking ok so far.

 

Yesterday we swapped over the oil pan. The 606 pan hits the front crossmember of the car. Luckily the 603 pan bolts right up with some small modifications to the dipstick tube. We also had to swap over the oil pump from the 603. The pumps are pretty much the same but oriented a little differently. This also necessitated some modification to the pump bracket inside the pan. The motor mount brackets were also stolen from the 603.




Now that we had the oil pan in place, it was time to take the turbo off and drop the motor in the car to check for the trans mount and driveshaft.








And this is probably how the car will look for a little while. The big stuff is in place. Now it is the endless little things to figure out. We need to rebuild the manifold as this one doesn't fit. We also need to find room for intercooler piping and an air intake.

First, we tossed the new 5 speed transmission in place. We thought we were going to have to build a completely custom motor mount for this but it actually matched up very well. There is a W140 with the 5G so getting the absolute correct trans crossmember is as easy as ordering it. I think I have one on a parts car out back so I will probably go try and steal it but for now, modifying the stock crossmember was stupidly easy so we just did that.



Now that the transmission and motor are in place, we can measure for the custom rear driveshaft...which I don't think will be needed! It looks like the factory shaft is a direct match. The only problem here is that our trans output flange is 3 bolt and our driveshaft and differential are 4 bolt. We will swap the output flange of the transmission to a 4 bolt output and it should bolt right up! This is a big cost/time saver.

And for now, just a comparison between the stock 603 turbo and the new one.

 

Thanks Ryan, I haven't been able to stop at the shop in a bit but looks like you have it all in hand. Good news on the driveshaft, bad news on the header. Hopefully we can sort that out soon. Nice work so far! I wonder what this thing will run in the quarter... soon I need to start thinking about a locking diff Z

 

$25:




$1700ish:





But then we need stoppers:

 

HA!!!!

 

You are my all time hero, my favorite chassis mated with my favorite motor - I've had a 95 E300 and my daily driver is a 98 E300, just love this motor and really looking forward to following your progress, good luck.

 

Thanks! I was beginning to think with the crickets I've been hearing on this thread that I was one of the only people in the universe (at least the Mbworld universe) that thought this was a cool idea...

 

I'm subscribed to this thread. I'm with OJ. 140 is my favorite chassis and 606 turbo my favorite motor.

I'm hoping I could see and here is combo once it is done.

Thanks for the inspiration.

Someday I'll follow your build, but on a V140 with a similar 606 SuperTurbo, with an on-demand rolling coal capability.

 

That would be sick. I'd follow that build!

I'll make sure we post a vid when it's done!

 

When your build is complete I'll stalk you waiting for the day you sell it

 

We didn't get too much done on the car today. Hit a wall with the trans output flange. I didn't check part numbers and just assumed that the flange from the 722.3 tranny out of the W140 would bolt onto the 722.6. It doesn't. It's a different output shaft, about 3mm larger on the 722.6. Again, luckily I have a parts car out back with the 722.6 and four bolt flange. We can steal it off of that car on Monday and get it bolted in. Hopefully then we can get the driveshaft in and also steal the correct 722.6 W140 transmission crossmember.

For today, we got a little bit of the intercooler piping mocked up, some of the old wiring adapted over, and some lines re-routed to make room for things. Nothing major.






And some parts showed up:

 

Started work on the new manifold today. Trying to get it as close to equal length as possible. It's a very tight fit. Right now the front half is tacked in place. We will finish up the back half of the motor next week, get the external wastegate piped in, and then finally pull it off of the car to TIG weld it all together.

 

keep us updated,i was thinking about ordering a S420CDI v8 motor from Germany,but heard they don't last.