The Turbo 3.0L 5cyl OM617 has a service life of about 400k miles between overhauls (higher than cummins ), some have gone past 700k miles without being opened up. There are several who have passed 1M miles with a slight overhaul, that to me qualifies it as a good diesel motor.

My 83 is considered very low mileage, I had a 84 before it and it had 269k miles on it. It didn't burn oil, the turbo would boost up and it loved to put rubber down going into second.

Oh and the fuel system is all Bosch too, just like the Cummins are.

 

yeah, but they're slower than xmas...

 

Well it wouldn't be fair to compare them to a BOMBed CTD but a modified OM617 isn't horrible. I think the stock 0-60 is about 13 with a quarter mile in about 20. They speed up a little bit with some more boost and adjusting the fuel settings. Unfortunately modifying them is quite difficult as they have a internal fuel limiting screw on the IP so the whole IP has to be pulled in order to change this. Then it isn't aftercooled at all... well there is a reason I'm looking for a CTD.

I guess since we were just talking about the Mercedes diesels in general, the OM603 (Turbo I6) in a 87 300D will make 0-60 times in around 7-8seconds. It is Mercedes' fastest diesel. I don't recall the power stats off hand but it was close to double that of the OM617. These still have service lives somewhere in the ballpark of 350k.

 

I looked into buying one for a while... I found a cool car in Mustang, OK... baby blue 300 5cyl turbo w/ a MANUAL TRANNY!! but MY GOD, it was the slowest car I'd ever driven, and I've driven some dogs... I'm sure advancing the timing and tweaking the pump would have helped, but I'm too much of a hot rodder for something that dang slow.

one of my x-GF's had one of the big bodied cars from the same era... it did alright on the highway, but I just can't own something that's ultimately that power limited like those engines...

Forrest

 

Unless it was a grey market car that one was hacked together with parts off of a 240D, so it may have had the wrong rear end in it too which would have made it felt even slower. They are real nimble at highway speeds but the RPMs make it pretty loud too. Even though the mileage is a good deal less with the CTD I think the cummins will be the ultimate diesel, so I look forward to the day that I can truly compare the two with first hand experience.

 

I believe it was a gray market car... but trust me, there were no gears on EARTH that were gonna help this thing out...

the 12v Cummins is the ultimate passenger vehicle diesel in my opinion... there's just no comparison... but the old saying that they're "Better Off Modded Baby" is so true... in stock form, they're pretty lame IMHO... but crank 'em up into the 400+ rwhp range, and you've got yourself a vehicle that'll haul anything, gets decent mileage, and is downright FUN to drive!

Forrest

 

I have yet to see a grey market with both turbo and manual in it, I'm not saying that they aren't out there but most grey markets with a manual had no turbo in it. In that case it'd be about 85hp in a 3400lb car (0-60 in about 19seconds, 1/4 mile in less than a half hour).

I agree completely, all I need to do is just find the right one now. I've seen all different setups locally but no 98 QC 12Vs. I also doubt if I found one locally I'd buy it because of the rust we have here.

 

Ooooh! 5.35" Stroke! That would be a torquey little monster wouldn't it? With unit injection to boot!

Just watch the Ford/Powerstoke guys try to come up with something to fight that thing.
By then, Maybe GM will build a truck to handle a good engine too, like a CAT (C7,C9 would be pretty cool!) I'd definately buy a Chevy/Cat/Eaton combo!

But I'll still have my Cummins to play with!
Chris

 

At work we just got a new Thomas bus with the 280 hp MBE engine w/ the allison 5 speed auto. This thing will move(85 is about top) and pulls good in the mountains. It a fancy version with reclining bucket seats and flat screen monitors and dvd/cd and vhs. We got about 15k on it. It has a klam brake also which is really nice to get you stopped fast in an emergency situation like elk in the road .

 

Ford owns only a small part of Cummins.
Very liitle chance of that happening.
my 2 cents

 

ford owns NONE of cummins. Hasn't for YEARS.

 

FORD OWNS EXACTLY ZERO (0.00%) of CUMMINS !!!!!

 

From www.cummins.com

Does Ford own Cummins?

No, Ford does not own any part of Cummins Inc.

http://www.cummins.com/cmi/content.j...menuIndex=4#Q8

 

So Ford does not own any part of Cummins? I guess Hoss told me wrong!

 

You guys are full of it.
Ford owns Cummins and they are only going to offer it in the Escort starting in April.