starting my diesel swap, 4cyl MB diesel engine into 89 Astro

[tinworm]

Can the pedal be removed, from your intallation?
I thought I should be able to get a short drill in to drill the holes in mine, because there was room enough to remove the pedal.
Also, have you checked that the steering column still fits in?

I tested the removal of the pedal when I had it clamped in, but that was without the spring. I still need to test it now that its welded and make sure it could still be removed.

Steering column needs to be tested as well, though it should still fit based on measurements. (famous last words )

[tinworm]

two parter update, bunch of new pics.

Here are the finished position wise motor mounts. (later once Im satisfied with them, Ill take them off, do some finish grinding/welding if needed, and powdercoat them, and the driver side still needs an engine shock). So after waffling deliberation, I decided to go with the GM mounts because they are so much easier to remove, especially with the engine being in a van body and accessibility maybe being an issue for something like the mounts.

here is how the driver side turned out-




passenger-




The engine now sits with excellent clearance over the steering control arms. I have a high lift overland vans steering column connector coming which will compensate for the big lift on this subframe



a lock to lock test of that engine height looked good for steering interference. Though I did discover what looks like a bind issue with the tire hitting my aftermarket replacement sway bar, that might be a problem later. The bend is different than the OEM swaybar




I found a use for those pallet jack wheels I had lying around, they make excellent transmission mount spacers-

[tinworm]

part 2-

time to reattach subframe to unibody and see how all this measuring and tweaking fits on the van-



lowering, the stock MB fuel filter head location had to be removed to fit-



mated, the only interference are these brake lines luckily! If the engine went any higher, id have some issues with the MB power steering pump hitting the GM brake booster



From the inside, everything lines up nicely, the stick handle is just a tiny bit to the rear, but still came right up to position. The engine will definitely fit under the hatch without issue, and it looks like I should have no major problem removing the injection pump if I need to. The access actually seems better than in the 240 in some areas-



On the passenger side, looks like there should be just room for a turbo, there is actually a little more room than this picture suggests, but exhaust clearance might be interesting here. I have to look into the fitting here soon-



Up front I can use either the GM or MB radiators, actually both are very new. Lots of room up here fortunately. (angle appears weird, but the actual pic is on a tilt)



above, this is the valve cover clearance available-



there is just room to get the cover off! Huge hurdle jumped with this development. It has to be pulled into the passenger cabin to clear the front, but it comes out without too much difficulty, so i will have to remember that when im routing lines later-





On the subframe, I had some concerns since this was a rusty subframe originally out of a later van, I was worried it might not fit right. Fortunately 5 out of 6 bolts fit perfect. One is totally off, by maybe 3/4 of an inch. I also stripped the thread on that nut as well (I had threaded it first a little, and once the others were in, that bolt got so jammed it ripped out the threads)
Fortunately for me, its just about the best place for this problem with plenty of access. God forbid it was a center bolt. My plan is to open up the unibody above, drill up through the body using the bushing as a guide where it actually sits, and weld in a new nut in this new position, then close up the unibody.




and after all that, here is the tradeoff in body height-



Thats a bit too high, after I get it running, ill be looking to drop it about 2 inches. Right now it looks preposterous, with the rear dragging, and the front reaching for the sky

[LiftedAWDAstro]

Nice job. Once you get the van filled with seats etc, you may find it is close. Raise the rear and slap on some 31's!

[tinworm]

Nice job. Once you get the van filled with seats etc, you may find it is close. Raise the rear and slap on some 31's!

lol
The name of the game here is nondescript final product that looks much like all other gen 1s. Its going to be lettered for my company and commercial plated eventually. That means no super swampers, and no 20 inch chrome rims with spinners and low-pro tires either. (I know thats a suggestion formulating in someones mind!)

so Im definitely going with the stock astro radiator. the vane part not including side tanks is 42.75 cubic inches, over the MB stock 38.25 CI without top tanks, so its actually larger even though its thinner, and the inlet and outlets are on the same sides to boot, conveniently.

[tinworm]

forgot to post this, here is the donor engine in the original vehicle before I retired/wrecked it.

this is what it will sound like which I am looking forward to being a diesel head, hopefully the engine runs just as well after several years of idleness. Ill be rotating it by hand, oiling the cam, ect before the test start. Still have to resolve oiling, cooling, and id like to get clutch hydraulics knocked on the head as well before I fire it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rZD0xarUEI

[doyoulikeithere]

Are you gonna mount the benz hood ornament ?
She's sweet !! and this was without the turbo, right?
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rZD0xarUEI[/youtube]

[tinworm]

Are you gonna mount the benz hood ornament ?
She's sweet !! and this was without the turbo, right?

yeah, this was just NA. Its a low powered motor, but plenty of torque IMO. With a stick definitely able to keep up with traffic and maintain speed. You just learn not to try and use power to get out of situations. Drive a 240 and instantly become a safe, defensive driver, and avoid certain on ramps. On the other hand, i have been amazed at what a 616 can pull with minimal difficulty. I once pulled another car about 1400 miles across the US with a NA 240 4-speed. I had to take hills at about 50mph, but otherwise it did it amazingly without a problem, and on the flats I was cruising along at 70 passing people when I could. Ironically in that run, the problem was the chassis not built for pulling a dolly, not the engine pulling the whole load.

for 70hp stock though, its pretty easy to get used to. Im hoping the turbo adds another 10-15 hp, right where it really needs it, hills and accel

Im using a stock 617 turbo (if it fits), which is 8-12 psi


I don't think ill mount the benz hood ornament lol. There are super gaudy aftermarket benz grill inserts with like an 8 inch star on them which would probably fit on this van, but ill probably just transfer the turbo diesel badging off cars in a junkyard to the rear. Or when I letter it, have them do a decal that says MB Diesel Powered somewhere tastefully out of vinyl. we will see, gotta get it going!

[tinworm]

so here are the radiators compared- MB on the left. The ports are in the right place apart from the difference of side to side vs up and down flow.



Amazingly, the stock astro upper hose fits perfectly if you cut off about 2 inches. The stock Mercedes lower hose fits with about 4 inches removed. There might be a reference issue with the fan for the lower hose, and Im missing a lower plastic shroud that I definitely need that should solve that problem. The fans almost fits in the shroud correctly, just about 1 inch over to the passenger side. Also I had to trim a one inch strip off the upper shroud to clear the power steering pump

cooling system almost completely hooked up-



the only thing left is this rear port that needs to go to the heater core. The plan is to fabricate a pipe passage that bolts to the top of the valve cover and gets the coolant line past the turbo exhaust area without getting too close-



Excellent development on the throttle. Due to some amazing coincidence, or just a standard hole size that all automakers make for these things, the astro throttle cable fits right in perfectly to the Mercedes cruise control cable attachment. As if it were made for it. Some heavy modification to the throttle will need to take place here, as the distance is quite a bit different for cable throw, but I can use the mercedes bracket for the custom mod

[tinworm]

ok, Ive taken care of the cooling system and its all hooked up ready to test. I had this steel coolant pipe on the shelf, and I made some brackets for it to fit the valve cover-



How it looks installed-





Meanwhile, fitted the turbo. For the first time, the fact that this is a van came home to be big time. The turbo is really heavy and difficult to install from this angle, and the edges of the hatch might as well be a knife! The good news is that if fits in the space nearly perfectly, the bad news is that an exhaust pipe wont. Ill have to modify the hatch/body a slight amount to get the clearance I need for the downpipe.

[tinworm]

adjusted camber and dealt with the last subframe bolt. Now I can lift it again and get into the underneath stuff

camber was pretty bad originally-




super scientific method to get it close, ill have an alignment shop dial it in when the van is running



subframe bolt I was able to use the original nut still, I drilled the pass through hole just a little larger, and it threaded! it was less off than I initially expected. I was going to weld this shut, but I think im going to clean it up and install an access panel. Why GM made these things completely enclosed by metal is beyond me, this nut is heavily rusted




Removing some flex pieces and downpipe stuff from the stock mercedes setup back to this bolt flange on the turbo housing itself produced a lot of room to do a pipe down. Ill make a pipe the bolts to this point instead

[doyoulikeithere]

It seems to be coming along very nicely !
Love the trans mount lift, brings back memories.
We used to have pallet jack races around the warehouse at night
Deja-Vu

[tinworm]

lol, I raced pallet jacks also.

so some minor updates-

stock driveshaft for the 4.3 auto fits without modification to the manual-



couple pics of the type of room underneath now that I could lift it. Im liking the accessibility that this body lift creates, lots of room to fit various items-
driver side-



passenger side-



Turbo exhaust downpipe resolved. Local custom exhaust place made this for me. Id say its a minimum 2 inches from the body at its closest. Im going to support this in a second off the transmission bolt pattern, maybe a third using the original second support on the exhaust manifold-




Slave installed-



I might luck out on the remote oil filter. It looks like I can drill a couple holes and mount it directly to the driver side engine mount, which would put it just a few inches from the remote plate I have and minimize the travel-

[LiftedAWDAstro]

Looking great! Can't wait to see it running.

[tinworm]

thanks! me too, getting close. soon it will be wiring away

couple major things left-

Clutch hydraulics and pedal repair
Oil plate and lines
Brake hydraulics
starter and wiring
steering column extension and reinstallation

so reinstalled all the front clip stuff, wow that bumper needs to come up. Ill be doing this after its running, since I want to retain the side braces if I can and keep it as strong as possible. Ill put up with this weird look until the vehicle is reliable



also this glorious steering shaft extension arrived from overlandvans! I grabbed the longest one available and will cut to fit if its too long



Other news I did end up buying the 2' drop spindles from meetthespeakers, so another upgrade on the shelf once its running will be to replace the spindles (unless I have some time earlier)