W124 Superturbodiesel - The Ultimate Street Sleeper

W124 Superturbodiesel - The Ultimate Street Sleeper

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Palmers

Original Poster:

478 posts

111 months

Tuesday 29th August 2017
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Following on from my previous thread - which has had all of the photos removed (thanks photobucket!)

A brief history:

I acquired the car approx a year ago. A bog standard looking mercedes W124. It housed a 3.0 OM606 turbodiesel, coupled with a large borgwarner S300 turbo, and a very mean 8mm dieselmeken fuel pump. The drivetrain was a 6 speed swapped from an E270 CDI, with a custom clutch and flywheel.

The car on this set up ran 562whp. It kept disintegrating prop doughnuts. So i sent it back for the large(st) diff with quaife internals, and heavy duty shafts. This made the car very scary in second gear, as it seemed to put down the power and access it alot easier.

I had such fun giving phenominally powerful / expensive motors a shock. Soon it developed a knock and without warning shot a rod at cruising speed.

I had a new engine fitted and took it off the road for winter. She was wastegated at 300whp on the dot, (362bhp) i personally thought it was more, but i guess its the delivery of the large turbo... nothing... nothing... 'oh god my face!'

I debated selling, and even advertised her for sale. Few bites but nothing major. Secretly i didnt want to let her go. There is just something addictive about a superturbodiesel. The old school diesel knock and rattles - yet the butter smooth revving throughout the range. These engines love to rev, and sound phenominal! Every one loves a big turbo spool!

I sent her off to my brothers business. She had the full AMG gen 1 kit (including ducktail) fitted and almost a full respray. 18'' geniune staggered monoblock wheels and the windows moderately tinted.

She currently stands as so:











Theres going to be quite a few updates in the close future - suspension, maintenance, a few more body tweeks and the one im most looking foward too - the priority valve (quickspool) manifold to help spool that big turbo up! I will also have a pump tweek and dyno at the same time. Maybe not as much as the test car ran (611whp) though! As i want to keep this engine...

Palmers

Original Poster:

478 posts

111 months

Saturday 2nd September 2017
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geraintthomas said:
Beautiful! Will be keeping an eye on this!
Thanks smile


HybridAero said:
That's truly amazing, is that on stock internals or forged?

What's the mpg like on a cruise with a great big turbo?

What type of dyno was it measured on? Would be interesting to see what it makes on a Maha dyno (proves to consistently be the most accurate).

Also very interested to see what quarter mile this would run and 100-200 km/h time.

Top work!
Unopened engine. They are forged crank as sta ndard. Believe its from an AMG of that period.

I achieve about 32mpg on my last 200 mile round trip. That was sat at mainly 80-90 mph will some wot. Ill do some vids after i get the manifold. Currently 1st and 2nd is pants!

Escy said:
That's cool. How long does it take to spool up?
Quite a while in the wrong gear lol!


twink said:
I love that. Is it on the DieselpumpUK Youtube page? I've seen a few of his creations and they just make me laugh every time. I'd love one.
Diesel pump no.2! Its on their youtube!


0a said:
That looks brilliant. I would imagine such power in a w124 (I own 2) is scary!

More please. Whatever you have.
It is a little comical. And pushing on takes balls not gonna lie!

Should be some big updates coming shortly...

Palmers

Original Poster:

478 posts

111 months

Wednesday 6th September 2017
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SL500 springs are on



Deffo need a coil lopped off the rear.

Old springs were seriousely tired. Not made for this big lump up front.

Palmers

Original Poster:

478 posts

111 months

Wednesday 6th September 2017
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J4CKO said:
Palmers said:
SL500 springs are on



Deffo need a coil lopped off the rear.

Old springs were seriousely tired. Not made for this big lump up front.
That rear wheel looks like its been photoshopped in from a slightly different angled photo, looks like its got positive camber ?

Have you timed any performance figures yet ?

How would it go against say a standard C63 ?
No it hasnt been photoshopped lol. It had just come off the ramp so hasnt settled at all in that pic. The fronts dropped a fair few cm after a day.

I havent done performance figures for the simple reason that 1st and 2nd gear were usless. Wouldnt spool till 3rd. Ill get a vbox after its manifold and do some tests.

No idea but at 300whp its slightly quicker than a V8 M3. Ive had a play with 2 locally and creep on them both.

When it was 562whp there was not nothing that touched it.

joshleb said:
Looks mean, LOL at that current rear ride height though!

Was this near Otford/ Sevenoaks last week, I saw a white merc like this, the one I saw could have been lower though.
Haha yeah needs sorting. Still waiting on my shocks.

Nahh i dont think that was me lol

Palmers

Original Poster:

478 posts

111 months

Friday 8th September 2017
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Just go her back from the first installment!

New engine and diff mounts. Diff ones were well worn:



Also had fresh diff and gearbox oil.

The SL500 springs have had a coil lopped off the rear. I was hoping to get my shocks on too but they have been put back until the end of october due to availability. Gone for Bilstein B8.

How she sits currently


Palmers

Original Poster:

478 posts

111 months

Sunday 10th September 2017
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J4CKO said:
That looks a hell of a lot better ! they (and the 190) were so right.
Still not finished!

Id love a 190 with an evo kit!

Palmers

Original Poster:

478 posts

111 months

Saturday 16th September 2017
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Had a chance to use my new cleaning stuff today. Always been a fan of G Techniq since i used there glass protection on an A8 years ago. Amazing technology.

The nano polish took the stained soot of the rear easily. And the crystal lacquer is very unusual! A spray that you simply spray, then wipe. But evidently will last 4 to 8 months as a wax. So easy to apply - and just after id done the rear it started spitting:



Beading well. Ill see how long it lasts.

Also fitted my fog lights. Purely cosmetic until i wire them in at some point.


Palmers

Original Poster:

478 posts

111 months

Wednesday 20th September 2017
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Had a test of the snowfoam today. Its interesting to watch the colour turn as it pulls the dirt off!





The windows have had the g techniq glass treatment, and the majority of the body has had crystal lacquer applied. I absolutely love g techniq products. The science behind them is fabulous!

Also peeved off a civic driver today, thats always a bonus!

Palmers

Original Poster:

478 posts

111 months

Thursday 21st September 2017
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Escapegoat said:
Does it still do the comedy smoke act?
Oh yes lol

OldGermanHeaps said:
I just don’t know how you can resist the temptation to have a wee twiddle with the wastegate, you must have the restraint of a saint.
Ive had one new engine. No more! Lol

Palmers

Original Poster:

478 posts

111 months

Sunday 22nd October 2017
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My daily shat its clutch recently. Mk 4 mondeo titanium x. And my mechanic was abroad on holiday. So the merc was promoted to daily duties! Its a little noisey, and no radio but hey - gets me to work.

On my ritual Sunday hoon i started smelling diesel through the vents. Opened up the bonnet to find my turbo side of the engine all wet. Took the plastic cover to find this





The injectors are fairly new so im certain its nothing major. Maybe a leak off pipe.

Rang my bro to borrow one of his motors. Fingers crossed for the supercharged rangey... but he was using that as his P1 is down a cylinder and his prodrive is not holding battery. So i got his Mrs' fiat 500. Yay! Its like an elephant riding a peanut...


On other news not much else. The mondeo failing has pushed back some work on the merc. I have started fabbing my center console piece for the vents though.

Palmers

Original Poster:

478 posts

111 months

Wednesday 25th October 2017
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Diesel leak fixed. Was a split leak off pipe.

Uses it to tow the mondeo to my mates garage. You need to be assertive with the throttle with these pumps, otherwise they jerk. So im pulling off from a roundabout. My stepdads still on the mondeo brakes. Que a big rolling burnout...

Palmers

Original Poster:

478 posts

111 months

Sunday 29th October 2017
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Who was the chap who spotted me at Bourne Tesco then smile

r129sl said:
Just out of interest, how easy would it be to get, say, 200bhp out of an OM606? What sort of torque would such an engine make? Would it run cleanly and drive like a factory car? And how much would you need to change to give it certain reliability?

And if you had a NA OM606 in your 124, would you start with that or would you swap it out for a turbocharged motor?

Questions, questions, but I do appreciate what you're doing here.
They are 177 standard, so a cheap map would see 200.

Reliabilty is not an issue for these motors. They will still do 500k at 177bhp or 500. Just dont over rev them. You can make decent power smoke free if you really need too.

Swap for a turbo unit.

Palmers

Original Poster:

478 posts

111 months

Sunday 12th November 2017
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Palmers

Original Poster:

478 posts

111 months

Monday 13th November 2017
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munk said:
Hey OP,

I've been following your thread for a while- I love the car, I mean - I genuinely covet the car. I'm considering doing something similar with an estate C or E class of some description in the future - a usable sleeper and everyday drivability would be really nice.

Firstly, what do you need to do to get that sort of poke? Is it as simple as bolting a new turbo to a modified manifold and fiddling with the fueling or is it more complicated than that? Most of the cars I've seen with OM60X engines are 100k+ miles - do they tend to be fairly mechanically reliable?

I've seen that some of the tuning company's dyno graphs tend to be quite peaky in terms of power delivery, so I'm a little concerned how it would handle daily duties. Is it a realistic daily prospect or is that pie in the sky? Is 40mpg realistc or is that to be taken with a pinch of salt?

Given your experience of running your car, what advice would you give to a newbie?
It is literally just that. Converting the car from edc to manual pump as well. However if its just a daily driver with poke you need a massive cc pump.

You can get mid 300 wheel hp from smallish turbos. Which provide much better driveability than my oversized one - i just love the grin factor of mine - and its running extremely conservative fuel wise. They are called a million mile engine for a reason - incredibly robust and love boost. If your using boost 30 id say is easy to achieve. Anything over is a bonus.

Palmers

Original Poster:

478 posts

111 months

Tuesday 14th November 2017
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Nope thats dieselpumuk in york. Alot of G wagon owners have 606 conversions. Hence them outside the shop... smile

Palmers

Original Poster:

478 posts

111 months

Tuesday 14th November 2017
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xjay1337 said:
i did wonder what happened with the other thread.

Glad to see it back here.
Nice to hear


moustache said:
Palmers said:
Who was the chap who spotted me at Bourne Tesco then smile
That was me. Great to see the car, makes a change from the usual ste that I see in Bourne cool
Haha was very suprised to be spotted fella!

Palmers

Original Poster:

478 posts

111 months

Friday 24th November 2017
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Collected the car today from DPUK!

I was the first customer for their 'anti jerk kit'

My car has always had really bad diesel jerk. Its the only achilles heel in the superturbodiesel world; a major drawback - it drives like garbage at slow speeds.

It basically doesnt like small throttle movements in lower gears, and to stop a jerk you either need to clutch in, or apply a blob more throttle. It makes it a ball ache to drive around towns or in traffic.

Ive become so used to avoiding the jerk that in reality im the only person who could drive it. It was even jerking on the dyno when it arrived to dpuk!

Speaking of the dyno... i did have a mild pump tune as well. This pump is capable of far more than the engine can handle. So it was only tweaked a little:



Im quite happy with 400whp!

On the road it feels mega. The gears are much longer with a few extra revs so it can really open up that turbo. It pulls extremely hard now, and second gear has some kick too. The comedy smoke has also mostly gone. Under heavy load in 5th or 6th its as clean as a whistle. Only emits a big chug just before the turbo gulps.

I also had a good nosey at their demo car. A project that was built in 8 days for roadkill at northampton. The Vin Diesel (yes... its a diesel charger....)




Palmers

Original Poster:

478 posts

111 months

Saturday 25th November 2017
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Got a new filter thrown in with the pump tune:


Palmers

Original Poster:

478 posts

111 months

Thursday 7th December 2017
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As for most projects; things will slow down during winter.

Im not a fan of driving her in cold and damp / wet conditions. Dont get me wrong the quaife is amazing and even if she does lose traction coming off the loud pedal soon snaps her back in line.

She had a wash today, was filthy. Had to be a daily for a while as my mondeo shat its clutch.

Some scrote also stole my bonnet emblem whilst at a friends. So i bought a cheap one and glued it on. Ill sort the grill assembly properly at some point, have a mint original one in the garage.

Palmers

Original Poster:

478 posts

111 months

Thursday 15th March 2018
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So a little update.

Went for a nice drive one Sunday. Pulled out of a junction, went for second, planted the throttle, it hooked and blew a shaft. Snapped at the hub end. Blew the end section out through my wheel and center cap!



Obligatory snow pic



New shaft arrived. Didnt realise how hench they were!