Many have asked us “If you had to pick one thing that bugged you over the past 4 months on the road, what would that be?”
Darrin’s, no hesitation, hands down, response goes something like “The Rover has been totally awsome as a travel vehicle, but it was built for a different era. An era before superhighways and 80 mile per hour speed limits across the plains”
The little Rover, even with the 2.5 liter, is vastly underpowered for the load and terrain when coupled with today’s speed limits. The road from Anchorage to Denali with too many impatient RVs and tour buses to count was the breaking point!
The Rover needs a heart transplant! A New motor.
We have chosen the Mercedes Benz OM617 3L Turbo Diesel due to the availability of a conversion kit for the Rover.
The OM617 is considered to be one of the most reliable engines ever produced with engines often reaching over 1,000,000 km without being rebuilt and is one of the key reasons for Mercedes’ popularity in North America in the 1980s. The engine is entirely mechanical in its systems; there are no electronics, wires, chips, at all. Essentially, you could jump start the engine with no battery and it could sit there running, under water, until it ran out of fuel. The price for this reliability is a bit lower MPG, as the mechanical systems are not as fine tunable as the electronic systems found in todays cars.
Old Motor:
Chevy 2.5L
90 hp 133 ft-lbs
New Motor:
Mercedes 3.0L OM617 Turbo Diesel
150 hp 220 ft-lbs
Going in soon?
They are rebuilding the motor and getting the parts, so a few weeks yet.
Are you doing the transplant on the road or when you get back?
Sounds very interesting. Cheers
On the road in Merlin. OR In the next month or do.