Ok,

Maybe somebody would know...

The mercedes C-111 prototype was the initial trial of the the 617 turbo diesel engine. that baby was putting 225hp and something like 370lbft of torque with an early 617 (basiquely the one that was put in the 300SD W116).
The question for this honorable audience would be: what was the set up around the 617 to squeez 225hp from it? What would it take to raise a
300SD to the glorious level of a 450SEL 6.9 ?

Mercedes started the 617 on that course why did they tone it down afterwards?

PD:Maybe this has been discussed before. in that case sorry.
PD 2: No the crazy finns won't help, their specialty is the 603 not the 617.

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Aquilae non capunt muscas! (Eagles don't hunt flies!)


1979 300SD Black/Black MBtex239000mi
1983 300TD euro-NA. White/Olive Cloth-MBtex 201000mi. Fleet car of the USA embassy in Morocco
1983 240D Labrador Blue/Blue MBtex 161000mi

the motor had like 25psi of boost... I am sure their were other differances.
John

25 psi of boost, larger plungers on the IP, intercooled,tuned specifically to harness all the power aval.. learn finnish and the fins will tell you

Try searching this forum using the search terms "Finns" and "617".

The 617 has not entirely escaped their attention!

Reliability and longevity.

Getting more power out of an engine than it was designed to produce means more wear and tear on the engine. The OM617 wasn't designed to produce those power levels, it was pushed there. For example, I'm sure they ran much more boost than normal. This would increase wear on the rings and bearings.

I'm sure that the C-111 was more than just a record attempt and publicity stunt. In engineering its not unusual to push a design beyond its designed operating parameters for an extended period to see where it breaks before the design goes into production. This way weakness can be identified and corrected before it becomes a major problem.

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green 85 300SD 200K miles "Das Schlepper Frog" With a OM603 TBO360 turbo ( To be intercooled someday )( Kalifornistani emissons )
white 79 300SD 200K'ish miles "Farfegnugen" (RIP - cracked crank)
desert storm primer 63 T-bird "The Undead" (long term hibernation)

http://ecomodder.com/forum/fe-graphs/sig692a.png

They may have been able to get 225HP+ out of it for some time. But it's like a nascar engine. It might be okay for one or two races, but they have the money to rebuild them many times/year. It would be out of the question to send that into public circulation.

http://www.classicdriver.com/uk/magazine/3200.asp?id=11583

Punctually at midnight of April 30, 1978, the five pistons in the diesel engine of the Mercedes-Benz C 111-III began to work, supported by an intercooled exhaust gas turbocharger which, at 130,000 revolutions per minute, pressed enough air into the combustion chambers to boost the output to 230 hp. That was more than enough power for accelerating the Mercedes-Benz in record-hunting trim to a top speed of around 325 kilometers per hour. Because of its very “long” ratio, the car did take its time, however – a complete 12.66 kilometer lap of the circuit in Nardo in southern Italy, to be precise - to reach this speed.

Yeah, I don't think it will go 1000000 miles much less than 10K I bet.
kinda hard to warranty that sucker!

IIRC, it had a specially built aluminum head, which was never available to schmucks like you and me. I've never seen a pic of the engine, so maybe it was a cross-flow design; possibly even a prototype for the OM60x heads. 225-230hp sounds a bit tame by today's diesel engine standards, even with straight mechanical injection.

Here's a photo of the setup I scanned from one of my books.

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'81 MB 300SD, '82 MB 300D Turbo (sold/RIP), '04 Lincoln Town Car Ultimate

Sooner or later every car falls apart, ours does it later!
-German Narrator in a MB Promotion Film about the then brand new W123.