MBE4000 Mercedes to Detroit S60 swap.

Not trying to sound rude but the truck you want to put the motor in is 8 years old, by the time you buy a different motor and spend the time or pay somebody else to do the swap you'd be money ahead to just sell the truck with the mercedes in it and buy something else.

 

i never done the swap but if you like the truck go for it cant be that hard

 

From my own research on the matter, I wanted to put a Detroit in my Western Star as well once upon a time. I've since decided that since I have a pre-EGR Mercedes and have put on the updated heads and I do have a turbo brake, not just exhaust brake... I'm keeping mine the way it is. That being said, on mine at least anyways the motor mounts are the same as a 12.7, it will mate to the transmission bell housing no problrm . There is a company that makes a wire adaptor you can plug into the Mercedes wiring harness and plug into DDEC. You'll need a new throttle and pedal. And if you are going to get a shop to do this for you it's going to run between 35 and 40k... Pretty expensive and that's if you don't run into any major problems. I've talked to people who've done it, its not an impossible job. But I would do some serious soul searching before dropping that kind of cash into a Columbia. No matter how good a shape it's in, I've owned one too... I've never seen one worth dumping that kind of cash into.

 

install new engine interface wiring, remove ADM from pass side pillar and rewire all c/c buttons, tps directly to engine ecm

 

My EGR MBE4000 has been such a reliable engine that I actually just had a Reliabilt crate motor installed in my 05 Columbia. I know I spent far more than the truck is worth, but my situation is rather unique.

Anyways, it's been a better motor than my two previous non EGR Detroits combined. More efficient as well. In my opinion, most MBEs were geared way too fast and that lead to a reputation as gutless and not as efficient as they should have been.

 

At first I though this was a crazy idea but after thinking about it for a couple weeks I'm half tempted to do this when it comes time to overhaul my Mercedes. http://www.mawkindustries.com/ makes wiring harness's for around $1,000 & you can buy a good 12.7 take out motor for $3,000 to $5,000. While we truck we also own a diesel repair shop so were completely capable of doing an engine swap. I figure it would cost us at the most $10,000 to do the swap ourselves & with todays fuel prices and atleast a .5mpg gain with the Detroit it would almost pay for itself in 100,000 miles. But with all this being said, if the truck you want to do this to is only worth $12,500 on a good day no matter what motor it has it's not very feesible, but the truck I want to do this to doesn't even have 600,000 miles on it yet so I feel it could be a good idea.

I may look into this a little more.

 

If you want to stay EPA compliant.....taking an EGR motor out means putting an EGR motor back in. Then you're talking an EGR 14L. That motor has no advantage over an MBE4000.