Discover "OM607 Modifications"

How to modify and upgrade the Mercedes OM607

"Comprehensive guide to performance tuning the Mercedes OM607 engine!"

Sites like TorqueCars are frequently seeing threads asking about how to improve the OM607 from people inquiring about getting more power from the OM607 and wanting to know what are the ultimate OM607 upgrades. So let us look into Mercedes OM607 tuning mods and outline the best mods that work on this great engine and point out some common pitfalls along the way.

The Mercedes OM607 offer good returns when tuned and with the best modified modifications like a remap, turbo improvements and camshafts you will positively increase your driving fun.

We shall examine OM607 tuning and show the optimum modifications.

When talking about the top parts for your OM607 engine, we are going to focus on the parts that give the best value for money.

Improving air intake on the OM607

You need fuel and air for an engine to work. If there is little supply of fuel then it will run lean, if there is not enough air it runs rich losing power and potentially damaging the engine. We'll pick up on fuelling later in this article but for now we shall look at air supply.

So Pushing air and fuel into your OM607 is the primary aim to any performance tuning project.

It is not unusual that there is a limit in the air flow sensor MAP/MAF/AFM on the OM607 when considerably more air is being pulled into the engine.

You'll see that 4 bar air sensors coping with quite large power gains, whereas the OEM air sensor was restricting performance at a much lower level.

Air Intake manifolds flow the air from the filter and allow it to be sucked into the engine and mixed with fuel.

The shape and flow characteristics of the Intake can make a substantial effect on to fuel engine efficiency on the OM607.

Most headers are needing performance upgrades, although a few manufacturers provide reasonably well designed headers.

Fitting big valve kits, getting port matching and head flowing will also increase bhp, this will raise potential for increasing the bhp increase on other parts.

OM607 performance cam tips.

Each engine responds better to less aggressive cam durations so set your engine up on a rolling road.

The map and injectors and fuel pump also will make differences on the torque gains you'll get.

Altering valve durations can alter the torque band and on most engines the exhaust and intake durations do not need to match, although most cams and tuners use matched pairs there are some advantages to extending the intake or exhaust durations.

Significant air intake, and exhaust improvements on the OM607 can be made from camshaft upgrades. Changing the camshaft profile alters the intake and exhaust durations on the engine and can dramatically change the torque and power output.

NB: Fast road camshafts tend to increase the bhp and torque through the rev band, you could sacrifice a little low end torque but your top end will be lifted.

Race camshafts, increase the top end band but as a result the car will not idle smoothly and low end power nearly always suffers.

A Motorsport and race camshaft won't do well if in heavy traffic.

You should ideally match your bhp range to your usage of the car so for a road car stick with a fast road OM607 camshaft

Stage 1, 2 and 3 mods for the OM607

Before we break the best tuning upgrades down into stages of tune, let's list the most effective tuning upgrades for you.

1. Suspension Upgrades - always improve your cars handling
2. Brake Upgrades - Even before adding power improve those brakes
3. Intake - make sure the intake is not restricted, use filters and intake upgrades to improve this
4. Exhaust - as with 3 ensure there is not restriction in the exhaust, cats are the usual bottleneck
5. Tunes - remapping, piggyback ECU's and aftermarket ECU's can all make decent gains
6. Fuelling - when you've increased power you'll need to match this with more fuel
7. Turbo upgrades - Improving the intake with a large turbo and better flowing intercooler will be the biggest power gain you'll see (but one of the most complex).

This video guide to tuning cars is a great starting point to work from in your project.

Stage 1 OM607 parts:

Drilled & smoothed airbox, Panel air filters, Fast road camshaft, Sports exhaust manifold, Intake headers, Remaps/piggy back ECU.

Stage 2 OM607 parts:

Sports catalyst & performance exhaust, high flow fuel injectors, induction kit, Fast road cam, fuel pump upgrades, Ported and polished head.

Stage 3 OM607 parts:

Twin charging conversions, Engine balancing & blueprinting, Crank and Piston upgrades to alter compression, Adding or Upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger), Internal engine upgrades (head flowing porting/bigger valves), Competition cam.

A remap should help to release the full potential of all the upgrades you've done to your OM607.

You will typically expect to see gains of approximately 20-30% more power on turbocharged vehicles and you can expect to see around 15% on NASP engines, but power output usually rely on the upgrades you've done and the condition of your engine.

Turbo modifications on the OM607

To get a turbo working on a NASP engine there is a lot involved, from lowering compression ratio to improved fuel supply and mapping, so we have found a great guide to helpavoid the common pitfalls or end up with an unfinished project because you were not told what you were getting into by doing this on the OM607.

The more air you can get into an engine, the more fuel it can burn and uprating the induction with a turbocharger upgrade makes massive power gains.

If an engine has forced induction upgrades are simpler to install and most turbo engines are built using strengthened components.

There are reliable limits for every engine, with some being over specified and some only able to handle stock power

See where you'll find these limits and fit higher quality components to survive the power.

There are many mechanics spending a lot of money on turbo upgrades on the OM607 only to have the engine block literally blow up just after it's used in anger.

Large capacity turbos will usually suffer low end lag, and smaller turbos spool up much more quickly but won't have the top end engines power gains.

In the last 10 years the selection of turbo chargers is always improving and we commonly find variable vane turbo chargers, allowing the vane angle is altered according to speed to lower lag and increase top end bhp.

Twin scroll turbo chargers divert the exhaust gases into two channels and push these at differently designed vanes in the turbocharger. They also increase the scavenging effect of the engine.

Beefing up the air intake by adding a supercharger or additional turbo will help you achieve very large power gains, although more complex to setup. We have this in depth look at twinchargers if you want to read more.

Tips about fuel supply on the OM607

You will need to ensure that the engine is not starved of fuel so should ramp up the fuelling when you start exceeding 20% of a power hike. It is important to be generous with your injector capacity.

The accepted safe increase is to add 15% when fitting an injector, this allows for injector deterioration and allows a little spare capacity should the engine require more fuel.

Don't forget that different fuel grades will usually require different settings, a high octane fuel will burn more efficiently than lower octane fuel for example. A car will trim fuel supply to keep within the ideal air fuel mix but at the extreme ends you may need to adjust your injector capacity, or the mapping or you'll get flat spots and potential lean or rich fuel issues..

Recommended OM607 performance exhaust upgrades

We'd only recommend you look to upgrade your exhaust system with an upgraded one is if the current exhaust is creating a restriction in flow.

On most factory exhausts you'll see the exhaust flow rate is ok even on modest power gains, but on a serious tuning project with a big boost in power you will certainly need to get a better flowing exhaust.

Note that with the biggest exhaust you can source you'll reduce the exhaust flow rate - the best exhausts for power gains are usually between one and a half to two and half inches. Your exhaust design, the bend angles and construction are what have more effect on flow rates than your pipe width to a certain extent. So the exhaust design is a big factor.

Usual exhaust restrictions can be located the catalyst installed, so adding a better flowing sports alternative will help avoid this restriction.

Decat pipes (NB:catalysts reduce harmful engine emissions) is illegal in most countries and regions.

Faults issues and things to look out for on the OM607

Like most engines an OM607, should have few issues if it gets properly serviced and looked after.

We cannot stress enough the need for oil changes with the correct grade of oil on the OM607, failure to do this will exacerbate engine wear, on a tuned OM607 this is more important than ever and close attention should be paid to your maintenance schedule.

If you are interested in learning more or getting impartial tuning advice for your OM607 why not pop over to the forums at TorqueCars where you can chat about OM607 tuning options and read about others projects who may be planning to do similar modifications on their OM607.

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This entry was posted under Makes and Models. Tags: engine, mercedes
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