Is a Mercedes a good engine for a DP?

Well there you have it - Combines, OTR trucks, Super C Motorhomes, and even a Ferry! With some stretch of the imagination I'm sure you can find something in common with a DP beyond the fact they all use diesel fuel
:)

The old series 60 Detroit was probably one of the best engines and always thought that this version was still being produced by MB and since Detroit Diesel is now owned by German Daimler AG for over the road applications.
Most sure it's more complicated than that and with how much of the old Detroit is incorporated into the modern MB line.
There's still a lot of Detroit's running around out there in some of the higher end Motorhomes, so......

Here's an idea. Find a unit you like (cheap) and re-engine it. Probably need the transmission along with it.

Along with that, remodel to suit you.

The biggest combine made is a Lexion 780. Its little brother is the 760. The only difference from one machine to the other is the engine. The smaller machine uses a Cat C13 (12.5 liter) engine and the larger machine uses a Mercedes 473 (15.6 liter engine). In North America the Cat powered machine is more popular but the Mercedes is more fuel efficient. I don't think one is more reliable than the other but in NA people feel more confident running the Cat.

"donnyB7"....That could be the best engine ever made, but since you had to come on here and ask about it, it's obvious it wasn't a popular engine. When they first put a Mercedes in a DP, it looked that that could be the future of DP's, but they never took off.

Like I said, they could be a great engine, but you'll have a hard time reselling the coach if you don't like it or have issues. I'll bet whoever is selling it has been trying to for awhile.

60K mi. since 2010 on an MBE OM460 Super C and only one issue which was my fault. Different mechanical products that perform similar jobs are hard to compare. The conversation gets biased, almost political. It's a hard sale for a Chevy fan to own a Ford.

Cummins and Cat would be the two most common in DP's. I don't know about Mercede's in RV's, but my Father-in-Law was an over-the-road trucker for over 40 years and I remember him talking about the Mercedes being problematic in big rigs. If you search some of the trucker forums you'll see posts of the problems with Mercedes.

Were they from Chrysler-Mercedes? Funny, the 5 cyl Benz diesel was a great engine. It was built like the Deutz Aircooled but with a fluid cooling system. The Ferry across the Potomac runs a Deutz and they overhaul it every 30,000 hours.

Walk away from that unit. Very few units with that engine were installed in Motorhomes. Lots of problems and they did not meet the mission standards. Even the Freightliners with an MBE are junk. Some fleets sold them into Mexico as no one would buy them. Heads crack, turbos are destroyed and more!

Moisheh