So if you are still considering doing this swap I can say that I am very pleased with the truck now that it is done. Drives great, gets great fuel economy and so far is very reliable. It was a lot of work and took a lot of research but now it is done. So if anyone wants to do this swap I would be happy to give my input. This engine is much lighter than the om617 and is more efficient. I am actually getting ready to build an om602 turbo that will have quite a bit more power. The non turbo gets around just fine and seems to be a bit more powerful than the stock 20r. However, I use this mainly as a work truck and the turbo would be nice when hauling and driving through the mountains.
So for your questions MikeGee. I just removed the sway bar and it didn't seem to make much of a difference in driving. I also have 3" lift springs with rancho 9000 shocks with the shocks adjusted for more stiffness. I would not advise notching the pan. I had to do a lift after the swap because the sump was only about 1.25" from the trailing arm allowing the arm to hit the oil pan. Before the lift I just added blocks over the bump stops to only allow about .5" suspension travel. So needless to say this was not a comfortable ride nor a permanent solution. For the adapter plate I used 3/4" aluminum plate. The backspacing needed to be reduced on the bellhousing so I cut the bellhousing back to the appropriate spacing minus the 3/4" and welded the new flange to the bellhousing. I recommend using a TIG welder for this unless you are some kind of rockstar with aluminum MIG. I think if you have access to a mill you should be able to do it fairly easily. You may need a rotary table to trim the perimeter in order to fit the benz ring gear. The bolt holes only needed about 1mm of slotting. And also, I had to remove the bolt holes for the slave cylinder so I used a pull style slave cylinder. I did read about someone else using a concentric slave cylinder from a chevy colorado which has a slightly different version of the aisin r150f. That guy used the whole front bearing retainer assembly from the colorado.
