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OM617 Performance
Free Upgrades
-Adjust your timing to 26° BTDC on a stock pump (22-24° 7.5mm pump)
-Increase your stock turbo's wastegate to 11-15psi
-Adjust your valves
Cheap Upgrades
ALDA Delete - Gives full fuel on demand, off idle, for full RPM range.
Use with stock pump, ONLY!
EGR Delete - Improves airflow once you've cleaned your intake. Prevents future sludge build-up.
Injectors - Have your stock injectors rebuilt. There is no such thing as "upgraded injectors" for an OM617. The stock are the best quality there is. Having them cleaned and pop-tested (calibrated to each other) will help with both a stock and 7.5mm pump.
Injection Pump
There's only one option here - the 7.5mm pump upgrade from Dieselmeken. His pump will give you enough fuel for 230hp. It's really "all-or-nothing" with a pump upgrade; either you want the power of a stock pump, or you want the 230hp pump.
Turbocharger
There are 4 turbo options
Garrett T3OB - The factory turbo that makes these engines suck. This is the stock option that came on most of the 617's. It's a restrictive heat pump. It will give you scorching hot EGT's, and takes forever to spool up (1900+ RPM). If you upgrade your pump, this turbo will likely lead to eventual engine failure.
KKK K26 - This was the rarer factory option. It somehow managed to spool sooner and have cooler EGT's. This is a great upgrade for anyone on an extremely tight budget. It spools ~100RPM sooner. It sounds amazing compared to the T3OB. EGT's are still way higher than they need to be, and this still won't work with a 7.5mm pump.
HE200 5cm² - This is the best turbo for a stock pump. Your max power isn't increased (much), but the increase in power from idle up to ~4000 RPM is extremely significant. It makes the OM617 behave like it's supercharged. It performs best in rock crawling, stop/go traffic, and highway speeds below 4000 RPM. This is not a good turbo for a 7.5mm pump. Best results come when paired with an ALDA Delete and timing advance to 26°.
HE200/221 7cm² - This turbo works with BOTH the stock AND 7.5mm pump! It is the best option for the 7.5mm pump. With a stock pump, it is still a massive upgrade over the stock turbo's. This is the better turbo for a stock pump if you're doing only highway speeds and drive in the 3000-5300 RPM range frequently. The perk of this turbo, is it gives you the ability to upgrade the pump later on if you ever get the desire for more fuel. With a stock pump, the power increases are the same as the HE200 5cm² in that the max power is not increased, but the power curve is greatly flattened out. This is the turbo to use if you want 230hp.
See the Turbocharger store pages for a full breakdown on the 2 Holset upgrades.
Intercooler/Aftercooler
Technically they're called aftercoolers (an intercooler is the cooler after the 1st turbo in a compound setup). I'll refer to them as "IC".
Stock Pump - You DO NOT want an IC with a stock pump, as it only adds a significant amount of lag. The Holset upgrades both cure the EGT problem that the stock turbo's created, so, there's absolutely no reason to add an IC.
The factory turbo's create so much heat, that even adding an IC won't make a noticeable difference.
For those who want to argue about the necessity of adding an IC, think of it this way - These engines survived for 500k+ miles without IC's, and with the crappy stock turbo's dishing out 1300°+ heat. Explain to me how adding a much more efficient turbo with dramatically lower EGT's, without an IC, is going to kill this engine.
7.5mm Pump - You absolutely must run an IC with a built pump. You're literally doubling the fuel output of the pump. If this engine ran hot with stock fuel, it doesn't take much common sense to realize doubling it is going to make things dangerously hot very easily. This is also why the ALDA is required.
Meth
Unfortunately, with the way this indirect-injected diesel works, injecting supplemental fuels such as methanol or propane will most certainly lead to pre-detonation. I've put tremendous effort into testing meth injection, only to find my engine knocking violently, with almost zero improvements in EGT or power. One thought is the atomizing balls inside the prechambers are responsible for igniting the methanol vapor as soon as the vapor gets inside the cylinder/prechamber. Another thought is the incredibly high compression ratio ignites the methanol before we want it to. Either way, I was never able to make meth injection work with the OM617, nor has anyone else that's tried and posted on the internet about it.
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