Re: Converting a gasoline engine to diesel power.
Thanks for the tip on OM603 pistons, but I can't find any for sale except on eBay for 95 GBP each. OM606 pistons are the same bore, but shaped for four valves and even more expensive/harder to find.
Sleeving the bores sounds like more work than I'd want to get into, even if it does make cheaper pistons an option.
Okay, hold on. Looks like the OM615 has the same 87 mm (3.425") bore as the later 603/606. These pistons might actually be cheap and available enough to use on a stupid project that is likely to blow up quickly. Judging from the pictures I'm seeing, it looks like the compression height is much larger than stock 225 pistons. This is good, since it would require less block milling, but too much and we're out of business again. Of course, the rod length will also be critical for this. I need to find these numbers as well as the rod journal diameter. The slant six rod journals are 2.187", I think. If it's not far off of that, at least custom bearings are cheaper than custom rods.
Doing more digging...