Has anyone done this conversion yet? I have heard a few people mention it.
This was one engine I seriously looked at a few years ago, since it is a six cylinder, but it is about the same dimensions as the 2.2 Tagora unit fitted. Furthermore, since it has a single cylinder head the inlet and exhaust manifolds are on the same sides as the original and it seemed like an ideal choice and in my opinion a better one in terms of maintenance and room to fit, than the Alfa V6.
How big a job is it? What modifications are needed. What transmission would u use?
There are several reasons why I did not go any further after my initial interest. I worked at Mercedes at the time and they had fitted this engine to the then new V-Class MPV (the Vito van made more plush but still nowhere near as good an MPV as the Espace III!) Even after only a short while in production the single row cam drive chains were getting noisy and had to be replaced (under warranty of course) but I found the chain is at the flywheel end of the engine, so it is a major engine out and strip to replace! Compared to the reliable duplex chain in the 2.2, this was not a good omen.
Next, although the dimensions of the engine, which I was able to measure whilst the units were out of the V-Class being repaired, were very similar to the original 2.2 and could have made it a good replacement, I was not keen on other things, like no engine driven water pump - they used an electric remote one, and the starter was mounted on the gearbox and faced the opposite way to the original, complicating any bell housing mods. to fit the engine to the existing transaxle. There were other considerations which I have since forgotten; and I'm never keen on replacing an engine with something totally different as you simply cannot engineer it correctly like the manufacturer does as you just don't have the information or expertise, and the unit becomes completely non-standard with even more unique parts than the original, which was made in such small number that original parts are already now a problem or becoming expensive.
All credit to those like Bart who fit something completely different (how is that rotary going these days?) but the amount of work and money involved I could not justify spending nor would I want to alter such a beautiful car anyway.
So I prefer to stay with the original and if maintained properly it is a fine unit with plenty of torque, and reasonable performance with a Holbay or re-profiled cam. Personally my view is that anyone who wants more than 180 bhp should not really have a Murena but buy something else...
Roy