OM422

The 14.6-liter V8 of 1980 took over from the OM 402 at the head of the road-going range, and was offered in three states at once: naturally aspirated at 250 and 280 PS, turbocharged as the OM 422 A at 330 PS and 1,400 N·m, and turbocharged with charge-air cooling as the OM 422 LA at 375 PS and 1,550 N·m. Nothing in the New Generation went higher until the OM 442 LA of 1985. The model numbers read straight off the engine: 1625, 1628, 1633 and 1638, then 1938, 2228 and 2238 in the heavier classes.

Turbocharged V8s were at first reserved for road vehicles — site and tipper trucks were left with the naturally aspirated V10 instead — so when Daimler-Benz built its first four-axle 8×8, the 35-tonne 3528 AK of 1987, it used the atmospheric OM 422. The engine traveled, too. Atlantis Diesel Engines built it under license in South Africa as the ADE 422, and from 1988 MTU sold the family as Series 183 to industrial and military customers, a second career that outlasted its time in Mercedes-Benz’s own trucks.