OM443

Daimler-Benz built its heavy V-engines as a kit: each step up added one cylinder to each bank and one throw to the crankshaft, so a V10 cost far less to offer than a clean-sheet design would have. The line opened with the OM 403 shown at the 1969 IAA, continued as the OM 423, and reached its third generation as the OM 443 in the late 1980s. Naturally aspirated, on a 130 mm bore, it made around 360 PS; the intercooled OM 443 LA reverted to a 128 mm bore and reached 545 PS with 2,200 N·m.

In Mercedes-Benz’s own trucks it filled the three- and four-axle SK chassis — the 2636 and its relatives — where a V8 was not quite enough and a V12 was more engine than anyone wanted to carry. Its longer life was elsewhere: CLAAS fitted it to the Commandor 228 CS combine, and it went into mobile cranes, drilling rigs and quarry tippers, latterly to Euro II. Stuttgart never replaced it. The OM 500 family of 1996 stopped at eight cylinders, and the ten-cylinder truck diesel simply disappeared.