Mercedes-Benz OM 50x engine family

The OM 50x series, made up of the OM 501 LA and the OM 502 LA, was a family of V-form diesel engines that Mercedes-Benz presented in 1996 as the successor to the OM 44x series, and it was used mainly in the Actros truck. It was offered as a V6 and a V8, the V6 with a single turbocharger for the whole engine and the V8 with one for each bank of cylinders. The engines shared a modular set of central parts such as pistons and connecting rods, and the different outputs came almost only from differences in the software of the engine control unit. For the first time at Mercedes-Benz the fuel was injected by the unit pump principle, with a plug-in pump over its own camshaft lobe for every cylinder instead of the in-line injection pumps of the predecessors, at up to 1,800 bar. The mechanics were designed to last one million kilometres. MTU sold the engines for industrial use, and in trucks the OM 47x inline sixes replaced them from 2011.