Mercedes-Benz G 63 AMG 6x6 Gets an Engine Swap, but Will It Work?

Ruan Schneider had the six-wheel Mercedes delivered to his shop six weeks ago. From that moment on, he and his team worked day in and day out to get it done. For six whole years, the Mercedes had remained in one place without moving a single inch.

Someone had extracted the 5.5-liter 32-valve biturbo V8 and left the vehicle abandoned. Gone were the 536 horsepower and 561 pound-feet of torque that put the monster in motion over any kind of predicament.

When Ruan Schneider found it, it was in a deplorable state, looking as if it had no chance whatsoever of ever going dune-bashing again. However, Ruan saw potential in the rare six-wheel Mercedes-Benz G 63 AMG. The brand had only built around 100 such units, with most of them ending up in the United Arab Emirates.

Mercedes sold the insane machinery for over $400,000 when it was new. The price of the model skyrocketed on the used car market over the years. The six-wheel G, which was only produced between 2013 and 2015, can even hit $1 million. But on one condition: it must have engine, preferably the original V8.

However, Ruan Schneider found the silver bullet for the engineless 6x6 that he found abandoned and purchased. He knew right from the start that it was a mad challenge that he took on.

The rebuild was far from being a walk in the park
He had to buy a whole car, a Mercedes-Benz ML 63 AMG, which is powered by the same M157 engine. The extraction of the V8 went according to plan, but he had no idea if it would fit under the hood of the six-wheeler. Furthermore, he had to match parts of the original engine to the ones of the ML SUV.

So, the transplant was a trial-and-error procedure. The team had to assemble the whole drivetrain, bolt everything in, and connect all the hoses and wires. They put the seven-speed 7G-tronic automatic gearbox back in, and it worked properly right from the start.

They had quite a headache with the starter motor, but eventually, they nailed it. The transfer case leaked oil, so they had to find a way out of this problem as well. In the end, they also put the front end back together like a puzzle.

Three weeks later, he had a Mercedes-Benz G 63 AMG 6x6 running as it did in its good old days, with no one even suspecting that what powers it is not the engine with which it rolled off the production line at the Magna Steyr plant in Austria. The six-wheeler had Brabus stickers all over and an Akrapovic exhaust before it was left without the engine.

Now, the wheels of the 6x6 Mercedes are turning for the first time in six years. It runs just like the way it did on the tarmac, but the ultimate test is on the sand dunes. The monster acts like it was born there.

It plows the sand, power slides, and roars like no tomorrow. The five electronic differentials, operated by three switches, and the air compressor, which allows reducing and increasing tire pressure for the necessary traction, operate with no issue whatsoever.

How did the Mercedes-Benz G 63 AMG 6x6 end up like this?
It looks like Ruan gambled and won. He did not disclose the whole cost of the rebuild when the project was completed. However, before he started working on the Benz, he estimated a total cost of around $57,000, with the donor car included.

But how did this super-expensive, super-powerful Mercedes-Benz truck end up in such a deplorable state? Long story short, it was taken to a dealership for the annual service, but the owner complained about an engine issue. So, the vehicle ended up with its V8 extracted from the engine bay.

Ruan believes that the technicians destroyed elements of the engine because they assumed that the vehicle had upgrades because there were Brabus stickers on it. They also believed that fuel mixed with oil led to an engine failure. But Ruan took an oil sample and sent it to the lab. There was no fuel in the oil at all. However, all the lab found in it was coolant and dust.

Ruan and his team found damage on a single bearing of the six-wheeler, while all the others were intact, which proved the oil was not contaminated with fuel. At the end of the day, he has a Mercedes-Benz G 63 AMG 6x6 running perfectly despite that, six weeks ago, it looked like it would never set wheels on or off the road again.