Loss of power in an old turbo diesel. What could it be?

[Mike Brown]

Lately I have been feeling that my truck Is a little sluggish. It has a mechanical fuel pump and is turbo charged Mercedes OM617 but does not pull nowhere near as hard as the one in my friends truck.

What could this be down to? The engine seems to be healthy with good compression, so I want to rule out the simple stuff first

 

[Africanoverlander]

Well it can be a lot of things. However, I would start by checking simple stuff such as the rubber turbo lines. if any of them are perished you may be loosing a lot of performance from there

 

[Dirt lover]

It may be worth checking that you injector pump timing is correct. if it is wrong you may loose power sometimes.