There’s lots of banter around that the OM473 is essentially a Detroit Diesel DD16.

Ask those who know and they’ll tell you, ‘Nothing could be further from the truth’.

Regan Corbett, workshop supervisor for Trucks and Trailers, sums it up best. “It’s like two people saying they’re
identical twins but have a different mother – it’s impossible.”

At best it’s akin to a distant cousin relationship. Both engines share the same block ‘design’, and according to Regan there’s a commonality in some design aspects of the turbo compounding.

But the reality is the engines were designed and are manufactured on opposite sides of the Atlantic, and although many parts appear similar, none is interchangeable. 

“There’s no part you could order for either one and put on the other,” says Regan.