I'm looking at repairing the oil cooler leaks in the last weekends of October and into November. The oil cooler is literally the first thing installed in the OM642 valley when the engine is built, so R&R'ing it requires removing EVERYTHING in the valley: fuel rails, fuel filter, intake manifolds & associated junk, turbo, turbo pedestal/Y-pipe, wiring and a bazillion little brackets and fiddly things that Germans love to come up with.
The OM642 and later OM648's have "swirl flaps" in the intake runners. The actuator that moves these swirl flaps is mounted below the intake manifolds... and fails. Replacing them requires manifold removal. People eliminate them completely with no ill effects, so I'm looking at doing that as a preventive at the same time as I replace the oil cooler seals. Eliminating the swirl flaps requires plugging the holes in the manifolds used by the shafts that turn the flaps. There is an outfit that will clean up the manifolds, remove the swirl flaps and weld the holes up... on an exchange basis. While I'm looking at getting an extra set of manifolds, the exchange basis may require having the Jeep down for a while.
There are two different types of manifolds. The 2007-2009 manifolds (that I have) have a large EGR thingy integral with the back end of one of the manifolds and no water connection for a water cooled turbo. The 2010+ manifolds do not have the giant EGR thingy, but have a turbo water connection. The location of the turbo water connection looks like it will interfere with the Jeep compressor outlet tube to the intercooler. If I decide to swap manifolds to ditch the EGR, then I may need to cut off and weld up the turbo water connection. I was hoping I could just cap it so I could some day upgrade to a water cooled turbo
I also don't know what other parts changed from the '07-'09 engines to the '10 engines with regard to EGR. If I ditch EGR, I'll also need a tune in order to turn off the check engine light...
I'm also looking at getting a ~30L eBay/Offshore ultrasonic cleaner for dealing with some of these icky grimy parts that will come off the Jeep.
So yay for another 12+ hours of labor for a $3 part buried deep inside a major assembly of the vehicle.
Edit: Also looking at resealing valve covers while I have everything apart. It looks like the right side valve cover is leaking at its right rear corner, thanks to the right bank up pipe wrapping around it to go to the turbo and the turbo down pipe wrapping around it to go to the catalyst just a little lower on the firewall. Might as well wire brush the valve covers and have them clear Cerakoted to stay shiny