The 1983 Bond film Never Say Never Again is allegedly named for a conversation star Sean Connery had in 1971 wherein he declared he’d never play James Bond again. It’s as much good-natured ribbing as it is solid advice, for both Connery and Expedition Motor Company as it rolls out its upgraded 1990 Mercedes-Benz 250GD Turbo Wolf.
“Turbo Wolf?”
Let us explain. The G-Wagen was originally designed for militaries, not rich people, and in the German military it was known commonly as the Wolf. It came with a naturally aspirated diesel engine and manual transmission, though civilian versions also offered a gasoline engine and an automatic.
EMC founder Alex Levin prefers the military version and, when we drove a Wolf back in 2021, he told us at the time he’d never do an engine swap, not even for another period-correct Mercedes-Benz engine. If it wasn’t offered in the first-generation G-Wagen, he wouldn’t even consider it.
A lot has changed in the last four years, including Levin.
This Turbo Wolf, as EMC calls it, features the Mercedes-Benz OM605 turbocharged inline five-cylinder diesel engine. Essentially the same engine as the OM602 originally fitted to the Wolf but with a turbocharger, it’s an engine Levin specifically said he wouldn’t do. What changed? Customer demand.
What the People Want
As much as Levin prefers his Wolves like Mercedes designed them, and as much as being abysmally slow is part of their charm, he’s running a business and part of that is responding to market demands. Overwhelming calls for more power changed his mind, so much so that you can now order a Chevy LS V-8 engine for your Wolf, as well.
The Turbo Wolf, though, feels like the right compromise. In fact, it feels natural, as if it had come from the factory this way. It’s a wonder Mercedes never offered this engine; it’s such a perfect fit.
This wasn’t a one-to-one swap, though. EMC had to build a custom skidplate under the front bumper to protect the intercooler the naturally aspirated original engine didn’t need. A new 3-inch stainless-steel exhaust system had to be designed and fabricated to connect to the turbo rather than the head. In addition, a custom airbox was fitted and a 3D-printed air intake was added to the passenger front fender just below the hood to feed it.
It’s not entirely stock upstream of the turbo, either. EMC has tuned it up to a healthy 225 hp and 300 lb-ft. A modern boost gauge takes the place of a block-off plate between the speedometer and tachometer. The boosted power is routed in this case through a Mercedes 722.6 five-speed automatic with a standalone transmission controller (the engine is entirely analog) on its way to the stock multispeed transfer case and all four wheels.
Goldlöckchen und die Wolf
The turbodiesel isn’t only the natural fit from a historical perspective, but the driver’s, as well. The unabashed sloth of the original Wolf is a part of its charm, and we appreciate historical accuracy and preservation as much as anyone. That said, the quoted 23-second 0–60 mph time and 70-mph top speed, both of which were optimistic, can just as easily been seen as a chore or worse in 2025.
The turbo fixes all that with a little help from the automatic transmission, all without really changing anything else. It’s still a period-correct Mercedes-Benz engine and transmission. It still clatters like a diesel (now with turbo whistle), and it’s still slow by modern standards. It’s just not nearly as slow as before and not slow enough to bother anyone. If anything, we’d call the newfound power and custom transmission tuning appropriate. It’s about as quick as you’d expect a truck like this to be and about as quick as you’d want it to be.
After all, it’s still a tall, boxy, military SUV on all-terrain tires. It still has recirculating ball steering, which has thankfully been rebuilt but is still slow. The polyurethane suspension bushings, Eibach springs (with a mild lift), and Bilstein shocks all contribute to improved handling, but this vehicle was never meant for high speeds or aggressive maneuvers. The turbocharger and newer automatic transmission (compared to the rest of the vehicle) just make it more comfortable merging into freeway traffic and climbing hills. Modern brakes make slowing down no problem at all.
