Building a diesel powered RHD TJ Wrangler (Picture Heavy)

[RustyAutoholicGuy]

Hey TJers,

No video this post, I will have it ready sometime this week. After a long hard battle, I have all my shifters installed and mounted. This was neither easy nor quick like I had hoped it would be. Be warmed large photos posted below:

The GenRight Aluminum tunnel cover is great and a CHALLENGE to install. Some of the stock holes lined up and others you had to drill. What makes it difficult is the piece of metal you get from them is flat, so as you install more of it and the piece beginning to curve the more difficult it is to work with.

Here are how the shifters are going to be laid out. I actually really like how the transfer case shifter pattern is laid out now. It's 4Lo-N-4Hi-2Hi which in a way I like because now the shifter is always pointing to the axle(s) that have power going to them. Minor but I like the way it's setup.

Lastly I ended up having to re-do my transmission shifter cable. I had to modify the both the Winter's shifter and the mount on the side of the AW4 automatic. Modifying the two allowed me to run a shorter cable to the transmission and I was able to route the all three shifter cables so that they don't hit each other, the driveshafts or the exhaust which is awesome.

Next up is to mount the Compushift TCU, wire in the tachometer, speedometer, and fuel level gauges, and then finally connect the reverse lights to the TCU and re-install the horn. At that point I'm going to get the Wrangler inspected finally!!!

Let me know what you think! Also let me know if you like the more in depth post with pictures and a post later with the video!

Thank you so much TJers!
-Grant

 

[Apparition]

Hey TJers,

No video this post, I will have it ready sometime this week. After a long hard battle, I have all my shifters installed and mounted. This was neither easy nor quick like I had hoped it would be. Be warmed large photos posted below:

The GenRight Aluminum tunnel cover is great and a CHALLENGE to install. Some of the stock holes lined up and others you had to drill. What makes it difficult is the piece of metal you get from them is flat, so as you install more of it and the piece beginning to curve the more difficult it is to work with.

Here are how the shifters are going to be laid out. I actually really like how the transfer case shifter pattern is laid out now. It's 4Lo-N-4Hi-2Hi which in a way I like because now the shifter is always pointing to the axle(s) that have power going to them. Minor but I like the way it's setup.

Lastly I ended up having to re-do my transmission shifter cable. I had to modify the both the Winter's shifter and the mount on the side of the AW4 automatic. Modifying the two allowed me to run a shorter cable to the transmission and I was able to route the all three shifter cables so that they don't hit each other, the driveshafts or the exhaust which is awesome.

Next up is to mount the Compushift TCU, wire in the tachometer, speedometer, and fuel level gauges, and then finally connect the reverse lights to the TCU and re-install the horn. At that point I'm going to get the Wrangler inspected finally!!!

Let me know what you think! Also let me know if you like the more in depth post with pictures and a post later with the video!

Thank you so much TJers!
-Grant

Looking good!

 

[RustyAutoholicGuy]

Hey TJers,

Here are some more photos of my shifter install and the video as well:

Thanks
Grant

 

[RustyAutoholicGuy]

Hey TJers,

So I got my diesel swapped Right Hand Drive TJ Wrangler to pass inspection this morning!

Video of that will be on Friday! Here is what I worked on over the weekend:

Worked on some of the little things that I need working to pass my state inspection on my Wrangler, such as horn, reverse lights, and then turned my attention to mounting my TCU.

The horn was very simple, just reconnect the horn to the engine bay harness and reattach the steering wheel and call it done.

The reverse/back up lights took longer only because I spent so much time referencing a schematic and tracing the wire, on my 2006 a white with light green strip to make sure I only cut once.

The rest of the time I spent mounting my Compushift TCU and Dakota Digital Signal Interface unit to the side panel of my GenRight aluminum console for easy access!

Here's the video if you want to watch it:

Let me know what you think!
-Grant

 

[Alex01]

Looking good. Can't wait for the MPG test.

 

[RustyAutoholicGuy]

Looking good. Can't wait for the MPG test.

Me too though I'm going to have to say my statement that I wouldn't have to turn up the fuel or boost to drive it is about 50% true. On flat ground it does fine and will get up to 55mph . . . eventually. Climbing a hill I'm about limited to 25mph right now

 

[Alex01]

Me too though I'm going to have to say my statement that I wouldn't have to turn up the fuel or boost to drive it is about 50% true. On flat ground it does fine and will get up to 55mph . . . eventually. Climbing a hill I'm about limited to 25mph right now

So that bigger turbo is getting ordered sooner than you thought I'm guessing.

 

[BuildBreakRepeat]

So that bigger turbo is getting ordered sooner than you thought I'm guessing.

Right now it’s a proper tractor

 

[RustyAutoholicGuy]

So that bigger turbo is getting ordered sooner than you thought I'm guessing.

Um . . . yeah I don't think I need to order one . . . or two . . .

Right now it’s a proper tractor

it's always going to be tractor!!!

I just got off the phone with KubotaSwappers, I'm going to hookup my EGT and Boost gauges to see what boost and EGT I'm at currently. We're estimating 4PSI of boost (because of the waste-gate) and around 600° for EGT, and I can safely tune to 1000° of EGT without ever harming the motor, really more like 1100° but I don't have it fully packed with all my gear in it yet. So I'll be doing that today and trying to see how much more horsepower and torque I can get out of the little Kubota diesel engine!

 

[RustyAutoholicGuy]

Hey TJers,

After working on getting a speedometer installed and resolving an issue with my Compushift TCU and Dakota Digital box not getting power, I went and got my Kubota diesel swapped TJ Wrangler inspected for state's annual safety inspection!

I going to be running Intellitronix digital gauges because I want very clear information presented to me. I don't like have speedometers that go to 160mph if the max speed I'm going to be doing is 75mph, it's a waste of space in my opinion.

After I finished wiring in the speedometer I went to adjust my Dakota Digital Signal Interface box and discovered it wasn't getting 12V power anymore. To resolve the issue I switched my source for the 12V hot but I still haven't figured out why my original 12V stopped working.

After getting my Wrangle my tank of diesel fuel and headed back home! While you can drive this diesel powered Wrangler with 65hp and 120/lbs of torque, you really only want to do so on flat land with a tail wind! Time to turn up the boost and fuel!


Here's the video if you want to watch it:

Thanks
Grant

 

[RustyAutoholicGuy]

OH @Chris we were talking about clickbait thumbnails, turns out I can do them! Made one just for you and everyone else that hates clickbait:

 

[Chris]

OH @Chris we were talking about clickbait thumbnails, turns out I can do them! Made one just for you and everyone else that hates clickbait:

View attachment 161502

There needs to be some annoyingly large text (with an annoying font) on top too

 

[RustyAutoholicGuy]

There needs to be some annoyingly large text (with an annoying font) on top too

Crap you're right! Is this better?

 

[Chris]

Crap you're right! Is this better?

View attachment 161503

Hahaha! now you've figure it out. You've even got the stupid look on your face like some of these guys purposely do in their cover photos.

Total clickbait for sure!

 

[RustyAutoholicGuy]

Hey TJers,

After temporarily installing my Intellitronix boost and EGT gauges I started recording boost and EGTs before turning up both the fuel and adjust the waste-gate on the turbo on my Kubota V2403 in my RHD TJ Wrangler.

So far I'm really happy with the Intellitronix digital boost and EGT gauges, they are bright, easy to ready and update very quickly! Having this information has already really helped with getting more power out of my Kubota V2403 diesel engine!

To test the fuel and boost I took the Wrangler to a long uphill near my house, come to a full stop at the bottom of the hill and flooring the throttle to put the maximum load on the diesel engine and turbo.

I was getting better performance each run until at the end of the my last run my radiator failed right after I pulled the Wrangler back into my shop!

Let me know what you think!
-Grant

 

[Wildman]

On my Cummins engine I can run at 1,000* with no problem and as long as I keep it under 1,300* it's good. Now you're not supposed to run it for a long time over 1,200* but when pulling a hill you can. I've ran up to 45 psi of boost before. I've ran a few different tuners to help with the increased performance.

Looking great.

 

[RustyAutoholicGuy]

Hey TJers,

I thought I had busted my radiator because I never bleed the cooling system but turned out the overheating issue was s stuck thermostat on my TJ Wrangler.

Having a Right Hand Drive TJ is awesome but there are times getting parts can be difficult. Radiator replacements is one of those items. In a TJ Wrangler the radiator is offset away from the power steering box. Luckly as long as you get a radiator where the mounting brackets are bolted to the radiator, you can just swap your brackets over.

Turns out the issue with my cooling system was a stuck shut thermostat. This was made clear when I finally removed the original thermostat and it was marked as a 71° Celsius or about 159° Fahrenheit. Over a year ago I had replaced the thermostat housing with one that made a sharp 90° bend for hood clearance. When I replaced the housing I should have replaced the thermostat at the same time and I didn't.

Without having another thermostat readily available, my best friend Ronnie told me about an old hot rodder trick using a fender washer. Essentially you can replace a thermostat with a fender washer of the same diameter and it works better than having an open cooling system. Essentially the hole in the center of the fender washer restricts coolant flow enough to allow the coolant to scavenge motor heat out of the block to allow for better cooling. While this will affect heat in winter, I'm back on the road for now!

Thanks
Grant

 

[RustyAutoholicGuy]

Hey TJers,

I think I solved the vibration that I was feeling at speeds coming from the rear of my diesel swapped TJ Wrangler.

I've never had to deal with driveline vibrations at speed so this was a new one for me. At first I thought it was because my transfer case seemed to not be pointing directly at my rear axle.

I fixed that by drilling some new holes into my doubler and transfer case mounting bracket that attached to my cross-member which helped a lot! While testing this fix, I attached my GoPro to my frame so I could see what my rear driveshaft was doing and was completely surprised by how much my transfer case was bouncing around!

So I decided to investigate what could be causing that and it turned out to be weak bushings that I had installed on my crossmember I had fabricated. Replaced the inferior bushings with a set of polyurethane bushings designed for a 70s Chevy truck leaf spring and my vibrations at cruising speeds seems to be resolved!

Here's the video if you want to watch it:

Let me know what you think!
-Grant

 

[RustyAutoholicGuy]

Hey TJers,

I finally have a full set of working Intellitronix digital gauges in my diesel swapped TJ Wrangler.

Overall it was a pretty easy process of wiring up the gauges. If anything is was more time consuming to use heat shrink shield connectors than anything else but, I can easily disconnect all my gauges if I need to!

The one gauge that gave me problems, at no fault of the digital gauge, was my fuel level gauge. I had installed a Dodge Cummins lift pump into my diesel TJ Wrangler. Everywhere I looked online said that it was 73ohms empty and 10ohms full.

When I went to connect the sensor wire to my gauge the gauge never moved off of empty. When I connected a multimeter to the sensor wire I was getting around 78ohms, so I thought maybe it was a GM style of 0ohms empty and 90ohms full.

Because of the way you have to configure this Intellitronix digital fuel gauge, you have two wires you can cut to change what it's ohm range is, I decided to order another lift pump, which I'm keeping as a spare. Turns out the range is 233ohm empty and 33ohm full.

With that sorted I have a full set of working Intellitronix digital gauges in my diesel swap TJ Wrangler, though I still need to calibrate my speedometer, I'll do that soon!

Here's the video if you want to watch it:

Thanks
Grant

 

[RustyAutoholicGuy]

Hey TJers,

I now have a calibrated speedometer in my diesel swap RHD TJ Wrangler and was able to get it up to 60mph before running into more cooling system issues.

Here's the video if you want to watch it:

With my TJ I have two ways I can calibrated the speedometer. I could calibrated it on the Intellitronix gauge itself or I could calibrated through my CompuShift TCU. I opted for the TCU as it would be easier to keep the speedometer calibrated in future if I ever change gear ratios in my axles or tire sizes.

After getting the speedometer as close to accurate as I could, I went back to doing tuning the injection pump on my Kubota V2403 turbo diesel engine. I turned the fuel screw on my injection pump out another ½ turn which the little diesel engine seemed to really like.

What I noticed on my test drive with this latest adjustment was lower EGTs with the fuel screw turned out 2½ and higher maximum boost with a peak at 16psi. I was really happy to see the lower EGTs at cruising speeds, especially compared to when I had the fuel screw turned out 2 turns.

I believe the additional ½ turn added just enough fuel to spin the turbo slightly more at lower loads which in turn pushed more air into the cylinder which then allowed the EGTs to be lower.

However after driving the my Wrangler for a while I noticed my coolant temperatures once again getting too high so I'll be disassembling the cooling system soon to hopefully put all these cooling issues behind me so I can get more miles on my diesel swapped RHD TJ Wrangler.

Thanks
Grant