Building a diesel powered RHD TJ Wrangler (Picture Heavy)

[RustyAutoholicGuy]

The new format where you stop to talk the camera every so often is nice by the way.

Thank you so much for that feedback! It's a little more tricky to film but WAY simpler to edit and post, maybe 75% time saved on editing which is huge!

I'm messing with you.

It will be tough with one person. A drone with a follow feature could be fun but $$. Hopefully you have a buddy that's into filming because it would be much easier. I think offroad videos though will prove to be extremely time consuming for editing though.

I've got a couple of ideas, like mounting several GoPros throughout the Jeep and getting a drone that has tree avoidance and can do a follow so I let it fly and not worry about it!

Grant
What brand electric fan can you recommend that I can use with the OEM rad , without major mounting mods ?

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That's a good question, I believe the Mishimoto fan will work but because my TJ was a RHD the mounts didn't line up correctly but it's super well built and moves a ton of air when I tested it, so that would have to be the one I recommend!

Thanks
Grant

 

[DETOUR]

Thank you so much for that feedback! It's a little more tricky to film but WAY simpler to edit and post, maybe 75% time saved on editing which is huge!



I've got a couple of ideas, like mounting several GoPros throughout the Jeep and getting a drone that has tree avoidance and can do a follow so I let it fly and not worry about it!



That's a good question, I believe the Mishimoto fan will work but because my TJ was a RHD the mounts didn't line up correctly but it's super well built and moves a ton of air when I tested it, so that would have to be the one I recommend!

Thanks
Grant

Grant
Thx a bunch !
- We’re a bit off the beaten track up here in Dawson Creek, and most everything needs to be brought in via freight companies , but on a happy note, there’s a large “carholic-community” up here and great “moral support”
Lol

 

[RustyAutoholicGuy]

Hey TJers,

Well @Chris I don't know if this counts BUT I have a running diesel RHD TJ Wrangler that now has filters on the intake and fuel, brakes that kind of work, an automatic transmission with just reverse and 1st gear, and I have to manually set the doubler and transfer case because I have no shifters installed yet . . . time to go wheeling!

With the doubler in high range and the NP231 4-Hi, my friend Jacob and I decided to take my Kubota diesel swapped TJ Wrangler offroading on my property! We were actually suppose to continue working on the Wrangler but the temptation to go on the small trail on my property was to great!

We had a blast, the little Kubota V2403 engine works fantastic and it's just given me even more motivation to get the entire project done!

Thanks
Grant

 

[Chris]

Hey TJers,

Well @Chris I don't know if this counts BUT I have a running diesel RHD TJ Wrangler that now has filters on the intake and fuel, brakes that kind of work, an automatic transmission with just reverse and 1st gear, and I have to manually set the doubler and transfer case because I have no shifters installed yet . . . time to go wheeling!

With the doubler in high range and the NP231 4-Hi, my friend Jacob and I decided to take my Kubota diesel swapped TJ Wrangler offroading on my property! We were actually suppose to continue working on the Wrangler but the temptation to go on the small trail on my property was to great!

We had a blast, the little Kubota V2403 engine works fantastic and it's just given me even more motivation to get the entire project done!

Thanks
Grant

It's alive!

That's awesome! I know that feeling too of just getting it started and taking it for a drive after an engine swap. Definitely one of the most rewarding feelings.

Of course now is the hard part, which is the last 10%. I know how that goes as well. Definitely the least fun part.

 

[RustyAutoholicGuy]

Hey TJers,

I really like the Goodyear Wrangler Radial 235/75r15 tire, it's probably one of my favorite tires ever. However when I installed the 1.25" body lift on my TJ Wrangler for my diesel swap, the tires suddenly looked too small.

So I traded for a set of Jeep Liberty Renegade 16x7 wheels, got a killer deal on a set of 5x 235/85r16 Vee Rubber Taiga All-Terrain tires and installed them on my Wrangler. I'm really happy with how the new wheels and tires transformed the look of the Wrangler!

Let me know what you think of the new wheels and tires!!

Thanks
Grant

 

[DETOUR]

Hey TJers,

I really like the Goodyear Wrangler Radial 235/75r15 tire, it's probably one of my favorite tires ever. However when I installed the 1.25" body lift on my TJ Wrangler for my diesel swap, the tires suddenly looked too small.

View attachment 150872

So I traded for a set of Jeep Liberty Renegade 16x7 wheels, got a killer deal on a set of 5x 235/85r16 Vee Rubber Taiga All-Terrain tires and installed them on my Wrangler. I'm really happy with how the new wheels and tires transformed the look of the Wrangler!

View attachment 150873

Let me know what you think of the new wheels and tires!!

Thanks
Grant

yupyup Grant
Not my personal preference though but
Lookin very good

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[RustyAutoholicGuy]

yupyup Grant
Not my personal preference though but
Lookin very good

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Thanks @DETOUR !!!

And I've got another update as well! Every project gets to the point where you have to do all the small stuff to get everything done and it's no different on my Kubota diesel swap RHD TJ Wrangler!

Several tedious odd & ends on the Wrangler were tackled including securing the return hose to the tub, attaching the coolant overflow tank to the radiator and then finally starting to map out the electrical wiring for the new digital gauges that will be installed on the Wrangler.

Nothing ground breaking but getting ever closer to getting the Wrangler inspected and back on the road!

Thanks
Grant

 

[RustyAutoholicGuy]

Hey TJers,

While I haven't been very vocal about it, the electric vacuum pump that I installed for my brake booster pulled barely enough vacuum in Hi range to stop the Wrangler, especially after going to the bigger wheels and tires.

After looking at several options I went with a Hydro Boost Brake Booster to give me power brakes on my TJ Wrangler! Since I was going to have to make new high pressure steering hoses during the install, I went ahead and replaced my worn out steering box with a rebuilt one from RedHead Steering Gears as well.

The whole install took me longer than I had originally thought it would, and I spent a good hour bleeding the system of all the air but I can say with confidence that the brakes ad steering are the best they have ever been on my RHD TJ Wrangler!

Thanks
Grant

 

[sourbluff]

Great read/watch! Really appreciate fact that you don’t edit out all the snafus.

I know was lot of work but the eco box looks really slick once got it buttoned up. What was your overall length for the box and np231? What was length of your rear driveshaft? May just be fact that was next to extended front but looked crazy short.

 

[L0jik]

I've been seeing this thread get updated and also been watching your videos. I came accross the video of your first drive on youtube or reddit and I didn't put 2 and 2 together. You said it took 510 days for it to get driving again; was that due to delays/working on it slowly; or is that genuinely how long it took to get the powertrain swapped in?

 

[RustyAutoholicGuy]

Great read/watch! Really appreciate fact that you don’t edit out all the snafus.

I know was lot of work but the eco box looks really slick once got it buttoned up. What was your overall length for the box and np231? What was length of your rear driveshaft? May just be fact that was next to extended front but looked crazy short.

So the eco box added I believe 7.5 inches to the length of the build and I moved the engine forward 6.5 inches forward. I installed a super short SYE kit on my NP231 and driveshaft I had from a Cherokee SYE setup was just a hair to long to use, so the driveshaft I want to say is right around 15", I would have to go out and measure it. I want to say it was about 2" longer than the factory rear drive shaft. I'm saying this and I might be totally off!

I've been seeing this thread get updated and also been watching your videos. I came accross the video of your first drive on youtube or reddit and I didn't put 2 and 2 together. You said it took 510 days for it to get driving again; was that due to delays/working on it slowly; or is that genuinely how long it took to get the powertrain swapped in?

Delays, working on it slowly, waiting for parts, life, family, work, all the other BS that gets in the way. It was at some point in November I got to a point where I was like "You know what I have cutters and welders, #(*$&#($ it I'm going to make this work! "

Part of it was also due to the fact that I've built something that has not been built before. I spent WAY too much time on the throttle linkage and the lift pump in the fuel tank BUT I had never done those before, now that I know how I did it, if I were to do it again it would go much faster. Alot of that 510 days were spent just learning how to do the work truthfully!

-Grant

 

[RustyAutoholicGuy]

Hey TJers,

Tackled adjusting the injection timing on my Kubota V2403 engine in my TJ Wrangler. The V2403 was set to around 5° of injection timing. To get a cleaner fuel burn along with more power and torque out of the diesel engine, I need to remove two shims to change the timing to around 15°.

All in all one of the easier things I have done on this Wrangler diesel swap!

Thanks
Grant

 

[RustyAutoholicGuy]

Hey TJers,

Installed an external voltage regulator for my alternator on my diesel swap TJ Wrangler. The brackets I had gotten from KubotaSwappers were originally designed for a XJ Cherokee and as such I'm using a Cherokee alternator which was regulated by an ECU which I don't have on my mechanical diesel powered Wrangler.

Once I confirmed the alternator was charging the battery, I then turned my attention to modifying the alternator so that I could get a "w" terminal so that I could have a tachometer reading for my diesel engine!

Turns out to be rather simple, you just need an adapter box that convert the signal to a normal tachometer signal!

Thanks
Grant

 

[RustyAutoholicGuy]

Hey TJers,

Over the past weekend I was driving my diesel powered TJ Wrangler on my property with my daughter having a blast. After about an hour of wheeling I realized I hadn't wired up the electric fan! Quickly checking the temperature with the help of my daughter, the engine was warm but not too hot at 205°. These Kubota engines really run cool!

So I went through all my stuff and found an adjustable electric fan controller I had bought years ago and wired the controller up to the Mishimoto electric fan on the Wrangler radiator.

I still need to set the temperature more accurately on the controller and more importantly install some instrumentation into my Jeep but who can say no to doing some offroading with their daughter on the weekends?

Thanks
Grant

 

[RustyAutoholicGuy]

Hey TJers,

I've had a horrible squick coming from my serpentine belt system for a while which I thought was caused by my power steering pump because I had run it low on power steering fluid.

The biggest clue that the cause of something else was the silver on the back of my serpentine belt. Turns out I had destroyed the bearing in my idler pulley which was causing the noise.

After getting another idler pulley and modifying my bracket for my alternator and power steering pump, I can now tension the serpentine belt with the alternator.

Let me know what you think!

Thanks
Grant

 

[RustyAutoholicGuy]

Hey TJers,

With the serpentine belt system fixed on my diesel swapped TJ Wrangler, I turned my focus to getting the HGM Electronics Compushift TCU installed for my AW4 automatic transmission.

First I had to install some additional sensors that the TCU needs to operate, specifically a MAP sensor and TPS (Throttle Position Sensor), both were very straight forward to install on the Kubota V2403 engine.

https://imgur.com/TmYyGvH

With the sensors installed I decided to uses the key switch power from the stereo, which I won't be using, as the power supply for the Compushift TCU and the Dakota Digital box which I'm using for an RPM signal.

https://imgur.com/k6wsWb1

I have to say I'm impressed with the Compushift TCU, it came pre-configured for my setup so in terms on initial configuration all I need to do was calibrate the TPS and I was ready to test the TCU!

However I ran into a problem when I realized my neutral safety switch was faulty which the Compushift TCU gave me an error code for. Still one step closer to having more than just reverse and first gear on this diesel Wrangler project!

Thanks
Grant

 

[Chris]

Very cool, it looks like you're slowly inching towards the finish line.

 

[RustyAutoholicGuy]

Very cool, it looks like you're slowly inching towards the finish line.

I hope so, I really want to get the Wrangler street legal again, I miss driving it, and I wasn't expecting the neutral safety switch to be bad on the transmission. I've enjoyed the build but I'm really looking forward to this being done at this point, I just want to be on the road and trails again! This is really the perfect example of a project that blew up in terms of what I had originally planned to do and what I ended up with!

-Grant

 

[RustyAutoholicGuy]

No Pictures or Video! However I just got back from my first test drive and I can now confirm I have all 4 forward gears out of my AW4 automatic! I've got a TON of tuning to do in the TCU, this diesel engine is going to have some interesting shift points that I need adjust and I really need to look at the downshift tables as well but IT LIVES!!!!

ALSO does anyone know where the trigger wire is for the reverse lights on a 2006 TJ Wrangler?

Thanks
Grant

 

[RustyAutoholicGuy]

Hey TJers,

It was nice to have a no thrills day of working on my TJ for a change. The neutral safety switch for my AW4 automatic transmission took about 4 days longer to arrive than what was estimated. Removing the old neutral safety switch and installing the new one was a relatively uneventful affair which was a welcome change of pace on this project.

With that done, I moved back to testing the Compushift TCU and was able to confirm that the TCU was able to see what gear was being selected for the transmission. The only other parameter that I needed to update was the VSS count. The default was 4 pulses per revolution and my early style AW4 only does 1 pulse per revolution.

This is needed so the TCU can calculator how fast the vehicle is moving. With that all set I took the diesel Wrangler out for a test drive and was able to confirm it was shifting through the first 3 gears! I need to play with the shift points on the TCU but I'm now days way from having this swap being done!

Thanks
Grant