Hey TJers,
I think I have finally fixed my cooling system issues on my Kubota diesel swapped RHD TJ Wrangler. I replaced the water pump, thermostat and housing while also discovering another problem being the location of my temperature sensor!
Here's the video if you want to watch it:
I never would have predicted that the biggest hurdle in this swap was going to be getting the cooling system to work correctly. I've always been told and read about how thermally efficient this Kubota diesel engines were so I never thought about having cooling system problems!
While I want to say the location of my sensor was part of my problem, I had to other issues as well that contributed to my cooling system functionality.
First I was not running a thermostat. I had replaced my original faulty thermostat with a fender washer because I wanted to keep driving my diesel swapped TJ to get as many miles on it as possible. The problem with that is the coolant would become saturated in terms of temperature. New thermostat fixed that!
The second issue I was running into was having the wrong ratio of coolant concentrate to water. I've always just ball-parked the coolant to water ratio in my vehicles. In talking with KubotaSwappers, I learned that while coolant is great for preventing water from freezing, it reduces the cooling systems ability to cool the engine, it's a trade off. So I changed the ratio of coolant concentrate to water and I can tell you it's working much better!
My final issue was not getting a proper coolant temperature reading from my sensor. I had installed a brass fittings to create a "T" system for my coolant temperature sensor and switch. What I didn't think about was how that was a dead end system, meaning that coolant was getting no flow. That means the coolant around my temperature sensor was getting saturated with heat and not giving me an accurate reading of how hot the Kubota diesel engine was running.
To fix this I moved the coolant temperature sensor behind number #4 cylinder which would be the hottest place on the Kubota V2403 engine block. I'm now getting both an accurate reading of the coolant in the motor AND the sensor is seeing constant flow so I don't have to worry about coolant getting saturated with heat.
Let me know what you think!
Thanks
Grant aka Rusty Autoholic Guy!
I think I have finally fixed my cooling system issues on my Kubota diesel swapped RHD TJ Wrangler. I replaced the water pump, thermostat and housing while also discovering another problem being the location of my temperature sensor!
Here's the video if you want to watch it:
I never would have predicted that the biggest hurdle in this swap was going to be getting the cooling system to work correctly. I've always been told and read about how thermally efficient this Kubota diesel engines were so I never thought about having cooling system problems!
While I want to say the location of my sensor was part of my problem, I had to other issues as well that contributed to my cooling system functionality.
First I was not running a thermostat. I had replaced my original faulty thermostat with a fender washer because I wanted to keep driving my diesel swapped TJ to get as many miles on it as possible. The problem with that is the coolant would become saturated in terms of temperature. New thermostat fixed that!
The second issue I was running into was having the wrong ratio of coolant concentrate to water. I've always just ball-parked the coolant to water ratio in my vehicles. In talking with KubotaSwappers, I learned that while coolant is great for preventing water from freezing, it reduces the cooling systems ability to cool the engine, it's a trade off. So I changed the ratio of coolant concentrate to water and I can tell you it's working much better!
My final issue was not getting a proper coolant temperature reading from my sensor. I had installed a brass fittings to create a "T" system for my coolant temperature sensor and switch. What I didn't think about was how that was a dead end system, meaning that coolant was getting no flow. That means the coolant around my temperature sensor was getting saturated with heat and not giving me an accurate reading of how hot the Kubota diesel engine was running.
To fix this I moved the coolant temperature sensor behind number #4 cylinder which would be the hottest place on the Kubota V2403 engine block. I'm now getting both an accurate reading of the coolant in the motor AND the sensor is seeing constant flow so I don't have to worry about coolant getting saturated with heat.
Let me know what you think!
Thanks
Grant aka Rusty Autoholic Guy!