Building a diesel powered RHD TJ Wrangler (Picture Heavy)

Hey TJers,

I've gotten more parts in for my water to air intercooler setup, but I'm still missing several pieces. In the process of installing the two intercoolers, I realized I had another intake for my Kubota V2403 that I could try installing for a single intercooler setup on my diesel swapped TJ Wrangler.

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Shipping on several key parts has been unbearably slow. Some of the items are just taking a long to time come across country, and other items, my heat exchanger, took the seller 5 business day to ship. They printed the label on a Monday morning and handed the package to Fedex on Friday afternoon. My heat exchanger was suppose to be here this past Monday, it's getting here next Tuesday.

So I decided to try to install as much as I could with the parts that I did have on hand. This consisted of just the intercoolers and the charge air piping for the intercoolers.

I first clocked the compressor housing on my Borg Warner K03 turbo and cut down the silicone hose to connect the turbo to what was going to be the first of two 4x6 barrel style water to air intercoolers.

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After that I started working on assembling the piping to come across the front of my diesel engine, I realized I had another front facing intake manifold for an 03 series Kubota diesel that I could try.

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The other thing I realized is that it would be very simple to change from a single intercooler setup to my original idea of a dual intercooler setup. So I'm going to try a single intercooler setup, see what happens and then I'll change if it's required!

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

Let me know what you think!
Thanks
Grant
 
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Hey TJers,

I decided to tackle the squealing serpentine belt system on my Kubota diesel swapped TJ Wrangler while I'm still waiting for the remaining intercooler parts to arrive.

I believe I was running into a few separate issues that were causing my belt to squeal at low RPM and idle.

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First and I think this was one of the bigger issues, I think my water pump pulley was not aligned correctly with the rest of the pulleys. I ended up putting a small washer behind the pulley to bring it out ever so slightly which seems to have fixed that issue.

Second I discovered my power steering pump was loose on the bracket and I was able to twist the entire pump a few degrees in either direction which wasn't helping with belt alignment.

Third which I believe to be the main cause of the squeal was the amount of deflection I was getting between the water pump pulley and the crankshaft pulley.

By adding a second idler pulley to the serpentine belt system, I was able to eliminate a large amount of deflection that was happening at idle and low RPM.


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While my goal was to get rid of the squeal in the serpentine belt system, I wasn't expecting how much smoother my Kubota V2403 seems to idle and run now. Even without the radiator on, everything on the TJ just seems quieter which I was expecting.

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

Thanks
Grant
 
Hey TJers,

Finally got the parts in to finish my first attempt at a water-to-air intercooler setup on my Kubota diesel swap TJ Wrangler. While it works better than I thought it would, it still needs more work!

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First off I want to say I know I mounted my heat exchanger upside down. I have since fixed it, but that was a comically dumb mistake on my part!

Second before everyone starts telling me I need to change this or that on my setup, I decided I would do this intercooler setup like science experiments. I want to see what setups work better and try to figure out why! I have about 4 ~ 5 different revisions and setups I can try!

In this setup I've got the following setup for my water-to-air intercooler setup:

Water Pump -> Heat Exchanger -> Intercooler -> Thermostat housing.

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So I'm currently sharing the coolant with both the intercooler and the engine, not ideal but I wanted to see if that would work at all!

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While I couldn't drive this long term in this setup, the intercooler did help reduce EGTs on my Kubota V2403, most notably during cruising. Before I had to keep letting out on the throttle, now as long as I'm mindful of my throttle I can cruise just fine.

The other thing that become apparent was how much more power the Wrangler felt like it had during cruise as well. The colder intake temperatures really changed how engine feels, it just seems happier!

So attempt #1 is finished, my next change will be switching from the 4x6 barrel intercooler to a 4x10 barrel intercooler!

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

Let me know what you think!
Thanks
Grant
 
Hey TJers,

I'm on my second setup for a water-to-air intercooler setup for my Kubota diesel swap TJ Wrangler. I went from a 4x6 to a 4x10 intercooler, and while it made a difference, I need more cooling capacity still! Separating the cooling loops next!

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Installing the 4x10 barrel style intercooler was a pretty straight forward process, had to trim one hose a little bit to get everything to fit correctly, but other than that, the new intercooler installed with almost no issues.

I did however realize in draining the loop that I made an amateur mistake with my heat exchanger for the intercooler. I had installed it with the drain plug facing upward.

After quickly rotating the heat exchanger 180°, I re-filled the loop and took the Wrangler out for a test drive.

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The first drive went okay, temperatures were much better, cruising in the 800° range on EGTs, but I was still hitting over 1000° on acceleration.

The second drive I tried turning the fuel screw out another ½ from my 2 turns out to add more fuel and my temperatures were immediately worse. I've seen this before and thought about going out another ½ out but decided against it.

On my final drive I turned the fuel screw back so I was 1½ turns out, so a full turn in from the previous test drive. This was the best combination so far, cruising was around the high 600°~ low 700° on EGTs but acceleration and hill climbs were still the not doable.

Next is to separate out the cooling loops for the engine and the intercooler. I should be getting the parts today so this weekend I can setup a dedicated cooling loop for the water-to-air intercooler and see how that affects my EGTs!

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

Thanks
Grant
 
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Hey TJers,

I'm on my third setup for a water-to-air intercooler setup for my Kubota diesel swap TJ Wrangler. I went back to my 4x6 intercooler, separated the two cooling loops and fixed a wastegate leak on my K03 turbo. Everything is better!

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Aside from having the parts I paid to get here on a Friday coming on Saturday at 5pm, everything went fairly smoothly.

I reinstalled the 4x6 intercooler just to see how it would perform with it's own cooling loop separated from the engine's cooling system.

After getting the Bosch water pump installed and the combo water reservoir/expansion tank, I had initially tried routing the system through my heater core but I had either a blockage in the heater core or too much air trapped in the loop to get good flow from the Bosch water pump. So for now I've bypassed the heater core.

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During my first test drive with the new setup I realized I was not producing the boost that I should have been with my K03 turbo. Turns out the way I had closed off the wastegate on the turbo was flexing and exhaust gas was bypassing my turbine wheel which was causing my to lose boost pressure.

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After getting that done I finally had the boost I was expecting to see and my EGTs were the best I had seen since I upgraded to this K03 turbo as well.

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Going to go back to the 4x10 intercooler next and try turning up the fuel to see if I can get more boost from my turbo as well!

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

Let me know what you think!
-Grant aka Rusty Autoholic Guy
 
Awesome job! You have way more patience that I do dialing in the turbo and fuel like that!! Unreal. And how you crammed all that hardware under the hood!? Great job....I'm very impressed ......

Thank you so much @Mike Alfano, in the end I'm just really stubborn and wanted this swap to work so I've kept at it, even though it's now taken 2 years for me to figure out!
 
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Hey TJers,

I've fixed my serpentine belt system on my Kubota diesel swapped TJ Wrangler. Thanks to the advice of several people, I got a laser alignment tool and have corrected the pulley alignment on my Kubota diesel engine.

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I've been fighting this serpentine belt system since I started this swap. Everything about this particular V2403 seems to be oddball.

Turns out I had several issues. 1st problem was my crankshaft pulley was exactly one rib off from the rest of the pulleys. It was actually too far in towards the motor.

The 2nd issue I was running into was having my two idler pulleys not perpendicular to my accessory drive bracket. This is what was causing me to throw belts off my water pump pulley.

Finally the 3rd issue, which I didn't discover until after I finished recording for this video was that my power steering pump pulley that I replaced with a GenRight Aluminum Pulley was actually warped. I'm not sure when that happened but that was not helping with belt alignment at all.

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I also replaced the accessory bracket with a new one where I had to weld the spacers for the idler pulleys to the bracket. This ensured that the idler pulleys would be perfectly perpendicular with the bracket and square with all the drive pulleys on my Kubota V2403.

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After getting everything installed, I actually took the Wrangler out the next morning driving without the cameras rolling and ended up driving my TJ about 60 miles. Hands down the best drive I've experienced so far with this swap.

Unfortunately when I got home to mount the cameras, I noticed I broke the mounting tabs off my aluminum water tank that I mounted to my motor mount plate. So I'll be fixing that next!

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

Let me know what you think!
Thanks
Grant
 
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Hey TJers,

Warning this is a double post because apparently I forgot to post my last update as well :oops:

The other weekend I broke 2 of the mounting tabs on my water tank for my water-to-air intercooler on my Kubota diesel swapped TJ Wrangler. Decided to try using aluminum brazing to fix my tank which worked surprisingly well!

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To repair my tank I decided to go the cheap route, and try my hand at aluminum brazing to repair the broken tabs on my water tank. There is a technique and a bit of finesse to brazing aluminum. After a bit of trial and error I was able to figure out the angle I need to apply the heat to the aluminum to get the metal heated correctly.

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After I soldered/brazed/welded (I've heard it call all three terms) the new aluminum mounting tabs on my tank, I would then put the tabs into my vice to bend them straight as well.

This worked as a strength test on the bond between the two pieces of aluminum and I was impressed with how solid my water tank feels now.

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I decided to move the tank forward and up a bit in my engine bay to give me a little bit more clearance however where I decided to mount the tank, the outlet for the water pump is now hitting some of my steering components.
So I ordered a ½ NPT to ¾ Hose Barb adapter that has a 90° bend so I can clear all my steering components.

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

OKAY Now onto the latest update!

This is by far the best my Kubota diesel powered TJ Wrangler has run to date. After installing the ½ NPT to ¾ Hose Barb adapter with a 90° bend on my water tank, I was able to put some miles on my swap!

I apologize for not having pictures, I got my 90° NPT adapter in a day early and completely forgot to take any pictures with my camera, instead I just installed it on my water tank and went for a test drive.

This was the first long drive I have done with my swap since I changed the serpentine belt system, replaced the power steering pump pulley with the GenRight pulley and adjusted the TCU to shift my transmission sooner to keep my cruising RPMs lower.

Below 50mph this swap is great, I can climb long grades with no issues at all now, I think my max EGT on a long climb was 1123° which was great.

Now for the over 50mph. I really think my torque converter is my issue here. I bought a low stall converter years ago without knowing what the exact stall speed was.

Right now when the TCU shifts my AW4 into overdrive, my RPMs go from about 2350rpm in 3rd gear lockup to 1610rpm in 4th gear unlocked. When I go to 4th gear lockup, my rpms drop only about 75rpm right now.

I believe this is majority of my issues going over 50mph right now. I do have another torque converter coming, it's a heavy duty torque converter but it's not a low stall converter. Let me know what you think!

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

Thanks
Grant
 
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Hey Grant. I just finished your most recent video and have to drop this here because it was stuck in my head the whole time I watched the video.

Great job BTW. It may make your life easier if you just deflate the tires when you reinstall the engine since you mentioned the increased tire size made it more difficult.
 
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Hey Grant. I just finished your most recent video and have to drop this here because it was stuck in my head the whole time I watched the video.

Great job BTW. It may make your life easier if you just deflate the tires when you reinstall the engine since you mentioned the increased tire size made it more difficult.

LOL that's awesome!!!!

Also just got my computer back up, it crashed shortly after I posted this morning so here is the most recent update!

It feels weird disassembling my Kubota Diesel powered TJ Wrangler after it was running so well. However for this swap to be done correctly, I'm swapping AW4 transmissions and torque converter to allow my diesel engine to be in it's ideal torque curve while in overdrive.

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The problem I'm fixing right now is being caused by two things. First my current torque convertor has too low of stall for my needs and second the overdrive ratio in my current AW4 is too low.

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My current torque convertor with it's low stall doesn't allow for enough slippage which is causing exact load on my diesel engine. This has two effects, one my RPM at 55mph is lower and second my EGTs are actually higher because the engine is having to work harder.

Then when you take a look at my early AW4 with 21-spline output, the .705 overdrive gear ratio is also reducing my RPM when I'm shifting in overdrive for both torque convertor lock up and unlocked.

The result is when I try to go 55mph I'm out of my ideal HP and torque range on my Kubota V2403. In 3rd gear TCC locked I'm around 2380rpm and in 4th gear TCC unlocked I'm around 1610rpm.

To solve this I bought another AW4, a late model 23-spline output with a .75 overdrive, and a heavy duty stock stall speed torque convertor for an AW4. This should bring up my rpm to around 1900rpm.

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

Thanks
Grant
 
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TAKE 2 of this Project

Hey TJers,

I started out my Kubota diesel swap with the goal of having a diesel powered Wrangler that was otherwise stock that would end up being my daily driver. Along the way my build evolved into an offroading build but I'm going back to my original plan.

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I will not be running my newly acquired AW4, the doubler from NorthWest Fab, the twin transfer case shifters from JB Custom Fabrications, Winters-Carr Shifter, Compushift TCU or the GenRight Aluminum console on my RHD TJ Wrangler.

Instead the new driveline is going to consist of my Kubota V2403, a Ford 6r80 6-speed automatic transmission, Quick 6 controller from USShift and my NP231 transfer case, with most of my stock interior going back into my Wrangler.

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I've had this dilemma ever since I got my 2005 LJ Rubicon about why I was trying to build a my RHD TJ to the point where my LJ already was. My ultimate goal is to have a lifted diesel powered overlanding rig that I can take anywhere, and the LJ is the better platform to build that onto compared to my RHD TJ for several reason.

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The 6r80 automatic transmission really is the ideal transmission for my Kubota diesel engine with it's 6 forward gears. More importantly it's two overdrive gears at .86 and .69 for highway and interstate speeds. It's 4.17 first is also going to be a nice addition while offroading as well.

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I just want to finish by saying this was not a decision I came to lightly, the doubler is awesome and I'll be installing that on my LJ in the future along with all the other parts I have removed from my TJ Wrangler.

If you have any more questions please feel free to ask! I really do enjoy talking to everyone about my swap and answering as many questions as I can!

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

Thanks
Grant
 
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Wow, big changes. Are you keeping the engine in the same spot or also moving the mounts so you can use a different cooling system setup?
 
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Wow, big changes. Are you keeping the engine in the same spot or also moving the mounts so you can use a different cooling system setup?

Keeping the engine where it is. My cooling seems to be handled at the moment and I would also have to redo my exhaust system as well which I rather not do. My goal is to get this done before the end of 2020 so I have some time to test it before trying to make my way out to Moab.

On the plus side my fuel economy on the way to Moab should increase with this 6r80 automatic transmission.
 
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Ever make a decision on your build and then you start wondering if you're doing the right thing? That pretty much sums up where I'm at right now with my build.

Also just realized I forgot to post my update from last week as well here. So in short, I installed the adapter to mate my Kubota diesel engine to my Ford 6r80 automatic transmission and had an issue where the engine didn't want to turn over correctly. Turned out that the crankshaft adapter was a little too thick.

I received the correct crankshaft adapter to mate my Kubota V2403 diesel engine to my Ford 6r80 transmission. Decided to do a complete test fit of the the engine and transmission with all fasteners before reinstalling them into my RHD TJ Wrangler.

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The difference in the depth of the two crankshaft adapters is only about .100" of an inch but completely resolved the binding issue I was having the last time I tried turning over the engine.

I also decided to test fit all fasteners as well by installing all the fasteners for both the bellhousing and torque converter. This was good as I found out one of the fasteners I got for the bellhousing was not long enough.

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The one neat feature of this adapter/transmission combination is I can now install the torque converter nuts from the side of the engine versus from underneath the engine. This allows me to use a deep well socket and socket wrench to fasten the torque converter to the flex plate.

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After test fitting everything, I removed the transmission to install thread lock on the bolts for the crankshaft adapter and then flex plate bolts before then torquing everything to spec.

Next I'll be reinstalling the diesel engine back into my Wrangler and installing the Ford 6r80 automation transmission to see if I have any clearance issues to my Wrangler tub.

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

Thanks
Grant aka Rusty Autoholic Guy
 
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You're running out of steam man, and I get it.

When I was forced to sell my last khaki TJ I promised I would never go through build like that again. It was so time consuming, and what I really wanted to be doing was driving and enjoying the vehicle, whereas most of the time I was working on it or it was in the shop.

So when I was in the market again, I decided that this time around I was either going to buy one and keep it very mild, or buy one that was already built to hell. Builds like this wear you thin eventually, I totally get that.

Hopefully you'll have it 100% done sometime in the near future. I'd much rather see you out driving and enjoying it.
 
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You're running out of steam man, and I get it.

When I was forced to sell my last khaki TJ I promised I would never go through build like that again. It was so time consuming, and what I really wanted to be doing was driving and enjoying the vehicle, whereas most of the time I was working on it or it was in the shop.

So when I was in the market again, I decided that this time around I was either going to buy one and keep it very mild, or buy one that was already built to hell. Builds like this wear you thin eventually, I totally get that.

Hopefully you'll have it 100% done sometime in the near future. I'd much rather see you out driving and enjoying it.

Hey @Chris I really appreciate it. In a way yes and in a way no. Having driven the diesel really helped restock me truthfully if that makes sense. I'm actually planning out my LJ Rubicon build right now, I want to have all the parts on hand so I can do that build in maybe 6 months vs the 2 years this build has taken. Though in-between building my LJ I'll be wheeling this TJ.

I guess what I'm wondering now is should I just go back to the AW4, install the new one I bought, install the new torque converter, re-install the doubler and run my build that way and just worry about going to the 6r80 transmission later?

It's the question of doing it right versus having it done now if that makes sense. I have no doubt in my mind that going to the 6r80 is going to give me the best performance out of my diesel engine, but I'm stuck waiting on alot of parts, where as I have everything for the AW4 right now.

The thought of going to Moab next year has really helped with all the crazy of 2020 and I'm not liking the idea of missing it because I was waiting on parts to come.

-Grant
 
Hey @Chris I really appreciate it. In a way yes and in a way no. Having driven the diesel really helped restock me truthfully if that makes sense. I'm actually planning out my LJ Rubicon build right now, I want to have all the parts on hand so I can do that build in maybe 6 months vs the 2 years this build has taken. Though in-between building my LJ I'll be wheeling this TJ.

I guess what I'm wondering now is should I just go back to the AW4, install the new one I bought, install the new torque converter, re-install the doubler and run my build that way and just worry about going to the 6r80 transmission later?

It's the question of doing it right versus having it done now if that makes sense. I have no doubt in my mind that going to the 6r80 is going to give me the best performance out of my diesel engine, but I'm stuck waiting on alot of parts, where as I have everything for the AW4 right now.

The thought of going to Moab next year has really helped with all the crazy of 2020 and I'm not liking the idea of missing it because I was waiting on parts to come.

-Grant

If it were me, I would get it running with the AW4 and get everything else working, then drive it until you get the 6R80 transmission and any of the other parts you need.

If you're stuck waiting on parts, you may as well go enjoy it.
 
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