1999 Jeep Wrangler 2.2L Kubota diesel swap
- Thread starter redveloce
- Start date
On a related mileage note about the swap, I may see increased mileage soon.
I've been fighting charging problems and random electrical gremlins since shortly after I started driving it daily. In stock form, the PCM acts as the voltage regulator. It was having trouble keeping up with just the headlights and heater fan, and if the alternator cycled off for more than a few seconds at idle the PCM would freak out and completely shut down the charging circuit. I went through and cleaned all of my grounds (or so I thought), without making any difference. I eventually tested with two different used alternators, and one new one, then swapped to an external solid state voltage regulator.
This regulator worked for about two weeks, then all at once my tach needle started jumping all over the place, and all of the lights and accessories would constantly pulse with the regulator. The whole time, the voltage behavior never changed, swinging clear from almost 15v down to 12.5 depending on RPM and the pulsing of the alternator. I went through and cleaned the connections again, filed the battery clamps down, so they'd clamp tighter, and added a ground cable from the top alternator bolt to an existing ground location on the frame. This seemed to help for about a day, then it went back to the previous behavior, bringing us up to this weekend.
This weekend I made a trip to visit family, about 120 miles each way, and on the other side of a mountain pass. While over there, the pulsing became worse and worse, until cars actually started thinking I was flashing my headlights at them! AGAIN, I went through and cleaned all of the connections, then I swapped back the regulator duties back to the PCM, which wasn't pulsing as badly, so I could get home. Other than the annoying pulsing the drive home was uneventful, but when I started it to drive to work on Tuesday morning I noticed a loud squeaking noise from the engine compartment. Upon inspection, I found that the lower alternator bracket, an off the shelf GM F-style bracket, had snapped. I'd been trying to chase down a rhythmic high pitched squeak at idle since I started driving it, and apparently it was this bracket flexing against its self!
Tired of messing around, I had a full set of large gauge welding wire battery cables made, and acquired some mil-spec battery terminal clamps. Over the past two days I have completely rebuilt my alternator bracket, and replaced all of the cables. The alternator bolts to the top of the engine mount, which it did before, but now the bracket is PART of the engine mount, constructed of the same heavy steel and fully integrated instead of add-on. The mount is STOUT now!
I did not remove the charging harness when I did the engine swap, because the cables are harnessed together, and it wasn't necessary for clearance. When I removed the whole thing this time to replace the harness I found a large ground cable that I had somehow missed, hiding behind the engine wiring harness on the firewall. Doh! The location is such that when the hood is lifted, all of the great Seattle weather that has built up in the gap between the hood and cowl runs down right over the bolt. When I removed the bolt, I found all sorts of pretty green, red and white colors!
I went through, and used a small wire wheel to make all of the cable bolts and mounting surfaces shine, then used some anti-seize when connecting all of the new cables. Result? Success! The lights are bright, even at idle. Turning on the headlights, or accessories barely makes the needle twitch, and it's locked solid at somewhere around 14.5v. The pulsing is completely gone, and my oil pressure reads about 20% higher (it uses the common ground).
Additionally, there is an unexpected benefit. The engine is MUCH less labored! Idle is significantly quieter, and normal acceleration and cruising are easier, showing 1-2psi less boost during these conditions. The boost still responds instantly to the same levels as before when pulling a hill or getting on the throttle. I've figured out that the connection was so bad that the regulator was running the alternator at 100% most of the time before! I'm hoping this will also help give me a bit of a boost in mileage as well.
I've been fighting charging problems and random electrical gremlins since shortly after I started driving it daily. In stock form, the PCM acts as the voltage regulator. It was having trouble keeping up with just the headlights and heater fan, and if the alternator cycled off for more than a few seconds at idle the PCM would freak out and completely shut down the charging circuit. I went through and cleaned all of my grounds (or so I thought), without making any difference. I eventually tested with two different used alternators, and one new one, then swapped to an external solid state voltage regulator.
This regulator worked for about two weeks, then all at once my tach needle started jumping all over the place, and all of the lights and accessories would constantly pulse with the regulator. The whole time, the voltage behavior never changed, swinging clear from almost 15v down to 12.5 depending on RPM and the pulsing of the alternator. I went through and cleaned the connections again, filed the battery clamps down, so they'd clamp tighter, and added a ground cable from the top alternator bolt to an existing ground location on the frame. This seemed to help for about a day, then it went back to the previous behavior, bringing us up to this weekend.
This weekend I made a trip to visit family, about 120 miles each way, and on the other side of a mountain pass. While over there, the pulsing became worse and worse, until cars actually started thinking I was flashing my headlights at them! AGAIN, I went through and cleaned all of the connections, then I swapped back the regulator duties back to the PCM, which wasn't pulsing as badly, so I could get home. Other than the annoying pulsing the drive home was uneventful, but when I started it to drive to work on Tuesday morning I noticed a loud squeaking noise from the engine compartment. Upon inspection, I found that the lower alternator bracket, an off the shelf GM F-style bracket, had snapped. I'd been trying to chase down a rhythmic high pitched squeak at idle since I started driving it, and apparently it was this bracket flexing against its self!
Tired of messing around, I had a full set of large gauge welding wire battery cables made, and acquired some mil-spec battery terminal clamps. Over the past two days I have completely rebuilt my alternator bracket, and replaced all of the cables. The alternator bolts to the top of the engine mount, which it did before, but now the bracket is PART of the engine mount, constructed of the same heavy steel and fully integrated instead of add-on. The mount is STOUT now!
I did not remove the charging harness when I did the engine swap, because the cables are harnessed together, and it wasn't necessary for clearance. When I removed the whole thing this time to replace the harness I found a large ground cable that I had somehow missed, hiding behind the engine wiring harness on the firewall. Doh! The location is such that when the hood is lifted, all of the great Seattle weather that has built up in the gap between the hood and cowl runs down right over the bolt. When I removed the bolt, I found all sorts of pretty green, red and white colors!
I went through, and used a small wire wheel to make all of the cable bolts and mounting surfaces shine, then used some anti-seize when connecting all of the new cables. Result? Success! The lights are bright, even at idle. Turning on the headlights, or accessories barely makes the needle twitch, and it's locked solid at somewhere around 14.5v. The pulsing is completely gone, and my oil pressure reads about 20% higher (it uses the common ground).
Additionally, there is an unexpected benefit. The engine is MUCH less labored! Idle is significantly quieter, and normal acceleration and cruising are easier, showing 1-2psi less boost during these conditions. The boost still responds instantly to the same levels as before when pulling a hill or getting on the throttle. I've figured out that the connection was so bad that the regulator was running the alternator at 100% most of the time before! I'm hoping this will also help give me a bit of a boost in mileage as well.
Good to hear of hte electrol problem and correction!... it is always a pain to find electrol problems... my94 YJ has not wipers right now, is a fuse problem I think just no time to try to fix it..
And Yes, grecy and Redveloce the milage on my TJ is not fun. it used to get 15 to 18, but changing tires was the killer, 33x15.5 Fun Countrys at 20 psi really drag it down, and yes, changing the gears to 4:88's is much needed..... 5th gear is used on steep dounhill freeway runs only... It is my Daughters Jeep, she was only driving it around town, but she is now off to Collage and not driving so I need to change the gears before summer for her... I still really like the Kobota swap, that is one neet setup....
And Yes, grecy and Redveloce the milage on my TJ is not fun. it used to get 15 to 18, but changing tires was the killer, 33x15.5 Fun Countrys at 20 psi really drag it down, and yes, changing the gears to 4:88's is much needed..... 5th gear is used on steep dounhill freeway runs only... It is my Daughters Jeep, she was only driving it around town, but she is now off to Collage and not driving so I need to change the gears before summer for her... I still really like the Kobota swap, that is one neet setup....
Attachments
Here's a couple videos I took with the GoPro dash cam this morning.
This one is with the radio turned on, to try and give a comparison for how quiet it is inside.
This one is a good portion of my commute with lots of stops, a couple steep hills, and one 50mph acceleration.
This one is with the radio turned on, to try and give a comparison for how quiet it is inside.
This one is a good portion of my commute with lots of stops, a couple steep hills, and one 50mph acceleration.
Dave Schramm
New member
sure wish this thread was around b4 i sold my '92 YJ.....great build,love this idea.
Dan Grec
Expedition Leader
While googling for something slightly related, I stumbled on Redveloce's build thread on 4btswaps.com
http://www.4btswaps.com/forum/showthread.php?23480-V2203-DI-Jeep-Wrangler-TJ
It's a great read for anyone seriously considering a diesel swap. I can't believe how much crap you put up with, and kept going!
Great work.
One more question - you said you were thinking of the Cummins QSB3.3 originally - did you ever find out what quality of diesel it will run?
I know the all-mechanical B3.3 will burn anything, I'm wondering about the QSB version.
-Dan
http://www.4btswaps.com/forum/showthread.php?23480-V2203-DI-Jeep-Wrangler-TJ
It's a great read for anyone seriously considering a diesel swap. I can't believe how much crap you put up with, and kept going!
Great work.
One more question - you said you were thinking of the Cummins QSB3.3 originally - did you ever find out what quality of diesel it will run?
I know the all-mechanical B3.3 will burn anything, I'm wondering about the QSB version.
-Dan
Dan - I was considering the mechanical version. I'm not sure what the QSB can run, but I wanted to stay away from common rail. I have a link somewhere to a huge topic from a guy that put a mechanical 3.3 in a YJ that I can send you. People kept adding their builds to it after he was done, and at least one was a QSB.
Edit - I bet you understand the subject line for this discussion now!
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD
Edit - I bet you understand the subject line for this discussion now!
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD
Dan Grec
Expedition Leader
Why avoid the common rail?
I'm thinking the QSB might get better efficiency, although it's not be worth it if it can't burn fryer oil.
After spending hours reading through your thread, I found the exact one you are talking about and I'm only on page 19 of 70+ after hours.
www.dieseltruckresource.com/dev/b3-3t-jeep-yj-t112807.html
For all the Diesel talk here on Expo, I can't believe I've never seen a link to that thread before.
The guy put the B3.3 into his YJ with an AX15, gets 32-35MPG and estimates his total cost to be $5000-$6000.
Holy cow.
EDIT: So tempted to buy a 2007 JKU Rubicon with a dead 3.8 right now....
-Dan
Complexity and expense. The simplicity and reliability of a mechanical diesel were a large part off why I decided to do the swap.
My brother manages a fleet, and they've had a lot of problems with the fuel injectors in the common rail engines going bad. The injectors often cost more than I paid for my engine for each injector...
They have their place, but an electronic engine was counter to my goals.
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My brother manages a fleet, and they've had a lot of problems with the fuel injectors in the common rail engines going bad. The injectors often cost more than I paid for my engine for each injector...
They have their place, but an electronic engine was counter to my goals.
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Dan Grec
Expedition Leader
I would have loved to, but the only ones I could find were over $6000!
I looked into the Kubota 3.3, but prices weren't much better, and they were even more rare.
I ended up paying around $1400 for all 3 Kubotas.
Its looking good so far, but if I ever feel the need for a bigger engine it will be a Deutz air cooled. I'll have one of those in something someday! I'm thinking an old Winnebago...hmm... the wife is going to kill me
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deutz air cooled? now were talking.
i suppose were talking about the 3-4 cylinder inline's right?
If I ever put one in the Jeep, it would be a 3 or 4 cylinder. I'd likely get something and build it for turboing before doing a swap.
I haven't completely decided yet. One is an indirect injection engine that I bought as a core (was hydrolocked). That is at my machinist friend's place. He used it to mock up the adapters. The other is my first direct injection engine that melted down in the first 50 miles, likely from ring tolerance issues. My current engine has the same setup, but more fuel, and runs much cooler. I may rebuild it at some point, adding piston oil sprayers, etc. The injectors from this engine are at an injector shop right now, and they're seeing if there is any improvement that can be made in this area on these engines.