1999 Jeep Wrangler 2.2L Kubota diesel swap
- Thread starter redveloce
- Start date
jeffjeeptj
Adventurer
"I had a really close drag race with a Prius ".
I really like your ingenuity. Looks like a good selection of pieces.
Your Prius statement made me laugh in a big way. 1. Because i have a friend whose wife has a Prius and thinks it is fast and
2. when I was first driving I had an Austin Sprite with a 948cc motor (48hp) and one night I was racing a Karmann-Ghia. We both knew we were racing from the stoplight, but the police that stopped us for speeding (45 in a 35) did not.
I really like your ingenuity. Looks like a good selection of pieces.
Your Prius statement made me laugh in a big way. 1. Because i have a friend whose wife has a Prius and thinks it is fast and
2. when I was first driving I had an Austin Sprite with a 948cc motor (48hp) and one night I was racing a Karmann-Ghia. We both knew we were racing from the stoplight, but the police that stopped us for speeding (45 in a 35) did not.
Hill Bill E.
Oath Keeper
Nice! I could live with that performance, especially considering the low end torque it must have.
The videos make it look slower than it feels. The torque is great! I would say that 80% of the time it pulls better when and where I need it than the 6 cylinder did. It's turning around 2100RPM @ 60MPH in 5th.
I got by the DOT scale today. It's actually a bit heavier than I expected, but still at least 200LBS lighter than with the 6 cylinder IIRC. That's with a bit over 1/2 tank of fuel, tool bag, extra coolant, oil, and power steering fluid.
NothingClever
Explorer
I wish I had the depth of skills to simply imagine the possibilities which you skillfully put into action.
Great work, IMO.
For those bothered by habitual trash talkers and drama queens on the forum, click on their forum name, navigate to their profile and select "Add to ignore list". That will help tidy up your forum-surfing experience.
Great work, IMO.
For those bothered by habitual trash talkers and drama queens on the forum, click on their forum name, navigate to their profile and select "Add to ignore list". That will help tidy up your forum-surfing experience.
CTD-WAGGY
New member
very nice! I like that overflow can too! I might have to steal that idea for mine. I bought one of those cheap plastic ones from the auto parts store, but I'm not happy with it mounting or size/shape.
Did you add the turbo to this engine or was it removed in the first pic? What is that inter cooler from and do you know how much pressure it will take? I'm running around 20psi so that means the ricer cooler won't work and the truck units are too large to fit in the small space I have at the front of my wagon.
Let us know how much mileage you are getting.
edit: I wrote this before I noticed there were 8 pages!!
Did you add the turbo to this engine or was it removed in the first pic? What is that inter cooler from and do you know how much pressure it will take? I'm running around 20psi so that means the ricer cooler won't work and the truck units are too large to fit in the small space I have at the front of my wagon.
Let us know how much mileage you are getting.
edit: I wrote this before I noticed there were 8 pages!!
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Steal away! I need to get a water bottle holder so that I can get rid of the zip ties. I just drilled a hole for the appropriate size hose barb for the radiator overflow near the bottom of the bottle, and threaded it in with some Loctite to help seal the threads. For the breather, I drilled another hole just smaller than the hose near the top, and used a large drift to first dimple the hole so it wouldn't cut the hose, then to angle the it more downward so the hose wouldn't kink. A 90 degree barb would have worked a lot better than the one I used, but I was tired of fighting with the huge stock bottle and just made this one in the spur of the moment with what I had on hand.
Wow, I can really see in this picture that I need to get in there with the pressure washer to get that metal dust from some of my more recent fabricating out of there!
The turbo is a Mitsubishi TD04L from an '04 WRX.
I got the intercooler for $40 off of craigslist. Core size is approximately 12"x6" with 2.25" outlets. I don't recall the core thickness offhand. It's supposedly from CXRacing, but I can't find anything exactly like it on their site. It was brand new though.
Thanks Dan! I followed your adventure a few years back with great jealousy!
Dan Grec
Expedition Leader
Thanks! My TJ had the 2.5 4cyl and I'll bet it had less torque than your 2.2 diesel. Sure it was a dog up and down the Andes, but it got me where I needed to go with a steady 20mpg.
I would love a little diesel with similar torque and close to 30mpg.
I'm in the very early stages of planning the next adventure, and I'm always interested in seeing diesels in Wranglers.
I really, really want a diesel if I go in a Wrangler again.
I didn't see any mention of the gas tank/lines/pump.
Did you do anything to those for diesel, or are they all just stock?
Thanks!
-Dan
The hard lines were relatively easy. The factory loom along the frame has an extra opening, so I was able to pick up a second hard line from a local Jeep wrecker for $20 and snap it right in the loom for my return line.
The fuel tank took a bit more work. I replaced the factory pump and regulator with a couple DrawStraws from Vulcan Performance. I reused the factory basket with the sender. The pickup is inside the basket, and the return is outside. It took a bit of grinding and fiddling to make everything fit correctly. I also had to knock the plastic insert out of the filler neck so that the diesel fill nozzles will fit.
Here's the original setup with the basket removed.
Here it is assembled with the DrawStraws. I forgot to get a picture of the DrawStraw setup without the basket installed.
And here it is installed in the tank.
The fuel tank took a bit more work. I replaced the factory pump and regulator with a couple DrawStraws from Vulcan Performance. I reused the factory basket with the sender. The pickup is inside the basket, and the return is outside. It took a bit of grinding and fiddling to make everything fit correctly. I also had to knock the plastic insert out of the filler neck so that the diesel fill nozzles will fit.
Here's the original setup with the basket removed.
Here it is assembled with the DrawStraws. I forgot to get a picture of the DrawStraw setup without the basket installed.
And here it is installed in the tank.