1993 Jeep YJ Kubota Swap
 

I'm in the parts gathering stage of my build, which is dropping a Kubota V2203 DI out of a reefer into a 1993 Jeep Wrangler (YJ). I'll be outlining as much as I can and try to explain this stuff as best I can. Shout out to FTE, Redveloce, and xjdiesel for helping me get some stuff straightened out and helping me figure out what I'm getting myself into :w2:

Here's the Jeep, which has been lovingly named 50 Shades of Black. You can't tell by the pictures, but there's about every shade of black that has ever came in a rattle can on it. It's a bone stock 2.5L 4 cylinder with 148XXX miles and counting, with the AX5 5 speed. It has served me well for the past year and a half, minus all the water leaks...and the holes in the floor...and the heater core puking coolant all over my girlfriends feet (I fixed it, but she was less than pleased :argh:)...and the clutch hydraulics...and the exhaust falling off and trying to self clearance the underside of the tub. So it's kind of a pile, but it's my pile.

Here's the new heart. It's a Kubota V2203 out of a Carrier reefer trailer. I believe it only has 60 hours on it. No leaks, spotless coolant, no blowby in the intake, and the only rust is on the exhaust manifold (surface rust). My plan is to run either a Bobcat oil pan with a built in baffle, or a sheet metal oil pan with an extended pick up tube, similar what you would find in a car. As for power, I want to run either a K03 turbo off a 1.8 VW or a TD03 with a V2403 turbo manifold and an intercooler. The turbo is still up in the air, so any suggestions would be appreciated. I also have to switch out the governor spring and pull shims out of the IP to change the timing and adjust the rack travel screws to add more fuel in accordance to boost and make it streetable. As for adapters and mounts, I plan on running Redveloce's mounts with the stock Jeep 2.5 frame mounts and a custom SAE 4 to GM 60 degree V6 bell housing pattern and then a flywheel adapter that turns the flywheel into a Jeep 2.5 crankshaft so I can keep my flywheel (for the gauges and computer) and AX5 for now. I plan to upgrade to an AX15 by either using a Dodge Dakota bell housing or an adapter plate from Advance Adapters. So I'll be driving very carefully after I do the conversion to make sure I don't scatter the trans. I also need to make accessory mounts for the alternator and power steering pump, if I decide to keep it, and a throttle cable bracket. I also want to run a cable to the fuel shut off lever and have it manual so I don't have any problems with the solenoid and to add an antitheft measure to the Jeep, since you can get into it with as little as a sharp key :argh: I'll come back and organize all of this into a cohesive list once I get all the finer points nailed down.

Oh, if anyone is looking for a Slurpee holder, the medium paper cups fit perfectly between the studs on the manifold :iws:

Joe

Sounds like a solid plan, I can't wait to see how it comes together.

Thanks Redveloce, it should be interesting. This is the first time I've ever tried doing something of this magnitude. I should be getting all the unnecessary stuff stripped off the motor this weekend and get it fired up. I'll try and put up a video of it's first fire.

Does anyone know if the valve cover gasket is reusable? It looks like rubber, so I'm assuming it is. I want to check the valve lash to make sure that's all in spec, and I don't want to end up with a valve cover leak. That will also tell me what style top end I have, apparently there's an early and a late style. It just looks like the valve cover gasket is molded into a funky shape instead of round, or is there more to it than that?

Joe

Yes it's reusable. Looks like yours is the latter style.

Got an update. I took the compressor and the high idle solenoid off and stripped off any remanining wires left over from the reefer harness last night. We tried starting it and it cranked and cranked and wouldn't fire. Thanks to FTE, I then learned that the shut off solenoid needs to have power going to it for the motor to start. So we got that set up and bled the IP and each line at the injector and the fuel filter and it still wouldn't fire. I believe the starter is the problem, as it wasn't spinning the engine over fast enough. I know it had fuel air and compression because each compression stroke resulted in a little puff of smoke out of the manifold, and you could hear the intake sucking in air. And my genius friend put his hand over the intake as I was cranking the starter and it suctioned onto his hand :argh: I took the starter up to the parts store today and they tested it and said it was okay (they put it in the computer as a Rav4 cause that was the closest starter they could find that looked like it, not sure if thag makes a difference), and then I went to every junkyard and parts store I could find and ended up with nothing. I did pick up a starter from a Trooper that had a starter similar to mine, so I might try and use parts from that to make mine work. Not sure if that will work.

Also, we were cranking the engine for a while yesterday (not non stop, but probably twentyish seconds at a time, followed by a cool down period), and the starter was getting warm. I'm not sure if that means that I cooked the starter, or if that it just got hot and that's why it didn't want to start when it had fuel. Any ideas?

Joe

This is an awesome build!

What kind of torque do these make? I found that they're 40hp, but surely it must be a pretty big torque figure.

Okay, another update. I called Sam at Part's-Barn and he said the starter should be okay, it was probably the connection. I was running a jump pack to the battery in the truck (which was running), and then jumper cables to the starter. He suggested making up a set of cables with copper ring terminals. I'll take the back cover off the starter anyway since I have it on the bench and clean that up and make sure nothing is glaringly wrong, and then make a set of cables.

Thanks GlowPlugWarrior. I'm kinda bummed I couldn't get it started, but I'm glad it's nothing serious like a hole in a piston or no compression. It puffed like a little train (not a lot of smoke, just a little puff after each compression stroke, but my girlfriend said it was like a little train). These engines put out about 110-150ft lbs of torque. With a turbo, people on here are making 100hp and almost 300ft lbs at the tire, with nothing more than IP timing adjustments and adjusting the rack travel screw and what not. These motors are insanely overbuilt. The bottom ends are insane with the bearing caps that bolt into the block. It's like a giant main gurdle, except the force is on the entire block, instead of just the bottom. I'm sure with just regular maintenance, I'll never need to do a rebuild, unless something catastrophic were to happen.

Joe

Yes, you will never get it started with jumper cables. You have to have heavy cables on both positive and ground.