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.

Well, I have an update.


It's....ALIVE!!
The battery cables did it. I got two ten foot lengths of 4AWG wire and put ring terminal connectors on it and it fired right up. Scared the daylights out of me. It fired as soon as the screwdriver hit the solenoid because of all the fuel in the cylinders from bleeding the system multiple times and cranking it for so long last weekend. There was a giant puff of soot and raw fuel. The fuel shut off works really good, I kinda panic shut it off thinking it was going to run away.

We bled the lines again cause the cranking test was to make sure if the cables were going to work. It cranked for a solid thirty seconds, I let it rest, and then it fires right up. The smoke is raw fuel left in the cylinders and soot (condensation formed in the manifold from the last two and a half days of rain we've had). It was also about 38-40 and it started no problem with no glow plugs, and no knocks or lifter clatter or any weird noises. She's ready to go. Now to find a turbo :rocking:

Joe

Nice!

Very nice, I just got a customers motor fired up this morning. It is a good feeling. Sounds healthy.

Hey Ken, thanks. I'm so happy it finally started. It puffed some smoke, but with all the fuel I dumped in it from cranking it for hours and the fact that it was 35ish-40 degrees, and I don't know when the last time it ran, I think it earned the right to smoke a bit on start up. Cleared right up, though.

My manifold came in last night. I got a screaming deal on a new v2403t turbo manifold. That's a picture of the turbo flange with a set of feeler gauges for comparison, definitely smaller than the Mack manifolds I'm used to being around. I went with this one over the v2003t manifold simply because of packaging reasons, the turbo is going to be really close to the brake master cylinder because of the cramped engine compartment, and because the price was right. I'm thinking about making a turbo header in the future when I get the conversion all set up and running right.

Now on to turbo's. I've been doing a lot of research on the turbo's everyone runs and have been talking to a few people and I'll be honest, I don't know a thing about any of this :nshock: I know people are a an of the K03, but it seems like the refrigerator like aerodynamics of a Jeep push the turbo a little hard and the EGT's get kinda high. Has anyone considered a stock td03, just out of curiosity. I saw on a Kubota turbo thread on here that Garret chose a gt25 or something, and Overland Diesel runs a gt15 for their Willy's Jeep conversion. I'm also not looking for an immense amount of boost, as I need this thing to be as reliable as possible, but it still needs to have decent enough power to be able to comfortably run down the highway. Anything is better than my little 2.5 screaming at 2700 doing 65 down the Parkway :scare2:

Thanks for all the help.

Joe

I bought two of those manifolds about a year ago and I wish I was smart enough to have snagged the whole lot. They are nice. Looking good. I am off to pick up another cherokee this morning and full steam ahead on converrting both after the holidays.

Good lunch with the build

It should make packaging the turbo easy. I saw you were trying to put together a swap kit for the Cherokee's that drops right in? How's the progress going on that? That would make for an awesome weekend swap. It would probably help the Kubota gain more popularity, as they're plentiful and much cheaper and easier to swap in than the 4bt.

Joe

The td03 I have that's stock on the 2003t motor I have is TINY, I'm running the tdo4 on my Sport Trac and the EGT's are normal. My truck weighs 1000 lbs more than your rig, so the ko3 should be fine. You really need to have up to 20 psi in order to burn clean and get the performance you will want, I can push more if I want, but don't usually under normal conditions. EGT's never go above 1150 deg.

I know! When I saw the flange, I just laughed and thought it was some kind of joke. It's comically small. The td04, is that a td04L-10T? That's what the Cummins B3.3 runs.

Joe

Yes

The kit is slowly coming together. I need to start the build thread on here. I am now doing 2 Cherokees at the same time. Both 92 Laredo. One auto one manual. Should be a nice swap.

Awesome man!

Looking forward to seeing your build come together. I am mulling over a diesel build right now, and I am going to be watching with interest!

:pca1:

Thanks Dirty Offio. This has been a long time in the making. I found a bunch of K03's, so hopefully I'll be able to pull one next week. The Jeep has been down for the past week to do the clutch. The internal slave had a small tear in the boot that was allowing clutch dust to get into the hydraulics and was gumming up the master cylinder and letting it bypass internally. The previous master siezed due to that. Now it's got an external set up and all new seals in the trans and transfer case. It should be back up and running tomorrow when I finish buttoning everything up.

For anyone interested, the dimension from the back of the Jeep 2.5L to the face of the flywheel is 1 7/16th. When I build my flywheel adapter, that's the measurement I need to keep.

Joe

Are you upgrading to the ax15? Or keeping the ax5?

Your flywheel distance is different between the two

Ken

As of right now, I'm keeping the AX5. I'm searching for a Dakota bellhousing to run the AX15. The flywheel is practically new and all the clutch parts are all brand new, so I want to try and retain as mamy stock parts as possible to keep cost down. HPI makes their VW TDI kits work with the stock AX5, and have had good luck. I have to send them an email to see realistically how well it stood up. I'm not expexting it to last forever, but it gives me a baseline to start making parts.

Joe

Sounds like a plan. Your kubota once turboed will put out almost twice the torque of the 2.5l. I have had a couple people ask me to make an adapter for this,basically the same as gm metric pattern.

The ax5 is basically the same as the toyota g54. The two can be swapped with bellhousing and input shaft swap.

I just worry the torque will kill them if mistreated.
Good luck on the build.

Yup, it's got the GM 60* V6 pattern. I was considering a T5 with the Chevy bell housing, but even my diehard Chevy fan boss said they're not that great in 4X4 applications, unless you convert a WC T5 to run a transfer case, which is apparently a massive headache. And the AX5 is similar to the W series too, if I remember correctly. There was someone on Pirate that made it work, but the only way to swap input shafts is to pull the entire trans apart, which is a bit outside my comfort zone. And then there's the problem of transfer cases. The Toyota is passenger drop while the NP231 is drivers drop. I could run a Dana 300 with an adapter clocking/flip ring, but I just pulled my case apart to reseal it and it was immaculate inside. No signs of wear or abuse.

While I admit I get a little carried away with the 2.5 now, I'm pretty careful not to beat on anything. No 5,000 rpm clutch dumps or slamming through gears like a drag racer. This is my only car, so I can't have it fail on me during the year when I'm in school, so I have to be gentle....ish. Sometimes the 20 year old in me has to show a little :D

Joe

I am not saying to swap to the toyota just stating they are basicly the same. I make a toyota already. I may make the 2.5 kit but use the stock kubota flywheel and starter.not sure yet. I have alot of things in the works and this has been back burnered for a while. I had at one point did all the drawing etc for this bellhousing

I getcha. I liked the Toyota trans because of the Marlin upgrade parts, and the fact that the Toyota guys beat the daylights out of those transmissions and they never break a sweat. I was thinking the input shaft swap would be like on the heavy four speeds or NV4500 where you pull the bearing retainer off and simply pop out the input shaft.

I might put in a call to Marlin and see if they make any parts for the AX5. Does anyone know what actually breaks in them, besides the fifth gear retaining clip? Everyone just says they're weak and leaves it at that. I'm just exploring different options.

Joe

I have read that you can chip the reverse gear with wheel spin and sudden traction. I have no experience with the ax5 though. Just one of the things i read

I can't help but chime in, but if I was going to have to spend $$ on any transmission or custom adapters, I vote for upgrading to a 6 speed. Based on my experiences, more gears the better with this motor. We are asking quite a lot out of a small displacement and having a 6 speed trans in my 1000 lb. heavier rig makes a HUGE difference. Seems like a no brainer if you're going to have to go any great lengths to make what you have work.

You really love the 6 speeds, don't you FTE? XD I've been looking into them, I don't know if I'll be able to make it work. Around by me, there's not a lot of wrecked vehicles with 6 speeds and four wheel drive capabilities. Aside from the Jeep 6 speed, which is upwards of $1500 for a used one and has the same ratios as my AX5, just with an extra gear between first and second, there's not much else. I haven't had any luck finding the Frontier 6 speed you mentioned. I guess I could always get one of those NV5600's Dodge uses :D I'm still exploring all transmission options, so any input is appreciated.

Joe

Have you checked out car-part.com? I found a bunch listed in your area for as low as 300.00. The NV6500 is way too big. The Jeep trans is not the strongest unit, plus they are big $$$, probably because they have issues. The nice thing about the Nissin box is it has the best gear spacing and the largest spread between 1st and 6th. Also 1st isn't a granny low, so it's used every time. I know I harp about the 6spd a lot, but it really is the great equalizer that makes up for any shortcomings this little motor has.

Fte do you have the model # for the nissan 6 speed?

FS6R30 A They came in 06-up Frontier/Xterra/Pathfinder

Quick update on everything. The weather has finally stopped being miserably cold and I was able to get some stuff done on the Kubota. I got the valve cover pulled and checked the valve lash and it was all in spec. Started right up (62* that day) after I primed the oil system because it sat for a few months. And then it snowed eight inches the next day. :dang: Fast forward to this week, I finally got a turbo pulled off a VW Passat and what a pain it was. Everything is in the way of the bolts. I snapped one off in the exhaust housing that I'll have to drill out, but everything else came out nicely. Minimal shaft play and the exhaust side is free of oil. I also went and bought another fuel bleed petcock because in my boundless excitement to first start the engine I ripped the thumbscrew off the valve. In my defense, it was a little stuck. The Carrier part number for that is 25-37593-00. I also contacted someone at Carrier and he was interested in my compressor, so hopefully that will free up some funds. :jump:

The thumbscrew twisted right off both of my engines the first time I tried to turn them. It looks like they're epoxied on there or something. I probably should order another valve, but I've just been using a pair of vice grips on it whenever I've needed to prime the system for the past 4 years.

Hey Red, good to see you're back.
That's what I've been doing, but I went up to the Carrier dealer to see if I could order some Kubota parts through them and they had the valve for $10 so I said why not. The majority of the shaft on my valve came off with the thumb screw, so I would have to take the nut off in order to grab the shift, and I was worried about backing it out too far and having the valve come out and dump fuel everywhere, which I did the first time.

I got a chance to work on the turbo today. I pulled the exhaust housing off and I think it's safe to say this turbo is done without some major work. There are a lot more cracks in the housing than I originally thought, as well as some sort of slag-type protrusion that ate into the turbine wheel. I'll put up some pictures tonight.

Joe

The flat spot where the turbine wheel rubbed the housing has a V shaped crack, and a crack running down the inside of the housing, as well as a wider crack on the inside by the exhaust inlet. I took it to a turbo shop and the guy took one look at it and said the head gasket probably went and dumped coolant into the turbo, causing the cracks and the whitish grey buildup, which I thought was just the turbo running properly. I'll have to try and pull the compressor housing off and decide if I'm going to rebuild this turbo or find a different one. I have been eyeing a g2052v off a 2.5 diesel VW transporter. Or a gt17. All China clones, but nice none the less.

Joe

Alternators
 

Question for everyone, the Jeeps have a weird looking black box terminal on the back of the alternator, which no one I've talked to can say with 100% certainty what it does. Has anyone tried to retain the stock Jeep alternator, or just cut the wires and ran the NPR one? If the NPR is the better way to go, which part numbers should I look at?

Also, I've been looking at variable geometry turbo's, does anyone know how the actuator is controlled on them? They look like wastegate actuators, but there's no fitting drilling in the compressor housing for the pressure line. I'm not sure if I can just do that or if I need to run something different. The turbo's I'm looking at are the g2052v off a 2.5TDI VW van, or a gt1749v off a 1.9TDI. Thanks

Joe