OM617 92 Cherokee build
 

Hello guys I've been a long time reader of this forum and it has helped me a crazy amount and actually inspired me to try something like this so I appreciate you all taking the time to put this stuff on the Internet. So I missed my last Cherokee and went on the hunt for a replacement and found this 1992 cherokee 4.0/aw4, it had a bad motor that still ran and a brand new rubicon express 5.5 lift. I quickly started looking for a replacement 4.0 and after about month of looking at overpriced 200k motors and and junk motors I decided I would just swap a diesel in. I looked into vw motors for awhile and they seemed to have more options for tuning and making more power but it was gonna be about twice as much and being 4 times the wiring so I settled on the all mechanical om617. So now that I decided on the motor I went on Craigslist for a couple weeks and found the perfect donors. The guy claimed to have a 83 Mercedes car complete with a blown motor and another sitting on a engine stand ready to run and also claimed to be a professional machinest and had built an adapter for a aw4. So I pull my tranny trasfer case and engine all together for the ease of mating the new engine up outside the jeep.. I got everything together with a few minor problems and got it installed in the jeep. I made my own motor mounts and adpated everything over myself but I am running into serious problems on the gauges. The water temp works but I can't get the tach and oil gauge working. I have the sender from the jeep installed but it just goes all the way to 70-80 psi when the engine is running. I also can't get the work. I have the crank sensor hooked up and the cam sensor wire hooked the crank sensor but can't get anything. I plan on having this thing on the road in a couple months so I will be updating frequently. Thanks all you guys again for supplying me all the info to get this far.

The jeep when I first got it
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Parts car
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What was left of the 4.0 (holes in 2 cylinders)
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Motor out
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New motor all painted up
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Engine mounted to tranny the last time
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Motor mount building
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Sitting on its own weight and good stack installed
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Throttle bracket made (4.0 pushrods)
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Coolant hose adapter (idea from a member on here. Thanks!)
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I'm sure I'm forgetting more but I'll try to update it sometime when I'm back on here

Nice! Welcome to the Om617 club! There is lots of good information on this forum, for one, check out the build EvenGlass did on his Cherokee, he has some answers you seek in his thread. https://www.dieselbombers.com/diesel...ld-thread.html
There are others, just search om617.

Thanks for the welcome man. That thread is what inspired me to do the om617. I used his thread to get where I am so far but I can't get the gauges to work by hooking them up like he did..

Nice to see your xj on here. I have talked with you on "club xj "on facebook. I am building the two kubota diesel xjs

Its hard to follow a build on club xj. Glad you are doing a build thread here

Ken

Sorry double post. Thanks man I've always liked have build threads on forums. I use so many of other people's that if i can help someone else that would be awesome! I remember talking to you to man. I'm glad to be here how are your projects going?

Well I got a little more done this afternoon. Finally got the right power steering pump belt and got the system bled and working. Seems to turn fine in my shop I was worried the Mercedes pump wouldn't be able to power the jeep steering box. I also got a filter on the intake of the vacuum pump. I just used a filter from a valve cover I had left over from my fox body. Should work fine I think..
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i also got the rotted side of floor pans cut out and and the new ones fitted. A little more grinding, welding and some seam sealer and I should be close to bed lining the floors. I messed with the gauges a little more but still no luck.

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Were you able to position the engine without modifying the oil pan? It didnt look modified while it was sitting out in the floor.

The only thing I did to the oil pan was move the drain. I took it off planning to but the pick up didn't really allow enough to make any modifications.. Here it is jacked up as high as my floor jack would allow on each side with the sway bar disconnected. I have the biggest drop pitman arm and track bar mount I could find and a 5.5in lift but I would love to have more clearance.. I may do some bump stops eventually..

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I know when I did my 90 XJ I also couldn't get the tach to work until I plugged back in the coil. I know it sounds weird but something in the wiring needed to be reconnected, can't remember what wires I had to splice together to fix the issue. I have long since sold the Jeep and didn't keep notes. At least it's somewhere to start tracking down the issue, good luck. That trans is awesome behind a diesel once you get the shift points figured out, the key is the TPS, be patient, just a tiny adjustment with it makes a huge difference.

hey man thanks for the info I'll try hooking it up tonight! I've tried lots of wiring for the tach. I have the crank sensor hooked up and the signal from the cam sensor hooked to it but still nothing. Still trying to figure out my oil pressure gauge. It seems to keep pegging out. I tried to ground the sender since its in a alumnium housing but no help... More progress dtonight