cdg123
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Wickenburg/Flagstaff, AZ
OK Guys. This is my story of my last roughly 1 month of off and on work on my old project XJ.
A few months back I was working on this old Toyota pickup when my buddy shoots me a text message asking me if I want a diesel Jeep Cherokee. I've been working on cars most of my life and only heard of the diesel Jeeps - most of the stories I heard of them were horror stories. But lots of research and a few contacts overseas suggest that maybe the problems with these jeeps are overrated and mostly due to neglectful maintnance practices.
So in 1986 a nice gentlman custom orders his Cherokee with the Renault J8S turbodiesel 4wd with the Aisin werner AX5 transmission. He is a professional diesel mechanic for Empire cat and meticulously maintains his baby. Then roughly around the new millenium he is driving to Montanna from northern Arizona when the turbocharger goes south (lost its feed line). A shop in Montana puts a new turbo on (same 8PSI Garret T2). He drives home later that week and parks in his driveway. The Screeching of tires and scraping of metal awakens him the next morning. A speeding Chevy Silverado smashed his beloved Jeep in the B pillar. He is preoccupied with other proejcts so he decides to salvage the differentials, transfer case, and running gear from the vehicle. The rest of the hulk is hauled off to my buddy's dad's ranch where it sits in the elements for well over 5 years until I got this text message.
The odometer (original) shows 71,600 and some change on it. What a darned shame.
In Late september I started work on the project. Took me months to find the "ideal" swap candidate - a 1985 Jeep Cherokee V6 (siezed) with good running gear under it - including the essential NP207 transfer case. I continued to perform the swap not knowing of the old Renault turbodiesel would even start (but knowing that I promised to clear the old wrecked Jeep out of this guys yard). My buddy and I did the swap and got her bolted together in time for it to snow. Fearing that the old engine would be ruined if it sat outside with its hoses and air cleaner removed, I opted to put it in a storage facility.
2 nights ago, around 8PM arizona time the old engine coughed to life for the first time in a long time. The door was still closed in my 10x15 storage unit and man did I get a good dusting of soot. Yesterday I got her running good off of a diesel bottle. Today I hooked up the running gear to take her for a little spin (literally). Man this little engine runs good. I don't know if the reputation for trouble is deserved or not for the little Renault but this one sure seems to run good. I did almost nothing to this engine but fresh fluids and I primed the injector pump with an eletric boost pump for a few minutes before attempting to start.
There isn't much dry land that won't give the little Jeep lots of wheelspin - I don't yet have the 4wd shift linkage hooked up so I was just driving in 2wd with bald tires on a snow covered parking lot. However one little strip of clear asphalt revealed to me that the little diesel lags a lot in the low revs. Wind her up on the turbo boost and things start happening (still not what you call fast but definitely not a completely slouch). Sure it's nothing like my '92 4.0 but I am optimistic that it will be very acceptable as a commuter.
Tomorrow I hope to get the alternator and power steering hooked up - maybe start fixing up a few other wiring glitches. Monday she will get some new Kuhmo sneakers and hopefully I will have it registered and insured and driving before the end of next week.
I will be posting video footage. I don't have any pictures of the swap in progress but I can say that the nuts and bolts are extremely simple, and the wiring is not a whole lot worse really. Even the big things like moving the battery from the passenger side to the driver's side are pretty simple really - the holes to bolt down the battery tray are already there. The holes for the oil cooler, filter unit, air filter bracket, frame horns and intercooler are all basically already there. The only things that need to be drilled for are the fuel filter unit, glow timer (near starter relay) and glow relay. All the mounts are bolt and go.
So there is still much incidental work to deal with but all the big stuff is done. If anybody needs help working on one of these I can't claim to be an expert but I may be able to offer some insight into this rare beast.
Pricing information:
1986 Jeep cherokee diesel minus axles and Tcase --------- Free
1985 Jeep Cherokee V6 donor (rough but complete) ------- $200
Parts cost ----------------------------------------------- $500
Tires ---------------------------------------------------- $350
Storage -------------------------------------------------$100
Transportation ------------------------------------------- $200 (had to move it twice)
Now this is the stuff to make it driveable. Many more smaller repairs will quickly snowball into the thousand plus range. Look like 1350 for the project so far. More like 1550 if you count some of the jobsite tools (lights, small generator, etc). I figure 2500 for a really solid mechanical Jeep with rough interior and paint but working otherwise kind of deal.
A few months back I was working on this old Toyota pickup when my buddy shoots me a text message asking me if I want a diesel Jeep Cherokee. I've been working on cars most of my life and only heard of the diesel Jeeps - most of the stories I heard of them were horror stories. But lots of research and a few contacts overseas suggest that maybe the problems with these jeeps are overrated and mostly due to neglectful maintnance practices.
So in 1986 a nice gentlman custom orders his Cherokee with the Renault J8S turbodiesel 4wd with the Aisin werner AX5 transmission. He is a professional diesel mechanic for Empire cat and meticulously maintains his baby. Then roughly around the new millenium he is driving to Montanna from northern Arizona when the turbocharger goes south (lost its feed line). A shop in Montana puts a new turbo on (same 8PSI Garret T2). He drives home later that week and parks in his driveway. The Screeching of tires and scraping of metal awakens him the next morning. A speeding Chevy Silverado smashed his beloved Jeep in the B pillar. He is preoccupied with other proejcts so he decides to salvage the differentials, transfer case, and running gear from the vehicle. The rest of the hulk is hauled off to my buddy's dad's ranch where it sits in the elements for well over 5 years until I got this text message.
The odometer (original) shows 71,600 and some change on it. What a darned shame.
In Late september I started work on the project. Took me months to find the "ideal" swap candidate - a 1985 Jeep Cherokee V6 (siezed) with good running gear under it - including the essential NP207 transfer case. I continued to perform the swap not knowing of the old Renault turbodiesel would even start (but knowing that I promised to clear the old wrecked Jeep out of this guys yard). My buddy and I did the swap and got her bolted together in time for it to snow. Fearing that the old engine would be ruined if it sat outside with its hoses and air cleaner removed, I opted to put it in a storage facility.
2 nights ago, around 8PM arizona time the old engine coughed to life for the first time in a long time. The door was still closed in my 10x15 storage unit and man did I get a good dusting of soot. Yesterday I got her running good off of a diesel bottle. Today I hooked up the running gear to take her for a little spin (literally). Man this little engine runs good. I don't know if the reputation for trouble is deserved or not for the little Renault but this one sure seems to run good. I did almost nothing to this engine but fresh fluids and I primed the injector pump with an eletric boost pump for a few minutes before attempting to start.
There isn't much dry land that won't give the little Jeep lots of wheelspin - I don't yet have the 4wd shift linkage hooked up so I was just driving in 2wd with bald tires on a snow covered parking lot. However one little strip of clear asphalt revealed to me that the little diesel lags a lot in the low revs. Wind her up on the turbo boost and things start happening (still not what you call fast but definitely not a completely slouch). Sure it's nothing like my '92 4.0 but I am optimistic that it will be very acceptable as a commuter.
Tomorrow I hope to get the alternator and power steering hooked up - maybe start fixing up a few other wiring glitches. Monday she will get some new Kuhmo sneakers and hopefully I will have it registered and insured and driving before the end of next week.
I will be posting video footage. I don't have any pictures of the swap in progress but I can say that the nuts and bolts are extremely simple, and the wiring is not a whole lot worse really. Even the big things like moving the battery from the passenger side to the driver's side are pretty simple really - the holes to bolt down the battery tray are already there. The holes for the oil cooler, filter unit, air filter bracket, frame horns and intercooler are all basically already there. The only things that need to be drilled for are the fuel filter unit, glow timer (near starter relay) and glow relay. All the mounts are bolt and go.
So there is still much incidental work to deal with but all the big stuff is done. If anybody needs help working on one of these I can't claim to be an expert but I may be able to offer some insight into this rare beast.
Pricing information:
1986 Jeep cherokee diesel minus axles and Tcase --------- Free
1985 Jeep Cherokee V6 donor (rough but complete) ------- $200
Parts cost ----------------------------------------------- $500
Tires ---------------------------------------------------- $350
Storage -------------------------------------------------$100
Transportation ------------------------------------------- $200 (had to move it twice)
Now this is the stuff to make it driveable. Many more smaller repairs will quickly snowball into the thousand plus range. Look like 1350 for the project so far. More like 1550 if you count some of the jobsite tools (lights, small generator, etc). I figure 2500 for a really solid mechanical Jeep with rough interior and paint but working otherwise kind of deal.
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