Trimmy's TDI Cherokee
 

Well I sold my 1999 Cherokee with an IRO Long arm kit and 33's because it was very rusty and I was offered more than I had in the Jeep and more then I would every get out of it. I have been surfing the net for a while when I came across a nice 2000 Cherokee with what ?I thought was JUST a cracked 0331 head. I forked over $600 for a Cherokee that was Ziebarted and still had the original floor. The only rust I saw that needed attention was on the passenger rear rail above the rear axle. I figured it was just the 0331 head that had cracked and bought an 0630 head before I pulled it apart. Well I pulled it apart and the head was cracked but it also had damage to the #2 and #3 cylinder wall so I looked around and everyone wanted a lot of money for a 200k motor. Well I have been into TDIs for a while, my wife and I each own a 2010 TDI. So I started talking to my contacts in the TDI community and I have a buddy thats going to source me an ALH motor, harness, and ECU. While he is doing that in the mean time I ordered a gallon of Olive Drab Green fromm Summit Racing because my Jeep came in three different colors and being a Veteran I have always loved OD (even though most of my equipment was Tan).

This is going to be a slow build but it is more for my reference to see what I had and where it goes. The Ultimate goal for the Jeep is OD Green, a 17/22'd TDI pushing close to 180hp, Ford 8.8/HP30, and 4.10 or 4.56 gears with 33's or 35's on an IRO 4" long arm.



So far I have completed and ordered the following.

IRO 4" Long Arm Kit
ALH TDI
AX15
Complete OD Green Color Change

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Well I got the motor out. I am kind of sitting idle because I have to purchase all of the big ticket items at this point. I am going to have to give up my Colt AR15 to my buddy for the TDI, harness, and ECU but I hardly shoot it so its worth it to get this build going.

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I decided I was going to do a FULL color change so I stripped the engine bay and started to degrease and sand the engine bay.

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I pulled the fenders to make it easier to move some of the harness that stayed in so I decided to trim and seal them with paint while I had them off. I missed a small spot on both front fenders, you can clearly see them in the pics, When I fix the hood, and prep the header panel I'll touch it all up.

FRONT BUMPER WILL NOT BE USED I WAS JUST TIRED OF THE BRIGHT RED

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I am using an HPA adapter I bought off of EVguy who is also doing a TDI swap, and because of this I had to swap to an AX15 transmission. A little searching the internet and I found a AX15 that was pulled from a 99 because it was popping out of 1st and 4th gear. A little haggling and I had the tranny for $80 with shifter, bellhousing, clutch fork, and pivot ball/spring.

Here it is after I started the tear down to rebuild it. Turns out I needed a full rebuild kit so I only have it split not completely disassembled at this time.

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Well today I bought a cheap 12ton harbor press to rebuild my AX15. Everything went well, I didnt get really any pictures because the gear oil was nasty and I didnt want to change gloves every few minutes or touch my phone.

Here is one picture I did manage to take during the rebuild. I bought this tranny for $80 because it was popping out of 1st and 4th gear, bought a rebuild kit with new cage bearings for $165 and glad I did the 1 and 4 synchros were messed up and the inside of this thing looked terrible and the cage bearings showed wear.
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I have gotten a little time also to get some more of the jeep painted. I got the drivers side door jambs prepped and painted, got the bottom of the hood, header panel, headlight buckets and grille painted. I also trimmed down the engine harness incase I decided to try to make my gauges work instead of buying HPA's CAN box. I then installed all the wiring back into the jeep.

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I absolutely love this color. My engine/tranny adapter should be here Tuesday or Wednesday. I really hope to have more time to get the passenger side jambs prepped and painted, and get the hatch prepped and painted so I can build a makeshift paint booth in my garage to paint the rest of it so all I have left to do is get the motor, lift, and wheels figured out.

Well yesterday I picked up a wrecked 2000 Jetta TDI 5spd for $1000. It runs and drives, best thing is with the 5spd transmission and a few other good parts on the car I will be able to make all of my money back after selling it all off.

Here are some pics of the car.

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Well today was a good day for me. I pulled the motor and trans, wiring harness, and tranmission out of the Jetta. My HPA adapter also showed up today.

HPA Adapter
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Here is my complete powertrain for the jeep. TDI in the middle, rebuilt ax15 on the left and np231 on the right.
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Here is whats left of the Jetta after pulling everything I needed.
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Subbed! I'm subbed on evguys build too. Love this idea! I have no where near the knowledge to do something like this though.

Looks good! Usually I'm not a fan of the OD green but what you've done so far looks real nice! Can't wait to see where this goes! Keep it up!!!

I was hesitant of the OD green at first because I have seen so many shoddy jobs but I absolutely loved it on our humvees I used in the military so I figured why not. Summit Racings Urethane Single Stage is a very easy paint to use and it has turned out awesome so far. I really hope to have the rest of the jeep in OD green within the next 2 weeks so I can focus on getting the motor in.

Honestly its not that hard of a swap, there is a lot of info on the internet to get you goin. The wiring isnt as bad as most people think or at least do far it hasnt been to bad lol.

Well, I'll do my research and maybe down the road look at taking it on.

Good luck!

I hope to be able to post the hard stuff like the wiring for everyone else so its not a hard swap for someone to take on.

Well I tore down the TDI today to get it ready for the timing belt kit I ordered Sunday from IDparts. This is my fourth TDI timing belt job and this is the absolute worst looking timing belt I have ever seen. I hate it even being on the motor while I am waiting for the new one to come in.

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I also decided to do a little sand blasting today. The bottom of the Jeep is in great shape, rust wise so I decided to sand blast the the rusty areas to keep it from rusting out from under us.

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After I got the sandblasting done I decided I was still up for working on the Jeep. Well I really need to get it all one color so I decided it was time to finish the door jambs. So I prepped and painted them. The hood was also ready and I mixed a little extra paint and didnt want to waste it so it got sprayed as well. This is a Jeep it will be used offroad, it does have dents and will have more after we start using it. So with that said you'll see some dents in the hood. I am not wasting my time fixing dents that more than likely will be back in a year or so.

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This was a good place for me to stop today.

Well I have been working on my harness a lot lately and decided to post up some pics of it. I have used a haynes manual for the wiring mainly because it was free and so far has provided everything I need. The following is what I have so far and think its all I need.

Harness
12v constant supplied to pins T121/1&2
Ground supplied to pins T121/4&5
Keyed Power from jeep supplied to T121/37 (10a fuse)
Keyed Power from jeep supplied to T121/88 (5a fuse)
Keyed power supplied to T10f/5 (N146 quantity adjuster/injection pump harness 15a fuse)
Keyed power supplied to T10f/10 (N108 cold-start injector/injection pump harness 15a fuse)
T10h Connector unmolested running to the gas pedal
G70 (MAF) (10a fuse) and N75 (10a fuse) running from sensor to ecm
Keyed power being supplied to T5/2

109 Wiring
12v Power (110a fuse) coming in to red, 2/30,
T121/18 connected to 9/85
Blue 6/87 running to power N108/G70/N75/N146.

Glowplug Relay Wiring
Pin 1: T6/2 to ECU t121/42
Pin 2: 12V Power
Pin 3: Ground
Pin 4: Glowplug harness
Pin 5: No Connection
Pin 6: Glowplug harness
Pin 7: T10e/8 to ECU Pin T121/33
Pin 8: No Connection
Pin 9: 12v from 109 relay

Misc Wiring
T121/27 is Tach Signal
T121/40 is Glow Plug Light
T121/16 is Signal to OBD Port
T121/24 is CEL

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Subbed. Great work! That TDI was a steal at that price!

Well today was the end of my paint work. I woke up this morning and decided the jeep was going to be completely painted today. So after 7 hours or prep work, building a paint booth and painting it is done. Here is how my day went.

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After Almost 2 days of trying to place an order with Iron Rock Offroad I finally placed my order for a 4" Critical Path Long Arm kit. Should be here in about a week or a week and a half. My timing belt kit was confirmed shipped today so that will be installed this weekend and after washing all the oil off the motor from the leaking valve cover the motor will be ready to bolt up to the trans for mock up. I can get pre-made mounts from a guy in Canada for $265 shipped or I can go through all the issues of building my own with hours of my time and probably $100 worth of steel, and motor mounts.

Turned out awesome, man! I think the prep work was well worth it! That's what separates your OD Green from the rest.

Would you mind PMing me your steps for prep? I'll be bed lining my rockers and lower doors at some point, and I want it to be as best as possible. I'd appreciate it!

Wow you inspire me, I have been wanting to get working on my sons XJ. My wife wants me to help him get it painted. Love the color!

Looks like the paint came out really well! Prep really is everything! I work selling aftermarket parts like hoods, bumpers, wings etc and everyone thinks they can just shoot some paint and have it look perfect, but I don't think enough people realize how important it is to actually go through the correct steps. Well done!

Thanks a lot of time and little money went into it. I love painting but I really hate all the prep work. I have around 25hrs in this paint job and maybe a hour of it is actually laying color. The biggest thing is having a clean environment to spray in. I did the best I could and still have dirt in the paint. I built a make shift paint booth in the out of plastic in the garage. I draped it from the bottom of the truss's to the floor on and wet the floor with water to control dust. I know OD green is not for everyone but green is my favorite color and being a veteran has made it really grow on me. With it being a Flat color if I cratch it or mess it up all I have to do is grab a spot gun and some sand paper and I can respray that small area with minimal time in it. When I have a little more time I will post up the prep step.

It went from this
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To this

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And this is what it will look like suspension and tire wise when I am done. This is my old 99 I sold. I really missed it.

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well suspension wise it will be about 2" lower than my old 99.

Well I just spent 25 minutes typing up the entire process and all the materials I used, right before hitting the submit button I tried to copy it because I have another thread on TDIclub and it deleted it.

Basically a really short version goes.

1. Wash it
2. Sand it, make sure there are NO shiny areas, everything need to be dull from the sandpaper, if you sanding by hand use 400, is your using a DA you can usually get away with down to 180.
3. You need to tape EVERYTHING off and this plays a huge role into the final product, take off as many pieces as you can.
4. Wax and Grease remover, use it, pour it into a lint free cloth. in one hand wipe it on with the other hand with a dry cloth wipe it back off.
5. now build you both, I used plastic drop cloths and put them up on the walls and on the ceiling and also sprayed the floor with water to keep the dust down.
6. Roll it in and get to painting. let it sit in the booth for ATLEAST 1 hr before moving it out, my paint was dry to the touch after an hour although it was not fully cured so let it sit for a few days if you can before doing anything.

If you want great results a rattle can will not give them to you no matter how much prep work you do. I used a $30 harbor freight HVLP gun that did an awesome job. You also do not need a huge compressor. I have a 60 gallon single stage it handled the job with ease but you can also use a small compressor you will just have to take a break every once in a while to let it catch up.

^^Nice, much appreciated!

No problem, sorry my in-depth post was deleted before I could post it.

No worries! I've been there, and it's always on the ones that you worded the best. Then when it's deleted, you can never make it sound as good.

I do have a question though... was this done on a single coat, or did you lay multiple coats and do any sanding in between? When I lay down some bed liner, I want it to be as solid as absolutely possible.

Feel free to PM me if you don't want to pollute your build thread.

Paint should be put on in two coats, your first coat is a base and it is not supposed to cover the other color completely. Your first coat is just a dusting the second coat should fully cover everything. No need to sand in between coats unless you have waited more than 24hrs for the second coat.

Well I made some more progress on the Jeep the last couple days. My timing belt kit came in from IDParts.com and I got it all changed out. The timing belt job went very smoothly with the help of my wife.

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When I was originally looking for another 4.0 to put back in the Jeep I went to my local LKQ and noticed a 4cylinder cherokee with a HP Dana 30 with 4.10 gears. I knew the LKQ did the 50% off sale on memorial day so I decided to chance and wait for the memorial day sale. Well waiting paid off for me. I paid $42.49 for a HP Dana 30 with 4.10 gears in it. I also bought a 4.10 Limited Slip Ford 8.8 rear axle for the same $42.49. I have $85 plus tax in a set of 4.10 axles!!! I feel I REALLY REALLY Scored today.

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Nice score on the axles, I was wondering what year the Dana 30 is out of? '90 and earlier have the Vac disconnect don't they? Are you going to swap the front axle in or just use the gears? I wish I could swap in that for $100 what a deal.

Its out of a 95 so no vac disconnect but it does have the smaller u joints. My 2000 has the larger joints so I'll be swapping the axle shafts between the two.

I did about an hour of work on my axles today. I got them off of my trailer and onto jack stands in my garage. I started cutting off and trying to break loose all of the bolts on the axles and to my amazement they all broke loose and came right out. I was even able to save the factory leaf spring perches which will save me $30.

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looking forward to how this turns out. i may build a dd xj like this in the future after my current one gets a 5.3

I am getting really impatient, I am ready for it to be running. I have all the wiring for the motor figured out. I just need to get it into the jeep and integrate it into the Jeeps harness. I also put an order in with Rock Auto for all the brake parts I needed for the 8.8 and a new upper bushing for the front axle. I plan to use all the good parts off of my current LP D30 to swap over onto the new one.

Well I had to go back to my local junkyard today that still had their 50% off deal going on. My budget for the Jeep originally was $1500. I only planned on replacing what I figured was just a cracked 0331 head, replace some fluids and just drive it. Well as of three days ago I have right at $5100 in the jeep so every dollar counts. As I was walking through the yard I thought to myself that they had to have everything I need to swap the 8.8 into my Jeep. Well I did find everything. I found the 8.8 1310 yoke, u bolt plates, and a driveshaft from the front of a grand cherokee. I only paid $30 for it all which is less than just the perches for the swap. I pulled the 8.8 flange from an early 90's ranger, I found the D shaft laying in the bed with the adapter on it. I pulled out a 10mm impact spocket and pounded out the u joint and took my flange. I also pulled the u bolt plates off of a newer ranger with a 4.0 motor that had an 8.8, these flanges are 3/16" thick maybe thicker and I feel they are more than sufficient for my intended use. The drive shaft I found will have to be lengthened for my use since I'll be moving the motor and tranny 4" forward but its cheaper to have one lengthened than have one built.

I paid the following for the parts.
1310 adapter $4.99
2 u bolt plates $9.99
Drive shaft $9.99
I had to pay a $1.50 core on the yoke and after tax it around $30.

I was planning on buying the same parts from Iron Rock and having them shipped with my Long Arm kit. The additional parts were around $120. so a savings of $100 was well worth it to me.


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subscribed !!! love the diesel

I probably shouldn't drink and think about my Cherokee with paypal up. I just ordered a set of HD offroad Shackle relocators. As of that purchase I have 5444.xx in the entire jeep. I bought it with the intentions of just swapping in the 0331 head out and running it how it was with a $1500 max budget. Im glad my wife hasnt shot me yet.

Sounds like you prob dug your hole a little too deep..

As soon as its done an running reliably (which I hope is less than a month away) it will become my DD and my 2010 Jetta TDI will be sold so it will be nice to have a vehicle I built and no payment so its all good so far. I have all the big parts, only a few purchases over $100 left other than new 33" tires. I plan to go with General Grabber AT2s since it will mainly be street driven and they can be had for $600 a set new.

Yeah, thats what i did with mine. Sold my gas saver and am building my jeep. And ive read a lot on the 33" generals and theyve yet to turn me away. when i get 33's itll probably be the grabbers.