Alright guys I've finally started acquiring some of the bits and pieces I need to do an ALH swap on my 1999 2 door XJ 2wd . It came from the factory with the 2.5 liter and a 5 speed manual.... I found a running ALH still in the car with around 150,000 miles for CHEAP and couldn't pass it up. I'll be changing the jeep over to 4wd later on down the road but right now I just want to get the motors swapped out and the jeep running down the road again. I don't have a shop to work in so I may be biting of more than I can chew but I'm gonna give it a go. My jeep is currently not running because I believe it has a rod knocking or a main bearing going down. So in your opinions which swap kit has the most bang for the buck?

 

Hi Matt.
Have you read my build thread?
https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f46/20...ighlight=evguy

We love our TDI XJ.
What gears does it have in it? I changed to 4.10's this years and it was well worth the money. The 4.10's work well with 32" tires but if your going larger you would want lower gears. The TDI likes to run in the 1500-2500 RPM range.

 

I'm honestly not sure what gear I have in the rear end, I'll have to give it a look. I'm guessing it has 4.10 being a little 2.5 liter 5 speed from the factory but I'm not 100% sure.

How difficult is it to adapt the wiring harness of the XJ and VW together? Also my instrument cluster has what I call "dummy lights" instead of gauges. I really want to change the current cluster out for the gauge cluster that comes in most XJs. Electrical is my biggest downfall, I can build a motor and do some fab work but I'm lost when it comes to wiring.

 

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I left the two systems independent.
The TDI ECU runs all the TDI systems and the XJ ECU runs all the Jeep systems.
I installed the Jeep oil pressure and water temp senders into the TDI and dash works well.

 

I may have missed it but did you take pictures of the wires that you installed from the jeep wiring into the TDI wiring?

Excellent work on all of your swaps by the way, I went to your sight and looked around at all your goodies.

I'm going to take a look at my rear end this weekend and see if the data tag is still attached.

Does anyone know what is involved with swapping the gauge cluster? Is it a simple swap our do I need wiring harness to go with it? I currently have the cluster with "dummy lights" and want to swap in the cluster with tachometer, oil pressure, voltage, etcetera....

 

97+ xj use a can bus sytems to run the gauges, this means that the senders for the gauges report to the pcm, and the the pcm sends a multiplexed signal over a single wire. this signal cannot be generated with out the jeep computer so you would have to plum the jeep sensors into the tdi block and "fool" the jeep pcm into thinking its running normally.

i personaly would go for building a new gauge cluster with some after market gauges