2008 Jeep JKU / TDI swap

evguy1

Vendor
Joined
Feb 8, 2014
Location
Erington, BC, Canada
TDI
2000 Jeep Cherokee TDI, 2008 Jeep JKU TDI
I retired last year so TDC will respond separately to your email. I believe they do have a remote filter adapter for the BRM. The latest trans adapter set from them uses the stock flywheel or you can buy the 50lb Centerforce one. I think the 50lb flywheel is worth the money.
You would want to leave the whole Jeep ECM and wiring in place and the TDI is run as a stand alone system so not much to worry about as far as the two talking to one another.
 

Kriesel

Veteran Member
Joined
Feb 22, 2009
Location
Afton, MN
TDI
2006 Jetta TDI
Awesome, thanks for the reply. I have a single mass flywheel at the moment. So that would probably work then.

Congrats on retiring! Hope this jeep is still treating your daughter well!
 

evguy1

Vendor
Joined
Feb 8, 2014
Location
Erington, BC, Canada
TDI
2000 Jeep Cherokee TDI, 2008 Jeep JKU TDI
Thanks, retiring just mean you have way more work but its the cool stuff that you want to do. Currently installing a 4 cylinder Cummins into a 2014 Ram 1500.
Yea kid loves the Jeep and puts a lot of miles on it.
Your existing flywheel should be fine.
 

Straypoet

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 17, 2020
Location
Florida
TDI
BHW 2.0, soon to be in my Wrangler.
Reviving your thread here to ask about your radiator plumbing. looks like you used the stock JK radiator, how did you route the coolant from the top of the radiator down to the thermostat housing? Custom piping? from the photo of the engine compartment, it looks like you added a piece down to the thermostat housing?
 

evguy1

Vendor
Joined
Feb 8, 2014
Location
Erington, BC, Canada
TDI
2000 Jeep Cherokee TDI, 2008 Jeep JKU TDI
Yup stock rad and fan, never any overheating issues at all. You can see the top hose pretty clearly in the picture, from the top rad inlet to the back of the head I put a metal pipe in the middel that has the Jeep temp sender in it and the air blead from the back of the head also ties into that hose close to the water outlet on the head. The lower hose just comes out the bottom of the rad and makes a right turn into a piece of pipe and then hose up to the T stat inlet on the block.
 

Straypoet

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 17, 2020
Location
Florida
TDI
BHW 2.0, soon to be in my Wrangler.
Yup stock rad and fan, never any overheating issues at all. You can see the top hose pretty clearly in the picture, from the top rad inlet to the back of the head I put a metal pipe in the middel that has the Jeep temp sender in it and the air blead from the back of the head also ties into that hose close to the water outlet on the head. The lower hose just comes out the bottom of the rad and makes a right turn into a piece of pipe and then hose up to the T stat inlet on the block.
Thank you. I am using my original radiator also, so good to know that there aren't any issues with overheating or anything. Thank you for taking the time to reply. :) Hoping to have it running in the jeep by the end of this next weekend. crossing my fingers.
 

PickleRick

Veteran Member
Joined
Nov 29, 2017
Location
Greenville sc
TDI
05 GLS BHW sedan 5 speed conversion. BHW Carver SantaCruz in progress
Good info. In order to clean up my engine bay I'll dump the ufo orb and run an overflow on the oem old school radiator. I had thought you couldn't run a tdi in an open loop coolant system without issues.


Also kind of a dump question. On the BHW fuel filter, is the hard line on the fuel filter the inlet and the thermostat TEE the outlet?

I'm nearing the test run portion of my swap and I could not remember. Kind of scary considering I change my passats fuel filter every other oil change, I just make sure i don't mix the lines.
 

evguy1

Vendor
Joined
Feb 8, 2014
Location
Erington, BC, Canada
TDI
2000 Jeep Cherokee TDI, 2008 Jeep JKU TDI
Good info. In order to clean up my engine bay I'll dump the ufo orb and run an overflow on the oem old school radiator. I had thought you couldn't run a tdi in an open loop coolant system without issues.


Also kind of a dump question. On the BHW fuel filter, is the hard line on the fuel filter the inlet and the thermostat TEE the outlet?

I'm nearing the test run portion of my swap and I could not remember. Kind of scary considering I change my passats fuel filter every other oil change, I just make sure i don't mix the lines.
Sorry for the delay, I don't read this very often. Hopefully you have this all figured out but here is what I did for anyone else reading this. I have done three of these swaps and all three just used the stock vehicles (Jeep/Ford) radiator and expansion tank. I think the only thing you have to be careful of is that you plumb the air bleed hose off the back of the head into the top rad hose at some point or it will overheat.
I have never used the stock filter but I do know the line from the tandem pump with the sensor on it is the return line to the tank.
 

evguy1

Vendor
Joined
Feb 8, 2014
Location
Erington, BC, Canada
TDI
2000 Jeep Cherokee TDI, 2008 Jeep JKU TDI
I did not hook it up as we don't normally get very hot here. On my other swaps I used the stock controls to run the AC compressor on the TDI.
 

PickleRick

Veteran Member
Joined
Nov 29, 2017
Location
Greenville sc
TDI
05 GLS BHW sedan 5 speed conversion. BHW Carver SantaCruz in progress
I'm using the bhw stock compressor in my 87 4 runner. The old freon back then was more efficient than newer EPA friendly stuff used since the 90s that we find in the 2005 Passat. The Passat runs an orifice tube, that jku will as well so the stock tdi compressors will be fine.

However in my application I'm running a compressor designed for the orifice tube in the old school design. I've been told it may not work. I'm located in the Southeast so I'll give a first hand review on if/how it works. If not I could be designing another ac compressor bracket for another compressor.

Ac compressor compatibly is something I have not found much info on. I figured if find it on LS swap forums when they drop them in old c10s and F bodies but no such luck.

I believe the b5.5 tdi Passats all came with a variable displacement clutch where the old expansion systems needed a fixed displacement. I've not had my ac compressor off in some time but if the control valve is adjustable it may be able to be screwed in all the way or if not solder it up. This should make it behave like a fixed compressor. So I may have a few things to try before scrapping it for a fixed compressor.
 
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