Thinking of starting my conversion, 1.9L in to a TJ

So I have been following other TJ conversions for a while now, and I think I want to get started on mine.

I found a 00' Mk IV Jetta that is near me being parted out. It has a 1.9L ALH, that looks like was just tuned up. New Injectors, timing belt, glow plugs, turbo. What else should i be looking at getting with the engine for the rebuild? I am thinking I should see if I can get the full wiring harness and ECU as well. Any thoughts?

I am kinda just going to wing it, and see if I can make this conversion work. I have seen others do it, and I am up for the challenge to do the same in my Jeep.

Do it! Get the harness and ecu as well yes. If you don't want to mess with the harness, fastforward.ca can do them. I can't remember his username on here though

Ill be texting this guy after work. I hope if he is parting his car out that he would have the engine pulled out and ready for pickup too.

Now i just have to come up with a list of other things that I would need for the rest of the swap!

If it had a 4L we would have the adapter and some motor mount kits to get you started.

evguy1 said:

If it had a 4L we would have the adapter and some motor mount kits to get you started.

Click to expand...

Oh nice! Would the XJ kit work with a 99' TJ wrangler? I have been looking for an alternative site for conversion parts. I have been going off of the HPA motorsports website. They are a little pricey though.

Also, I saw that it was a BEW swap in to the XJ. Would an ALH be that different?

We would not be able to supply the frame side of the motor mounts since we have not converted one of those here yet but the "universal" mount kit would give you the engine side.
Lots of people have used these parts with the ALH.
As of next week we should always have stock on the mount kits and all the adapters.
Up to now the adapters have been machined by hand since I did not know how much interest there would be in this stuff.
We now have the jigs to do them in a CNC machine so turnaround time is quicker.
I will always try to stock at least one of all the models shown on the web site but at the moment I'm running a few behind.

So doing a little more research... I think I wont go for the ALH. Mechanically I should be able to do the engine swap, but the electrical will be a challenge. It seems like the ALH has more electrical then the standard BEW (PD) engine that I have seen others do. I am not sure I am up for that kinda of headache.

between ALH and BEW there isn't much difference wiring-wise.

Don't let the wiring scare you off, once you strip the harness down to the essentials there is not much left.
There are enough resources online to get you running.
I have only done the BEW's but just from what I had read I thought it was the ALH that was simpler.
The best way to think of a wiring harness is a bunch of wires that start at one place and go to another.
With a wiring diagram you can follow each wire one at a time from where it starts to where it needs to go. :>)

Really? From what I have been hearing the ALU would be much more complicated. I can always get the engine (the ALH), and give it a shot. My jeep has been acting up lately. I think the clutch might be going out... So it needs a rebuild anyways! Plus the 4.0L is burning oil.. not a lot, but enough to cause concern.

Humm, Ill have to keep doing some research in to this.

@evguy1, I followed your XJ thread a bit (by the way awesome work! Keep it up!), and Ill be doing pretty much the same things as you. Turbo, tune, and working on other parts of the Jeep, getting some rust proofing on, and fixing other little things here and there.

I knew the BEW's can eak out a little more power then the ALH too. I dont know if that would matter that much in the long run or not. But the ALH I am looking at, seems to already be upgraded, New Garrett turbo, New Bosio Injectors, New glow plug and harness.