Jeep Liberty TDI Conversion

Wow, you can really do it all! Nice work man. The airbox is a brilliant idea and I think it looks great, but if you really do think it looks bad you could sand it and paint it or something. Keep up the good work!

Quick update time:

I ended up bricking my original ECU while trying to change the code for the 3 bar MAP I used. I picked up a spare ECU and am back in business - still under reporting the boost though until I can get the code corrected.

All of the plumbing and wiring is done. Had it running for awhile yesterday but the cooling system wasn't functioning the way it should. It was shooting steam out of the line on the back of the head. I had wanted to retain the Jeep overflow can, but when I tied it in, I tied it in to the input side of the heater core. That caused problems. I moved it over to the return side and used the Jetta overflow can and all is good. Let it warm up really good today. Had it up to 3000rpm. T-stat opened around 85. That let coolant flow over the Jeep ECT and my dash gauge registered correctly. Jeep ECU turned on the cooling fan at about 105. Nice to have everything working!

Installed the original Jeep oil sending unit in place of the TDI switch and now my dash 'low pressure' light functions as it should. I actually had to go buy a new one for $90 because I threw the old one out with the Jeep motor thinking 'I'll never need that'.

The only thing not working on the dash now is the tach.

Just a few things to tie up and secure and it should be ready for a drive!

Fantastic. It's very cool seeing your motivation and hard work paying off. I have to say the Jeep Liberty is just a run-of-the-mill SUV without a diesel, and with one it's a truly exceptional vehicle.

Which oil sendeder did you swap out? I have one on the back of the block and the oil filter adapter.

ufo said:

fantastic. It's very cool seeing your motivation and hard work paying off. I have to say the jeep liberty is just a run-of-the-mill suv without a diesel, and with one it's a truly exceptional vehicle.

Click to expand...

^^ x2!!

Well, except that there IS ALREADY a Jeep Liberty Diesel- and your 1.9L will be much better than that!!

manual_tranny said:

^^ x2!!

Well, except that there IS ALREADY a Jeep Liberty Diesel- and your 1.9L will be much better than that!!

Click to expand...

The 5 speed manual will be nice, but the 5 speed auto on my CRD is quite good, and geared well. I can get 30mpg at 60mph, running 1800 rpm. And 300 ft-lbs from the factory.

NO KIDDING!? Wow, I am surprised to hear that. I'm impressed by the 30mpg and automatic transmission...

I rented a gasser Liberty with a couple friends for a camping trip out west years ago. With only 3 guys and a trunk full of camping gear, (nothing was terribly heavy by itself, but we were loaded down decently), I found the automatic transmission to be absolute trash. We weren't anywhere near over-weight, but when it came to long hills, the cruise control would allow the vehicle to decelerate more than 10mph before shifting down to the nearest gear, motor screaming, Jeep barely accelerating. 3rd and 4th gears were so far away from eachother that there was no good way to drive up a hill with luggage and passengers at 60-65mph. (I beleive there were only 4 gears on the gasser version? correct me if I'm wrong) The choices were 4th gear and decelerating, or 3rd gear and engine near redline. It must be a completely different vehicle with 300ft/lbs of torque!

Yes, the CRD automatic (545RFE) is a completely different unit than the 4 speed mated to the 3.7 gasser (4 speed 42RLE through 2003, 5 speed 45RFE later). The early CRDs had so much torque they tore up the converters; there was a recall. I've not had any issues since, but there are 2 really good converter upgrades, a factory euro part and Suncoast (converter is similar to those used on Dodge pickups with the Cummins diesel.)

It's definitely not a O1M.

manual_tranny said:

NO KIDDING!? Wow, I am surprised to hear that. I'm impressed by the 30mpg and automatic transmission...

I rented a gasser Liberty with a couple friends for a camping trip out west years ago. With only 3 guys and a trunk full of camping gear, (nothing was terribly heavy by itself, but we were loaded down decently), I found the automatic transmission to be absolute trash. We weren't anywhere near over-weight, but when it came to long hills, the cruise control would allow the vehicle to decelerate more than 10mph before shifting down to the nearest gear, motor screaming, Jeep barely accelerating. 3rd and 4th gears were so far away from eachother that there was no good way to drive up a hill with luggage and passengers at 60-65mph. (I beleive there were only 4 gears on the gasser version? correct me if I'm wrong) The choices were 4th gear and decelerating, or 3rd gear and engine near redline. It must be a completely different vehicle with 300ft/lbs of torque!

Click to expand...

Throw a GDE hot tune on it and you get 365ft/lbs of pure fun! + It gets 2-3 mpg better than stock ECU tune ever did...

Very interesting project... I've always wanted to swap a TDI into a Samurai; but your idea will be much safer and more comfortable. Really interested in how it performs (acceleration and mpg).

Thanks for the update!

UFO said:

The 5 speed manual will be nice, but the 5 speed auto on my CRD is quite good, and geared well. I can get 30mpg at 60mph, running 1800 rpm. And 300 ft-lbs from the factory.

Click to expand...

Who's got a 5 speed? None of that here. NSG370 6 speed for this Jeep.

tcxtreme said:

Which oil sendeder did you swap out? I have one on the back of the block and the oil filter adapter.

Click to expand...

I swapped out the one on the oil filter housing.

Reddok said:

Who's got a 5 speed? None of that here. NSG370 6 speed for this Jeep.

Click to expand...

That's cool, I didn't re-read the thread. Yeah, 6 speed is awesome. I'm very interested in hearing how it cruises in top gear. I know you are chipping it, with bigger nozzles and all, do you plan on dynoing it? It would be a nice point of comparison to the CRD.

UFO said:

That's cool, I didn't re-read the thread. Yeah, 6 speed is awesome. I'm very interested in hearing how it cruises in top gear. I know you are chipping it, with bigger nozzles and all, do you plan on dynoing it? It would be a nice point of comparison to the CRD.

Click to expand...

I'm going to run it first without a chip and bigger nozzles to see how it is. Then swap in the nozzles and tune it. I may do the dyno if I can find a dyno that can handle diesel tach inputs.

Do you have nozzles picked out? The new Titan nozzles are supposed to be superb. Very little smoke, etc. etc. Pardon me while I shill for www.boraparts.com

Forgive my speculation- but I believe that with an increased load -you will benefit more than the usual MKIV from extensive modification. Bigger intercooler and VNT17/22 would help keep exhaust temperatures down on extended highway trips. Of course, the more modifications you do, the more extra gauges and money has to be dumped in. The VNT15 is a good little workhorse too, if that's what you've got mounted on there. I'm gonna go back and read the thread since I forget what all you got strapped to that ALH.

manual_tranny said:

Do you have nozzles picked out?

Click to expand...

I have a set of PP764s and T4 bodies ready to go in.

manual_tranny said:

Forgive my speculation- but I believe that with an increased load -you will benefit more than the usual MKIV from extensive modification. Bigger intercooler and VNT17/22 would help keep exhaust temperatures down on extended highway trips. Of course, the more modifications you do, the more extra gauges and money has to be dumped in. The VNT15 is a good little workhorse too, if that's what you've got mounted on there. I'm gonna go back and read the thread since I forget what all you got strapped to that ALH.

Click to expand...

I think I've probably got one of the biggest intercoolers anyone has put on a TDI. The factory Jeep CRD intercooler is roughly 2' square. I have an EGT gauge that will also read boost pressure if I configure it that way. I was thinking a 17/22 would be a good upgrade too, but that will be in the future. I'd like to see what the big intercooler, ported manifold and large exhaust will allow the VNT15 to do first.

Sorry for the lack of updates... The Jeep has been running for awhile now. I got my ECU issues sorted out - turns out I had a bad flashing cable. Bought a eeprom burner and recovered my ECUs. I've put about 1000kms on the Jeep already.

First impressions - it accelerates better than I thought it would. It also vibrates more than I thought it would. The engine was actually resonating the whole body at certain RPMs. It was resonating at 30hz at idle and 80hz and 250hz while driving according to the frequency analyzer on my iphone. Because I used a 2.0 gasser motor mount from a wrecker on the one side I decided to try changing that out for something softer. An AHU mount was a direct bolt in. It made quite a bit of difference. The resonances all around were drastically reduced. It's much more enjoyable to drive now.

I picked up some dynamat to go on the inside firewall as I had to remove the outside insulation when the TDI motor went in due to clearance issues. Hopefully that will quiet it down even further.

EGTs peak out at 900F going up a long grade in 6th gear and I haven't seen an IAT over 5 degrees over ambient so far so I'm pretty happy with that.

As for fuel economy, the first tank was a mix of city, country highway and expressway driving. Crusing at 70kph in 5th uses 6L/100km, but wind resistance on a vehicle like this is huge and at 110kph it gets up to 9.5L/100km. So for the first tank I averaged 8L/100km (30MPG). I'm happy with that so far - at least it meets my initial goals. I'm sure if it was all highway driving at 80km/h I should be able to do better than 30mpg.

I still haven't loaded in a tune (only a 3 bar map mod) or installed my PP764s so I'm not sure how those will affect fuel economy, but it will definitely make it more fun to drive!

I have to total up some receipts and then I'll post up what the total cost of the swap was. (Not sure I want to know, but other people I'm sure do). It would have been pretty reasonable, but the rad/intercooler combo at $800 really bumped the total up fast.

Got lots of other little things to do to it still - I don't have a front driveshaft yet and I need to get some A/C lines made so I can get the A/C going. Still have to come up with a tach circuit too. But I'm enjoying actually driving the thing instead of wrenching on it all the time.

Cool. Mileage is a little worse than *I* would have expected, but the Liberty isn't exactly a svelte machine! On the other hand, if you can average 30mpg and be happy.. than full on success!!

FWIW: As I have started modding my ALH, the mileage has increased, and I have NOT been kind to the skinny pedal.

Regardless, this news makes me very happy as I have a Cherokee in the garage awaiting it's turn at the top of the project pile.

I'm about half way through the second tank and averaging 32mpg. A good chunk of the driving is city though. I imagine if it was all highway, I'd be able to do 40mpg. Considering the truck is probably still close to 4000lbs and the driving I've been doing has been with 2-3 passengers or a couple hundred pounds of stuff in the back, I'm pretty happy with the mileage.

An XJ was near the top of my list for swap candidates, but I found the Liberty for a great price, so I couldn't turn it down.

Don't mistake me. That mileage is quite awesome, especially with what you get along with it. That being 4x4, and the large(ish) cargo area.

updates?

Sorry, I'd planned to do a big update, just haven't had the time lately. I changed out both the motor mounts for factory AHU mounts, made a huge difference in the amount of vibration transmitted to the body. Much more tolerable now. I also got the A/C lines completed and now have functional AC - which couldn't be better on the hottest day of the year. I think I have about 6-7k kms on the swap right now. Haven't computed the average fuel economy yet, but I'm about to take it on a 5000km road trip, so that ought to improve the numbers. I'll try and get an update together soon with some pictures and numbers though.

Reddok said:

I changed out both the motor mounts for factory AHU mounts, made a huge difference in the amount of vibration transmitted to the body.

Click to expand...

can you provide a part number for the AHU mounts?....I about to completely redo my mount config and I'm looking for options....

1h0 199 609 J and 1h0 199 262 L.

Looks like:



and


(The one on the left)

My new mount using the 1h0 199 609 J. The 1h0 199 262 L was a direct bolt in for the non-hydraulic mount I had originally used and made a huge difference as well.

Got some new tires:



265/75R16 Goodyear Duratracs. I got stuck in the mud twice with the old Firestones, so an upgrade was in order.

I also finally got the PP764's installed. What a difference! Lots more power now. EGT's now exceed 1000 going up big grades, but I don't have to downshift to keep up speed. Next step is a tune. I almost have 10k kms on the swap now. Fuel economy is pretty constant at 30mpg, but I'm not going easy on it by any means. I got an all-time worst of 28mpg with 5 people, loaded with gear with a rooftop cargo bag. Going to tow a 2000lb pop-up next weekend with the new injectors and bigger tires, so I'm expecting a new low on that tank. But it still doubles the fuel economy of the factory gasoline engine, so I'm happy with that.

I totalled up all the reciepts for the engine swap and with the $300 to get the A/C working, the total was just about $4000 - including the price of the engine, minus the extra parts I sold. With the amount I've been driving, I will hit the break-even point in fuel savings (over the gas motor) in a little over a year. I can't really justify it based on a cost-savings though as I have hundreds of hours of my time into it, but hey, everyone has to have a hobby... I get quite a few looks when people hear the clatter of the TDI coming from a Jeep. That makes it worth it for me.

Kick ass. The new tires might not be as detrimental as you think depending on the type of driving.

Ya, I think they may actually help the higher speed crusing by dropping the RPMs back in to the peak powerband. But I did the injectors at the same time, so I won't really be able to tell what did what.

super sweet man....love the stance....are you going to tune it yourself?....I'm assuming you're running a 10mm pump?

jimbote said:

super sweet man....love the stance....are you going to tune it yourself?....I'm assuming you're running a 10mm pump?

Click to expand...

Thanks! I need to put a spacer in the rear coils to bring them up a little bit more. I may try and tune it myself. I've done a fair bit of reading into it, but I don't have the time to get it done right now. It's a 10mm pump. Sadly there is an 11mm pump sitting in my driveway, but I don't think the wife would appreciate me taking it out of her car. I think a VNT17/22 might be the next upgrade if I decide I need more power though. We'll see what happens after the tune.

Ha ha...what she don't know won't make her mad ....the auto's run fine with a 10mm pump...just bump up the QA to get "most" of the power back!! ....I swapped my pp502dlc nozzles for some T4's this past weekend but just not happy with the power down...I was having high egt's (hit 1300 on the way to the GTG) but I think one of ryan's gtb turbos will help that alot (runnin' a 1749va right now)....seriously we need to have a TDI truck swapfest with some moderate trail running thrown in!!...possibly in the upper midwest to centralize the drivin'...just a thought!!