Xerootg's Jeep Cherokee BHW swap

I was just cruising youtube when I came across one Coty Built's builds, and thought, "man thats schweet!" I started emailing back and fourth with them, and once I started asking questions that were deeper than "I want to spend $7k on your starter kit" they stopped corresponding. Right about then, EVGuy started selling his adapter kits. It occurred to me that I should be able to piece together my own setup that wasn't so questionable. My primary concerns with the Coty setup is the truss. The truss, while it places all of the accessories in the correct position to retain stock parts, looks like it would make wrenching difficult, and these engines do have a sub 100k mile timing belt.

I started with most of a BEW out of a Jetta, a BHW (Passat) ECU and harness, and a couple blown turbos from a handful of vehicles. I popped the head off of the "running" BEW to find that the compressor inducer had removed considerable material from cylinders 1 and 2.

Found the BEW I picked up on Craigslist for $600 with about 180k miles on it in Victoria, BC. The prior owner helped me hoist it into the back of my XJ, and I brought it home!






I got ahold of a reputable machine shop (franko6) and found out I was looking at needing a rebuilt head and atlest some block work thanks to the cylinder walls being scored. Also, it had considerably uneven piston protrusion. The cost of this rebuild pushed me to look for a different engine to start with before I dumped too much in the smaller of the TDIs in the USA.









Using an EBay ECU bench I was able to dump the ECU and remove the immobilizer. Once I get a running engine, ill start it up before getting anywhere near the Jeep.



At this point I sold off the parted out BEW components that aren't ruined and building a used low mile BHW. The BHW has 2mm of extra bearing journal surface, better pistons, larger injectors, and a slightly lower compression ratio for better ability to take boost. Its weakness is this miserable piece of German overengineering called a BSM (Balance Shaft Module) that tends to die and take out the oil pump, but fortunately the BEW's robust oil pump will move right over to the BHW.

I want to retain the AC, Defroster, high idle, and the cruse controls. My plans for those are to use a VW AC module to run a VW compressor for both defroster functions and AC. I plan on using the documented (but unused on anything VW published or in bentley) high idle ECU pin. For the cruise, I will have to run an arduino to translate button presses on the resistor ladder to individual IOs the EDC16 (Bosch ECU) expects, while I am doing that I wouldn't mind having some media buttons on the steering wheel... so I'll be looking for either a ZJ, WJ, or KJ steering wheel to butcher up.

As I said, I've been working on the CANBUS aspect, and thats promising for some info, but the speedo data is crap at being on a scale of 1-254 of an unknown unit. VW decided that the ECU shouldn't send distance to the cluster, so they pass the VSS through the cluster and condition the signal received by the ECU, so I need to replicate that signal and track distance at the cluster. I have two options there: 1) analog gauges - I like the VDO Viewline Onyx series in a auto meter 5381 panel or 2) drive a stock dash's air core gauges using another arduino. McNeil has been working on just that for his Wrangler but I'm leaning towards the VDO stuff.

My wife got me a 30 gallon genright for the project and I have read conversions like these get between 25 and 35 MPG... so after I've spend untold thousands, I should be able to go almost anywhere without fueling up!

I picked up a BHW (2.0L - 134HP stock) out of a 2005 Passat off EBay. Now the work begins

First order of business, the accessories need to be a little more compact to fit in between the XJ frame rails. To do this I am going to use the accessories bracket off of a BEW, 04-06 Golf or Jetta will do.



The accessories fit nice and tight.





This bracket needs to be notched to work with the BHW longitudinal motor mounts. Initially I felt this was the way to go based off of other threads here sich as jimbote's yota. My grinder makes short work of aluminum.





The compressor unfortunately hits, this chunk needs to be trimmed.





I swapped the dampner from the BEW too, the BEW accessories are on a single belt and the BHW accessories are on 2 separate belts. Everything fits now, just need to rebuild the power steering pump, alternator, and compressor before giving them the final tightening.



Now... realistically I had compromised the structural integrity of the left motor mount with my extreme trimming. I either needed to replace it or reinforce it. If I had chose to fab my own mounts, it would have serve as nothing more than a template, because I would feel better fabbing brackets to use OEM Jeep mounts anyway. The brown dog mount seems more sturdy than the VW oil filled mounts. I am not afraid of vibes. At the end of this excersize I ended up buying EVGuy's mounts because it keeps the project moving.

Heating:

I do not like being cold. I also like traveling to cold places. I have a three phased approach to cold on this project:

• Use the 3 glowplug rear head housing available in Europe. I ebayed and got part # 038121145 and 03812133A which bolts up nicely. I will butcher up the extra BHW harness to build a relay setup for this and either flash a BGW s/w load onto my edc16 or have a tuner figure that out while doing the needed manual transmission conversion needed for the BHW software.
• I REALLY like the idea of Malone's dynamic EGR he has figured out. 99% likely of going this route.
• EBay webasto Thermo Top. This has been purchased, and will be plumbed in when the tank gets swapped.

I had issues with the BHW hard coolant lines, the thermostat housing, and the motor mounts. I ended up mixing in a Dorman 902-990 (VW# 048121121B) thermostat housing off Amazon. It does not interfere with anything yet... time will tell and something will have to give. The hosing has had some iterations (combos to BEW and BHW hoses) but this is what it looks like generally speaking:


I favored the aluminum housing you can get for the 1.8t engine, but I couldn't justify the price for something that id immediately chop up to make fit.

The 3 glowplug head looks like this:

AC Compressor:

The stock compressor DOES NOT fit. I am researching a replacement. There are several options here. I am looking at an HD option that has the same displacement as the TDI had but has an improved head for better efficency. The Sanden 4660 is the current option, but I also considered Sanden part numbers 4455, 4323, 7304, and 4711. 4660 is the HD version of 4711 from what I can tell.

The stock VW compressor has the same ear to ear dimensions as the average long ear mount sanden BUT the compressing bushing that is pressed into the rear ears takes up a 3mm difference in the mounting pads. No matter what compressor I go with, I will need to fabricate some spacer and possibly mill the accessory adapter to work.

Fans and AC Control:
I am using a 28mm "temperature gauge pipe", milled the top off, drilled the hole out to 13/16", and tapped it to m22x1.5 to fit the temperature sensor that usually goes in a Jetta radiator.


I also got a Volvo fan. Its like the Taurus fan everyone is gaga about BUT its brackets are FLAT and do not require excessive modification to fit everyday applications. I plan on grafting this into a stock Jeep fan shroud.

Mounts and Adapters:
I have procured EVGuy's Motor mounts and engine adapter


The purchase list:

• GTC1549VZ turbo - it spools fast and stays strong up to around 200 HP
• Sprinter intercooler
• NPG Racing steel oil pan
• late 90's Dodge Diesel fuel pump unit, 68003865AB (low pressure, the mechanical pump on these engines only needs 8psi)
• fuel-water separator, 2 micron filter. I'm considering using the duramax filter (12642624) head with a CAT filter adapter since the duramax head has a built in heater and primer pump.
• return fuel line
• AX15 shifter out of a Dakota to bend up (the engine moves the transmission 4" forward)
• Novak transfer case shifter
• Stage 2 cam, timing belt, lifters, BSM delete.... blah blah
• XJ Clutch and flywheel kit - the current one is 200k miles old.

The to-do list right now is:

• figure out intercooling - on the fence over water-air or water water
• figure out air filtration
• rebuild tandem pump
• rebuild A/C, alternator, PS Pump
• Found a snorkel that goes on the right hand side of an XJ, debating one of those.
• Route A/C lines

I also just bought my first house. This has severely slowed progress... but in the Seattle market, it made more sense than renting, since my mortgage is less than rent was!

So, tell me guys, how insane is this project?

You will be VERY happy with the GTC1549VZ turbo. I know I am happy with mine! The spool is great.
Looking at a TDI conversion for a Jeep Comanche - so following with interest.

john.jackson9213 said:

Looking at a TDI conversion for a Jeep Comanche

Click to expand...

You wouldn't happen to be starting with one of the 4 cylinder Comanches, would you?

I haven't seen a lot of feedback on the gtc1549vz, just a handful of posts along the lines of "it spools fast" and that's about it. Seems like most builds are based off larger, slower to spool turbos. Is there a compressor map floating around out there for it?

xerootg said:

AC Compressor:
So, tell me guys, how insane is this project?

Click to expand...

If its not insane then its not fun.

Nice to see you on the forum.
You may not need to move the trans 4" forward, possibly 2" may workjust fine.

Compressor magic, I mean math

I've been doing math on fitting a compressor. I have 185mm from the center of the forward-most tooth on the serpentine belt to the front of the motor mount to work with here. The stock compressor is 214mm long from the first tooth to the rear of the compressor for anyone wondering why it won't fit. The 4660 I favor for this swap is 192mm from the first tooth to the rear of the compressor. 112mm of body, 46.5mm of first groove to body, and a 33.4mm head. It has an 8 groove pulley, so chopping off 3.56*2, we have 184.78mm to work with. Good grief, that's TIGHT.

Next I need to calculate where that puts the ears of the compressor in relation to the alternator bracket. The stock compressor is 68.9mm from the first tooth to the bracket (rear of the front ear on the compressor). This 4660 is 53.78mm to the same point, leaving a 15.12mm gap to fill.

4660:


4255OEM)


The rear ear is 14.4mm long and is 3.3mm further back from the bracket mounting bar, since the mounting bar on the bracket is 80mm long and the 3.6mm gap left on the VW compressor is taken up with the friction compressed bushing that sleeves into the rear ear of the VW compressor. I need to cut 15mm out of the rear of the bracket, so there wont be any rear support and the rear half of the bracket mounting bar will only have 3.3mm of aluminum left after moving the compressor forward.



Here's an overhead view of my logic:


That leaves 2 questions before I take the plunge on a $260 compressor that might fit:
1) is 2mm (ish) enough clearance between the compressor and motor mount?
2) is 3mm (ish) of material at the rear of the compressor mount bar substantial enough?

Anyone have any feedback?

what side is the jeep compressor on?

jimbote said:

what side is the jeep compressor on?

Click to expand...

It is on the right side.



I am planning on running the discharge over the top of the engine (tandem pump region) and the suction across the front to the condenser like they do on the right hand drive Cherokees.

could you use the BHW compressor bracket and mount the jeep compressor to it with a fabbed adapter, you would need to extend and/or bend lines but it could save you from having to buy another compressor

xerootg said:

You wouldn't happen to be starting with one of the 4 cylinder Comanches, would you?

I haven't seen a lot of feedback on the gtc1549vz, just a handful of posts along the lines of "it spools fast" and that's about it. Seems like most builds are based off larger, slower to spool turbos. Is there a compressor map floating around out there for it?

Click to expand...

Send me your email address and I will share what I have found.

The Comanche is/was a factory 4 cylinder Renault 2.1 TurboDiesel, so I will have no issues with the Calif. DMV

jimbote said:

could you use the BHW compressor bracket and mount the jeep compressor to it with a fabbed adapter, you would need to extend and/or bend lines but it could save you from having to buy another compressor

Click to expand...

Now that is what I call scheming! I will have to do measuring to see how that pans out, I believe the right side of the block is actually less roomy than the left side. Anyway I cut it, the AC lines WILL be moving and I don't believe the stock Jeep lines will be very happy about that.







So that being said, is there a minimum "gap" or tolerance that I should leave between accessories when building bracketry? I know nothing *should* move, but how tight can I pack things against the block and against other engine components?

i have a spare BHW ac bracket if you need it

jimbote said:

i have a spare BHW ac bracket if you need it

Click to expand...

On that train of thought, I found a Sanden direct mount that had a similar head and the same length pulley, it totaled out to 227.46mm from front groove to rear of head. I have 215mm to work with on the right side of the block, so if I do decide to work on that side I have more room but there isn't enough room for the Cherokee compressor. That was a good idea though!

Here's my plan.


I ran this past my friend who makes custom parts, he thought this would do what I need. I only have to worry about the clearance to the motor mount, but that should never move once everything is bolted up, and I can remove up to 3mm of material from the motor mount.

The united postal smashers brought me a handful of goodies today, my 98-2001 Dodge Cummins fuel pump module and a LuK Jeep clutch.

Unexpectedly, the truck fuel pump is too tall.



Atleast its too tall and not to short, to fix this problem, you trim the guide tubes, flair to fit, and cut the springs. In other good news, it has an aux fuel port for my Webasto built in, I only have to plumb it up.






Plumbing should be easy, the supply is 3/8 quick connect and the return is 5/16 quick connect. The four pin plug for fuel level/pump power will require a junkyard trip.

Great thread! I'm slowing picking away at a similar build... but with an alh in my xj. But there is a bhw sitting in the pickapart near me(it is quite tempting...) I noticed you are near seattle.. I live in chilliwack bc. One day I'll have to drive down and check it out!

xjjeeper said:

Great thread! I'm slowing picking away at a similar build... but with an alh in my xj. But there is a bhw sitting in the pickapart near me(it is quite tempting...) I noticed you are near seattle.. I live in chilliwack bc. One day I'll have to drive down and check it out!

Click to expand...

Sounds good man! My house is torn apart right now, we are striping the paint off most of the walls, fresh texture and a good clean coat of paint. Then red oak floors throughout, and finally some kitchen cabinets that aren't from the 70's. After that's done, come on over!

I've been trucking right along when my wife and I aren't working on house projects. I've been focusing on 2 fronts.

AC Compressor
After much measuring and remeasuring I picked up the 4660. It fits like a dream, BUT the lines are going to be tricky. It interferes with the frame mount when the outlet is clocked 90 degrees, and interferes with the regulator on my alternator when its not clocked. I will be ordering some low profile 90 degree fittings to see just how tight it is.



CCD Bus translation

Low and behold, Alexia on NAXJA published his project to use a haltech ECU with the CCD gauges, in his Jeep. Unfortunately his project does not implement any of the features that allow bus components to share the bus, he just bit-bangs the bus without calculating a CRC or checking if it is okay to transmit so when a collision occurs the cluster reboots. I will be continuing work on getting the CDP68HC68S1 working so I have idle detection and collision detection to allow my other CCD bus accessories such as my overhead console and airbag controller to remain functional. So far I started by building a shield for a teensy with the needed hardware to make CCD work. I datalogged a good hour and a half of driving, and I have documented about half of the addresses on that bus.

Alexia's work on github: here
My hacked together datalogger: here



Here's a CCD bus dump from yesterday. (10MB)


Addresses I've gathered so far

• 12 (0x0c) - volts, oil pressure, coolan temp
• 35 (0x23) - No clue, data is always 0,15, CRC
• 36 (0x24) - mph/kph
• 37 (0x25)- fuel level
• 58 (0x58) - No clue, data is always 34, 16, CRC
• 68 (0x44) - fuel pulse width??
• 80 (0x50) - Airbag Good
• 100 (0x64) - No clue, data is always 226,255,1, CRC
• 109 (0x6D) - VIN (position, ascii, CRC)
• 132 (0x84) - distance increased, (.0416 miles per bit)
• 164 (0xA4) - Feature Status
• 172 (0xAC) - chime - always 5, 130
• 204 (0xCC) - accumulated mileage??
• 218 (0xDA) - trip reset??
• 228 (0xE4)- tach/map
• 236 (0xEC)- Check Gauges light
• 254 (0xFE) - appears tied to RPMs??

xerootg said:

AC Compressor
After much measuring and remeasuring I picked up the 4660. It fits like a dream,

Click to expand...

Nice work on the logging.
Is the compressor a true bolt in other then the clearance issue?
Mount holes and spacing all work OK?
I think with my raised accessory bracket I should be good for clearance on the frame, just short of clearance behind the stock pump for the lines.

It is NOT a true bolt in. I can attest to that. The bracket in the picture has been modified. Poorly by me I might add... but evguy, you have the ability to weld aluminum, no? Basically, I cut the 14.35mm ears off of a compressor I had that was seized to use as spacers, and then trimmed the back of the bracket. I attempted to use the pressed in threaded standoffs from the same compressor to retain the compressor... which didn't work. The 14.35mm move placed the compressor too far forward to be able to access the suction and discharge. I really wish Sanden made a SD7 head with threaded ports at the top rear of the head instead of the center rear.



Just to show how tight the ports are:



Option 1)
The compressor ear to ear mounting is perfect on the bracket without my modifications, but end up being what looks like 2 grooves short. I may elect to find a pv10 or pv12 pully, and go with the stock bracket points since the stock points allow easiest access to the suction and discharge ports.




When I was looking at my options the pv12 and pv10 pullys placed the compressor too far back to clear the mount... so now that I see everything, I may be in the market for your bracket to raise the whole assembly if I choose option 1. I'm hard headed, so we will see. I will try the other option first.

Option 2)

Follow the spirit of my hackish modification above, but instead of moving the compressor 14.35mm forward, only move it 7.15mm forward which MIGHT be enough clearance to allow access to the suction and discharge. I need a stack of M10 washers to try this. If this works, I'll cut the whole bolt standoff shaft off of the mount and weld 80mm long aluminum tube in its place.

Either way I need a new BEW accessory bracket, this one has been hacked up enough.

you might be able to reclock the rear compressor housing to get your suction and discharge pointed in the right direction ... as for an extra BEW bracket i have one, PM if your interested

xerootg-Way too go on the build! I had a 99' XJ last year. True love/hate relationship. I did my own SA 4.5" lift,and other mods. I hated the way it drove... No local mechanic or even Jeep shop could definitively say what was bad and causing the drunken clown steering. The whole front end was replaced eventually...

My parents had a 2004 BEW Jetta wagon and said they's give it to me one day (Thanks Mom and Dad!). I hoped to sort out the handling and "throw in the BEW" one day, but it was too much stress to keep driving. They called one day and asked if I wanted the highly cared for wagon. XJ went up on CL for $2500 and sold fast. I love my wagon so much and see now (thanks to you) it would of been WAY above my current abilities to retrofit.

I can't wait to see how it turns out!

VincenzaV said:

I did my own SA 4.5" lift,and other mods. I hated the way it drove... No local mechanic or even Jeep shop could definitively say what was bad and causing the drunken clown steering. The whole front end was replaced eventually...

Click to expand...

The XJ is a misunderstood Jeep I've had 5 now, this one has been the best. It started out as a $1500 clunker. I will say... there are zero stock suspension and steering components left. Its right above 4" of lift after ACOS and boomerang shackles were added, and I had some serious steering changes incoming after that. My wife had a 98 with 4.5" of RC lift, and it was steering HELL. The combo of a drop pitman arm, ZJ steering, adjustable control arms and an adjustable track bar finally brought it to be close to as stable as stock. I totally understand.

I am so excited to finish this project up! I test drove a B5.5 yesterday to use as a commuter while I do this swap. My 4.0 is getting rather sickly. I've got a few more TDIs in the are to check out yet.

The AC compressor has likely found its home with 7.5mm of spacing. The 90A and 120A units are different depths by a couple millimeters. The 90A alternator leaves the most room for fittings, but I still might be able to find some super tight 90 degree #10 fittings so I can fit a 120A or 140A alternator.

SO. The hole 7.5mm spacing is a very tight fit.


I will be sticking with this spacing unless someone tells me that its terrible, so I went ahead and shaved the slight bevel off of the EVGuy mount to make things fit better. In this picture you can also see the clearance the 90A alternator provides.



The 120A as I mentioned is definitely a tighter fit for hoses, but its not a showstopper. I'd like to know the dimensional differences in a 140A and a 120A. If I am going to be spending extra cash on fittings, might as well go as big as I can on the alternator!




One caveat with having the setup moved back 7.5mm... you have to loose the wire management stud:

Just run a BPW accessory bracket and you can run all your factory accessories on the drivers side without welding or notching.

speedcreations said:

Just run a BPW accessory bracket and you can run all your factory accessories on the drivers side without welding or notching.

Click to expand...

Like this?

Looks like part number 03G 903 143D. I WOULD need some additional fabrication to use this since I will not be using a variable displacement compressor and the three bolt mounting patter is specific to the VW spec variable displacement series of compressors, but that does not make it a show-stopper. I will consider going this route if I continue to hit issues with the BEW bracket. Having the AC higher up gets it away from the frame in my case. EVGuy was concerned that I might have interference as it stands with the power steering pump in the lower position which takes up less area than the compressor. The frame, the sway bar, and the track bar are areas to be concerned about on that side of the Jeep.

Hello! How is your project going ? I'm willing to make the same swap in my 2.5 TJ Wrangler, but I'm scared about the power output. I'm after MPG mostly, but smooth highway cruising is a must (the 2.5 is way underpowered, 4.10s and 31"s, using fifth gear would be nice haha.). Do you think the tdi would outperform the gas engine stock ? Mods would come way later.

Knuckle720 said:

Hello! How is your project going ? I'm willing to make the same swap in my 2.5 TJ Wrangler, but I'm scared about the power output. I'm after MPG mostly, but smooth highway cruising is a must (the 2.5 is way underpowered, 4.10s and 31"s, using fifth gear would be nice haha.). Do you think the tdi would outperform the gas engine stock ? Mods would come way later.

Click to expand...

it'll run circles around the stock 2.5 and with the right hardware and tune it'll blow the doors off a stock 4.0

I have a b5.5 that I daily drive right now, it's stock and supposedly weights around 3600 lbs. I'd consider it peppy compared to my Jeep with a 4.0 and 3.73 gears. With 4.10s your Jeep should be sharp... But keep in mind the ax5 and 21 spline np231 isn't up to the torque for much over the 2.5l. Are you also on the d35 rear end?

I bought the b5.5 so I could start my conversion, check back early next year for progress!

jimbote said:

it'll run circles around the stock 2.5 and with the right hardware and tune it'll blow the doors off a stock 4.0

Click to expand...

Glad to hear it

Would such swap hurt resale value much?

As for the AX5, I'm going to test it out and upgrade if needed. Rear end unknown but it is an open diff.

Knuckle720 said:

Glad to hear it
Would such swap hurt resale value much?
As for the AX5, I'm going to test it out and upgrade if needed. Rear end unknown but it is an open diff.

Click to expand...

AX5 will probably hold up fine....my truck uses the w59 which is very close internally and externally to the ax5 and it's held up great for nearly 100k miles so far behind the TDI ... as far as resell value i doubt it will hurt the value much but you're gonna have a totally different class of vehicle than you started with... build it because it's what you wanna drive ...

Subscribing to this thread. I owned a 2000 xj and loved it to death. Sold it to buy my TDI Sportwagen. Wish I had kept it. I'm not an experienced mechanic (actually a management consultant) but I have a dream of ultimately picking up an old XJ to restore with my two young boys (currently 3 &5). Adding a TDI to the mix would be perfect! I'm guessing this swap is way over my capabilities but hopefully I can learn something from you! Thanks for sharing!