Eightycc
Member
I'm posting this out of the general sympathy of my heart. Living in Ohio I recently purchased a 1994 HPA TDI Jeep Wrangler off of a man in NC for a really fair price (less than $14,000 I'll say that) The thing has a 200k mile 94 Jeep, 4.0, 5 speed body, and 33 inch all-terrains with a 100k mile 2006 TDI motor flashed to roughly 145 hp and 255tq.
It goes MUCH faster than the 4.0 ever did, it will shove you back in your seat, and does wonderfully. Right now I have 317 gears in her which seem a little high, she'll do 70 in 3rd gear and 85 in 4th down the highway no problem, but shifting into 5th makes the engine struggle some, so I'm going to try the 355s she came with. It has great heat (Here in Ohio the winters are cold, and it WILL burn you out, also A/C and everything except the tachometer hooks up and works. Temp, oil pressure etc) And Yes, and everyone reading this is wondering I'm averaging close to, if not occasionally above 30 mpg quite easily. (and this is in the cold winter months, with large tires, top and large offroad bumpers) I havent gotten to take exact measurements yet but based on my calculations it's hovering between 27 and 30 while trying to baby her some, I could see it maybe getting 31 or even 35 with 55mph hypermiling, no wind, and a hardtop. Right now I'm looking forward to seeing how the warm weather will change things. The fan is rigged to run constantly so it has a hell of a time warming up in -30 weather. And it will not get warm while idling because of that, it has to be driven to warm up.:/ (Right now it has an old ragtop, offroad stinger bumpers on the front and rear which add alot of weight and even worse aerodynamics.)
I wanted to write this in case anyone had any questions because I know I got lucky, but upon planning, had TONS of what-ifs and where do you get your parts? etc. And NOONE to go to with them for genuine answers and real world experience, just HPA's word for it.
Most of the stuff came from HPA, nothing was home made, however, the cost for this is just that, cost. The guy said he had about $18,000 in it, which was what I had drawn up previously on my estimates. He bought and installed every available add on from HPA and even bought the bumpers and all that the mascot Jeep has to make it look just like theirs.
I'd been looking at doing this myself for the past few years and they only began making them 3 months after I sold all of my stuff I HAPPENED to have laying in the driveway to do the job. I sold it all because my 87 4 cylinder wrangler was only averaging 13.9 on the highway, and I couldn't afford it anymore. And my 88 ext cab toyota 4x4 2.4 4 cylinder was only doing 17 at best (Both had 33 in tires with 5 speeds)
I've owned multiples of every generation of VW diesel since mk2s all the way up to mk5 in the last 6 or so years and have been heavily involved with these TDI's since gas prices skyrocketed, I sold all my 4x4's and have bought 3 or 4 mk3s, an mk2 rabbit, 4 mk4's and an mk5 (buying and selling whenever I got a deal). Having missed my 4x4's I got lucky and found this gem for sale! If anyone has questions about parts or cost or how she does feel free to email me at [emailemail], thanks and best of luck!- Matt
Here is a link to the old ebay page for pics http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1994...2203486?pt=US_Cars_Trucks&hash=item4d098528de
It goes MUCH faster than the 4.0 ever did, it will shove you back in your seat, and does wonderfully. Right now I have 317 gears in her which seem a little high, she'll do 70 in 3rd gear and 85 in 4th down the highway no problem, but shifting into 5th makes the engine struggle some, so I'm going to try the 355s she came with. It has great heat (Here in Ohio the winters are cold, and it WILL burn you out, also A/C and everything except the tachometer hooks up and works. Temp, oil pressure etc) And Yes, and everyone reading this is wondering I'm averaging close to, if not occasionally above 30 mpg quite easily. (and this is in the cold winter months, with large tires, top and large offroad bumpers) I havent gotten to take exact measurements yet but based on my calculations it's hovering between 27 and 30 while trying to baby her some, I could see it maybe getting 31 or even 35 with 55mph hypermiling, no wind, and a hardtop. Right now I'm looking forward to seeing how the warm weather will change things. The fan is rigged to run constantly so it has a hell of a time warming up in -30 weather. And it will not get warm while idling because of that, it has to be driven to warm up.:/ (Right now it has an old ragtop, offroad stinger bumpers on the front and rear which add alot of weight and even worse aerodynamics.)
I wanted to write this in case anyone had any questions because I know I got lucky, but upon planning, had TONS of what-ifs and where do you get your parts? etc. And NOONE to go to with them for genuine answers and real world experience, just HPA's word for it.
Most of the stuff came from HPA, nothing was home made, however, the cost for this is just that, cost. The guy said he had about $18,000 in it, which was what I had drawn up previously on my estimates. He bought and installed every available add on from HPA and even bought the bumpers and all that the mascot Jeep has to make it look just like theirs.
I'd been looking at doing this myself for the past few years and they only began making them 3 months after I sold all of my stuff I HAPPENED to have laying in the driveway to do the job. I sold it all because my 87 4 cylinder wrangler was only averaging 13.9 on the highway, and I couldn't afford it anymore. And my 88 ext cab toyota 4x4 2.4 4 cylinder was only doing 17 at best (Both had 33 in tires with 5 speeds)
I've owned multiples of every generation of VW diesel since mk2s all the way up to mk5 in the last 6 or so years and have been heavily involved with these TDI's since gas prices skyrocketed, I sold all my 4x4's and have bought 3 or 4 mk3s, an mk2 rabbit, 4 mk4's and an mk5 (buying and selling whenever I got a deal). Having missed my 4x4's I got lucky and found this gem for sale! If anyone has questions about parts or cost or how she does feel free to email me at [emailemail], thanks and best of luck!- Matt
Here is a link to the old ebay page for pics http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1994...2203486?pt=US_Cars_Trucks&hash=item4d098528de
Last edited:
.... glad you're enjoying the swap, i know he went through tremendous headaches
