terrawombat

Higher RPMs. You'll want to beef up those shock mounts. Those will be the first to go. Boxing them in underneath will make a big difference.

I'd let the owners with that engine put some more miles on before I considered it doing a swap with it. This will also be the engine used in the 2014 Ram 1500 so it's about to become a lot more common Stateside.

Just got back in from a little joyride out in the bay. Only lasted about 45 minutes as it was extremely choppy and I was getting pretty beat up. I must be in the jetski minority as I have taken a boater safety class and have done about 20 hours behind the wheel of my GFs mom's boat getting instructions from a licensed charter boat captain. Still feel like a newbie out on the water so I'm being a pretty big sissy and taking it easy. Supposedly this ski can do up to 55MPH, but I haven't had it much over 40 yet.

Don't have to deal with lake cops. The Maryland DNR doesn't seem to be too bad although my GF's stepmom used to be one and she was a total b-tch. Even other DNR cops hear her name and shake their heads. She would often tell me stories about incidents and for the most part it sounded like she took the situations entirely too seriously and handed out some unnecessary tickets.

Fuel mileage. The MJ in the OP is clearly not a wheeling rig - it's a DD. Unfortunately many of the smaller diesel engines offered in the US are just variants of larger truck engines so they're generally very heavy. I will agree that the B3.3 is a poor choice for a swap into an automotive application, but the guy likely yanked it out of some industrial machine and got it for a good price.

I've gone over 60K miles in 4+ years without the coilpack bolted on.

Just bought a jetski and trailer and had to laugh about the titling and registration fees. In Maryland boats are handled by an entirely different department (the Department of natural resources) than automobiles/trucks/trailers/motorcycles. Since the jetski/trailer were a package deal we had to split the costs up for the bill of sale for each. We estimated the value of the trailer at $125 (it needs a lot of work) and the jetski at $3100. Costs for titling the trailer: $100 Costs for registering the trailer: $51 6% Sales tax for trailer: $19.20 (MD taxes you on $320 if the vehicle value is below that) Total costs for titling/registering trailer: $170.20 (I also paid a $50 office fee for doing it at a third-party place next to my office. Won't take that into consideration since I could have gone to a regular office and paid nothing) So I wound up paying more for the titling and registration fees than I did for the trailer. Now, for the jetski, which is under an entirely different department. Costs for titling the jetski: $2 (2 whole dollars!) Costs for registering the jetski: $24 5% Sales tax: $155 (don't know why the DNR charges 1% under the state sales tax, but I'm not complaining) Total costs for titling/registering jetski: $181 The fact that they only charge $2 for a title is absurd especially when you consider that they have someone who will need to type up the new title in my name and mail it to me. That certainly has to cost the department more than 2 bucks... I would challenge that the Maryland Motor Vehicle Commission is one of the most expensive in the US.

Those kayak videos have got me thinking. I have the 10' version of his kayak that I don't use very often. Or maybe I can do this:

Figured since the Chesapeake Bay is approximately 800 feet from my house and the town I live in allows me to use their boat launch for free I might as well get something that floats. Don't have the skill or deep pockets for a boat so I started small...ish: 2002 Yamaha FX140. Bought it from an elderly couple who were the original owners - only has 63.7 hours on it. This model was the first 4-stroke personal watercraft produced by Yamaha. Fuel injected, 1000cc, 140HP and supposed to be one of the better skis on fuel consumption. The engine was taken from their R1 sportbike and adapted for marine use. From what I've read it's a rock solid platform that will provide several hundred hours of use. Only issues I have found with it so far are the bilge pump seems to be bad and the original cover will need to be replaced soon. Anyone else have any floating toys?

It's not uncommon for diesel engines to have 10,000-15,000 mile oil change intervals. The oil I put in my VW TDi recommends changing it every 10K. The owners manual for my '04 Ram states to change the oil every 7,500 miles in the 5.9L Cummins, but 10K intervals can be done if you're not towing. You also have to remember that these engines take more oil than gassers so while the oil changes may seem more spread apart, it costs more per oil change. My 5.9L takes 12 quarts per change. Check out some of the larger engines on that site like the ISX15 and ISX12 - their oil change intervals are up between 15-40K depending on how the engine is used.

And how would one get their hands on one of those black ones?

I own an '04 Cummins with the auto transmission (48RE). Very mediocre transmission with of minor issues that can turn into major ones if left untouched. If I could have found a six speed in my price range, I would have been all over it. The Cummins six speed owners know they have the best engine/trans combination of any of the big 3 and they price it as such. I saw manual trucks going for 20-25K with 200K+ miles on them. BTW, I picked up my '04 2500 with 198K miles on it for $8200.

Sounds like he'll just walk this one off. It's when they stop going about their daily routine that you know there's a serious problem. Did the vet say if the claw will grow back?

Looks like the ole Freedom is getting some wear and tear on her. Great pics as usual.

I tend to visit the site less when I'm not working on an MJ. Bought a house last year and started converting my entire fleet to diesel vehicles so I became much more active on the TDIClub and Cumminsforums. Finally got a diesel powerplant to swap into my MJ so back on here seeing what everyone else is up to. I know a few members weren't too happy with the forum layout switch and used that as an excuse to stop coming around.

Won't be so easy to push with a flat tire.

One of the (few) nice things about living in Maryland is that I can grab "Historic" plates for vehicles 20 years and older. It will make the vehicle exempt from the emissions/safety inspection and it will drop the 2-year registration fee down from about $150 to $50. It comes with all sorts of limitations, but everyone around here does it and the cops don't seem to care - must not be a heavy enough fine for them to make it worthwhile to pull you over.

Yea, this has me scratching my head too. A '59 Olds with a diesel 350 swapped in? Either way, nice turn-around there. Don't spend it all in one place.

I'm assuming you mean a '79 Olds diesel. This may be one of the biggest epic blunders in the history of General Motors. As mentioned before, they took their reliable and proven 350 block, changed up the chemistry of the metal material a bit, changed the heads and slapped an injection pump on it. I believe the crankshaft was beefed up as well, but this engine had a myriad of problems. In fact, many mechanics were making some decent money in the early to mid 80's by offering diesel-to-gasoline swaps. That's right, this engine was so bad that people wanted to go back to gasoline. One of its biggest problems was the head gaskets and bolts. The stock gaskets would often blow out after a relatively short period of time. Eventually GM came up with a better design, however, they were still having problems because the head bolts were being reused and really needed to be replaced every time the heads were removed. There are some GM 350 diesel diehards out there that swear once you upgrade the head gaskets and put a good set of headbolts on, the engine is actually very reliable, however, all of these "upgrades" didn't come in time for everyone (including GM) to just write the engine off as a loss and move on. It's a shame that this engine was such an epic failure because it really tainted the American perception of diesel passenger cars and it wasn't until the mid to late 90's that VW was able to start getting some traction on their TDi line of vehicles.

I'm in Queenstown on the Eastern Shore. Unfortunately, I don't have any wheeling rigs down here with me (still up at my parents place in NJ) but I'd be down for a meet and greet as long as there is beer available.

Even the price of the crappy MJs are going up...

The 240D is usually known to be the best MB diesel in terms of fuel economy, but it's also pretty under powered. You're looking at maybe 65HP and 100 Ft-Lb of torque. With the amount of effort involved to do these kinds of swaps, I'd look for something with a little bit more get up and go.

No updates on the engine, but I've started to prep the MJ that this engine will plop into.

I applaud the fabricators effort as it looks like it was done cleanly, but the original design is wrong. It looks like it belongs on a J10, not an MJ. I'd never thought I'd say this about the MJ/XJ, but that bed is too boxy.

Not all concepts are just for fun, though. Some are designed with the intent that much of the concept will remain the same for a future production vehicle. Other concepts (like the Jeep Cyclone) are like you said - management and engineering having some fun at the expense of the company. Unfortunately, we're in a time where pockets are shallow and money is tight so the "fun" concepts have to be curbed back a bit. If Fiat and turn Chryco back into a profitable company (which they'll have to do using the mall crawler SUVs we all hate), we might start seeing those neat concepts again. I'm just not sure how many true Jeep designers and engineers are left at Chrysler...