Project CRD MJ is born:

[Sir Sam]

Ordered the JCR DIY rear off ebay with a 20% off, $240 shipped!

 

https://www.jcroffroad.com/product/DIY-MJ-R.html

 

However the delivery shows April, lets see how long it takes, however there is not a particular rush.

[yellaheep]

Interesting....... Durango with a 330 hp Liberty CRD swap....

 

https://denver.craigslist.org/cto/d/2000-dodge-durango-crd-diesel/6530558647.html

 

[Sir Sam]

That is interesting. Not a huge fan of the durango over the KJ, Would have been more interesting to me in a 4 door dakota.

[terrawombat]

On 3/14/2018 at 11:13 PM, yellaheep said:

Interesting....... Durango with a 330 hp Liberty CRD swap....

 

https://denver.craigslist.org/cto/d/2000-dodge-durango-crd-diesel/6530558647.html

 

 

It's actually 330ft-lbs of torque, not HP.  When I saw your post and read that I was genuinely surprised since that motor only has about 160HP from the factory.  It's pretty easy to squeeze more torque out of a diesel, but to double the HP usually requires a bunch of supporting modifications.

 

Also baffled by the decision to use a Durango for the swap, but to each his own.  With the amount of time, labor and materials invested into this vehicle his asking price of $5,500 isn't all that bad.

[Sir Sam]

I took a video looking at turbo differences, I guess I'll stick with the original turbo:

https://youtu.be/dCqJu-dNSLM
 

[Sir Sam]

So I'm finally getting to the bumper part of this project. Got it bent, tacked, test fitted, and now onto the welding, have a friend over to help with the welding since my welder/me suck and I want it to be presentable.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Pete M]

can't say I've seen pics like that in a build thread before   nice!

[Sir Sam]

[Sir Sam]

Justin helped me finish the bumper welding yesterday. Just in time too.

Took a video while welding one of the end caps:

https://youtu.be/5BxyG-z_26E

[JMO413]

Just got thought reading you build, looks awesome. Can't wait to see a CRD MJ! The flir pictures are awesome. Keep up the good work!

[KCsurfer420]

Just wanted to check in to see if there were any updates on this build. I'm very interested in picking your brain as i just bought a wrecked running 05 Libberty CRD and have an 88 mj shell with all of the 98 xj swap parts. I am no stranger to the 97+ mj swap as i have built a few of them but I'm more interested in the wiring aspect of making it all work. 

[MJ70]

 

Hello Sir Sam
I would like to thank you for the inspiration. The 2.8CRD conversion in my Comanche is now running for 50,000 km. 
I was already 3 times in Morocco, Spain, France the whole Balkan and large parts of Europe on the way.
Greetings MJ70 from Germany

And sorry for the bad English, have used a translation program.

[89 MJ]

1 minute ago, MJ70 said:

 

Hello Sir Sam
I would like to thank you for the inspiration. The 2.8CRD conversion in my Comanche is now running for 50,000 km. 
I was already 3 times in Morocco, Spain, France the whole Balkan and large parts of Europe on the way.
Greetings MJ70 from Germany

And sorry for the bad English, have used a translation program.

What bad English? You did better than some Americans.

[Pete M]

14 minutes ago, MJ70 said:

 

Hello Sir Sam
I would like to thank you for the inspiration. The 2.8CRD conversion in my Comanche is now running for 50,000 km. 
I was already 3 times in Morocco, Spain, France the whole Balkan and large parts of Europe on the way.
Greetings MJ70 from Germany

And sorry for the bad English, have used a translation program.

 

 

 

you should do a build thread for that awesome truck! 

[JMO413]

5 hours ago, MJ70 said:

 

Hello Sir Sam
I would like to thank you for the inspiration. The 2.8CRD conversion in my Comanche is now running for 50,000 km. 
I was already 3 times in Morocco, Spain, France the whole Balkan and large parts of Europe on the way.
Greetings MJ70 from Germany

And sorry for the bad English, have used a translation program.

Beautiful truck! You should do a build thread work some more pictures. 

[jroypdx]

Sub'd

Sent from my GM1915 using Tapatalk

[Sir Sam]

Building a 4.6 stroker for the MJ to move the project along.

Starting with a 2000 XJ engine and trans combo, I pulled this thinking it was a good to run engine since the XJ it came from was fairly clean and low mileage, and the engine its self was fairly clean. Turns out it had been replaced before and thats why it was clean, but the bottom end was fairly scored/worn, particularly the rod bearings which even had galled a bit from wear. Internally the engine was fairly dirty. Piston walls were fairly glazed but also had some significant scoring on the walls from the pistons. I debated some refresh options but ultimately decided to go with a bottom end rebuild into a stroker. I had the machine shop bore/hone the cylinder walls to .030 over for the stroker, install new cam bearings, and clean the block up. ~$360. Later I gave up pressing the piston wrist pins into the new rods and paid them $50 to do it(better than me destroying anything).

Cam lobe wear:

Bearing scoring, this is one of the better ones:

I didnt get a picture of the worst of them unfortuneatly. 

Teardown continues:

New Jeep 258 stroker crank arrives:

New forged pistons:

Box of parts:

Block back from machine shop:

Pulled it into the sun to try and help it warm up before painting:

Ended up putting a box over it with a small heater to get it good and warm overnight.

[Sir Sam]

Painted:

Pressing in freeze plugs:

Started blasting all the aluminum stuff to make it pretty again:

Some RTV before oil pan goes on:

Pan installed, missing a few bolts:

Getting more builtup:

Painted head:

Ready for head:

Valve cover on:

[Sir Sam]

Testing fit of header vs engine mount bracket:

[Sir Sam]

Cracked bellhousing from my AW4:

So to get this project going I decided my dads garage would be a good place to work, since his garage is fukkin YUGE! So I spend quite a bit of time shoveling snow so we could move it, with the help of freerider we got it moved on Saturday.

And then into my Dads garage:

[Pete M]

that is indeed spacious! 

[A-man930]

Wait... I'm not seeing any word of what happened to the CRD?  Did it grenade like they all do?

[Sir Sam]

Pulled the gas tank and put about 7 gallons of 12 year old gas into the yellow Jeep to burn it up........ stinky stuff. 

[Sir Sam]

2 hours ago, A-man930 said:

Wait... I'm not seeing any word of what happened to the CRD?  Did it grenade like they all do?

 

Little harsh. 

 

No, I decided it was much quicker to stick with a 4L/AW4 if I wanted to get a running truck. The CRD swap has lots of electrical harness work, instead of spending lots of time on that, and then lots of time on all the other fabrication like intercooler piping, AC lines, etc etc. 

 

There is so much other stuff that needs to be done on this truck, that is independent of the engine type, that I have decided to first get it running as a "stock" setup. I can still do all the harness work I need to on a tabletop, like I was doing. But for now I'm going to push on ahead with the other work I need to get this thing running and use it.

[A-man930]

11 hours ago, Sir Sam said:

 

Little harsh. 

 

No, I decided it was much quicker to stick with a 4L/AW4 if I wanted to get a running truck. The CRD swap has lots of electrical harness work, instead of spending lots of time on that, and then lots of time on all the other fabrication like intercooler piping, AC lines, etc etc. 

 

There is so much other stuff that needs to be done on this truck, that is independent of the engine type, that I have decided to first get it running as a "stock" setup. I can still do all the harness work I need to on a tabletop, like I was doing. But for now I'm going to push on ahead with the other work I need to get this thing running and use it.

 

Haha, that was genuine curiosity; I've heard of nothing but issues with them in the Libertys.  That said, I hope your experience is better!  It should be a fun rig either way.  

In the meantime that stroker should fit the bill quite nicely.