1988 Grand Wagoneer Diesel Isuzu 4BD1T Ford ZF5-42

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Adventure_Wagon88
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1988 Grand Wagoneer Diesel Isuzu 4BD1T Ford ZF5-42

Post by Adventure_Wagon88 »

I've been around for a little while now, I bought my first FSJ in August 2016. It's a 1988 Grand Wagoneer from Florida. I don't have the full history, but as far back as I have seen it's always been a southern truck. The previous owner just before me was the first to really mod anything, giving it a SOA conversion up front, and (unfortunately) lift blocks in the rear. I'm not quite sure the extent of what was done to the suspension and steering, as admittedly I'm not really an FSJ guy yet. From what I can tell, the SOA perches were welded on nicely, brake lines extended, and steering changed up a bit to correct the angles. I also have Warn locking hubs on the front. It's riding on 33's and though I have 4 matching Baja rims, it's got a factory rim on the front passenger corner with a different tire hah.. I'm planning to sell the rims and go to something stock.

I'll start this off with a few photos, which I've posted before in my "new member" post, and give a list of my plans before I get into the whole "adventure" of picking it up.

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(removing this horrible homemade rear bumper was the first modification)

I've registered it in PA as antique, which means I can drive it "limited use", and don't have to worry about inspection/emissions, or annual registration. My initial plans are to get the 360 running well enough to use it for some local running around so I can enjoy it a bit while I get the body, electrical, interior, and suspension where I want it before stepping into the bigger stages of my build.

I eventually want this to be my daily (so I can stop driving a stupid minivan!) but also comfortable enough to take the family on a long trek while towing a camper. For lift I will keep it SOA up front with a shackle flip and traction bar in the rear. Before the diesel swap I'll either do custom springs or new 2" lift springs I think. I started out thinking this would get a 6BT, but after hours and hours of research, I decided this really isn't the ideal platform for such a heavy engine which got me into 4 cylinder diesels. I've definitely settled on a 4 cylinder, either a Cummins 4BT or an Isuzu 4BD1T. An automatic transmission isn't even a consideration, it has to be a manual. I'm pretty set on an NV4500 behind it, especially if I go Isuzu as that's the most common manual trans adapter. I'm undecided on TC at this point. I don't want to go any smaller than 37" tires and plan to trim and bump stop appropriately. I am thinking I'll want to go to 1 ton axles given the torque of the diesel and tire size, as well as 4.10 gears. I also want at least a rear selectable locker and don't want to spend the money to build up the stock D44s and end up snapping things constantly but I am open to opinions!

OK that's all for now but stay tuned and I will be adding more photos and information soon
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66stepside
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Re: 1988 Grand Wagoneer Diesel 5 Speed build

Post by 66stepside »

Looks pretty sharp- looking forward to see it evolve. Welcome aboard!


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Adventure_Wagon88
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Re: 1988 Grand Wagoneer Diesel 5 Speed build

Post by Adventure_Wagon88 »

Thanks! It's going to be a pretty slow build but I will get there. Already done some metal work and various other things since those above photos were taken. Sold that Dodge too :-(

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Re: 1988 Grand Wagoneer Diesel 5 Speed build

Post by Adventure_Wagon88 »

Trying to get him worthy of a 1000 mile trip, chasing a hurricane
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The day I picked it up
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ShagWagon
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Re: 1988 Grand Wagoneer Diesel 5 Speed build

Post by ShagWagon »

I think that rear bumper kinda cool. Seems its missing an arm that holds the spare on a swing away. Seems a great way to go if yo got the other piece.
87 Grand Wagoneer Rebuilt 360 by S&J, Fitech GO EFI 600, Novak in-tank fuel pump, Skyjacker Hydro 4" lift, BFG AT KO2 30", Dynamax Muffler, MSD distributor, MSD ignition, Edlebrock perf 4bbl intake, Elgin perf cam, Oil tube mod, Roller rockers, chrome molly lifters, HD alum radiator, Powermaster 150/100 alt, Alum HD water pump, Serhills tailgate harness, Cowl screen mod, Evil Twin grab handles, Rstep's custom AMC door lock knobs, all electrical works.

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Adventure_Wagon88
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Re: 1988 Grand Wagoneer Diesel 5 Speed build

Post by Adventure_Wagon88 »

Haha, that rear bumper was solid, but definitely not my definition of cool. I have the swing away for it, which I'll reuse the hardware from. It's all 1/4" steel, and probably weighed about 400 lbs --without a tire. It also killed the departure angle just a bit. I'll make a better one that weighs less than that with a high lift and 37 mounted and fits closer to the body.

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Re: 1988 Grand Wagoneer Diesel 5 Speed build

Post by Adventure_Wagon88 »

So a little more back story and the saga of bringing the beast from FL to PA.

I had been dreaming of a Grand Wagoneer build since not long after I sold my last XJ and always thought they would make a good platform for a diesel swap. I've been a fan of the Cummins since I used to drive an old 24 valve frequently at a previous employer. I found Toby Boyer / Mercenary Offload's 24 valve Cummins build and shortly after that I started actively looking for a wag. I don't think it helped that there's one sitting in my town (late model, rotting away) which kept the dream fresh every time I drive past.

I found this one on eBay and to be honest totally jumped the gun and got pretty lucky on this one. I talked to the seller on the phone and he confirmed that he had been over it and found no rust anywhere, but the interior was pretty well stripped and [boo-hoo] the A/C didn't work. I found a one way flight for $40 decided to put in a bid which just hit the reserve and won it. The seller assured me there would be no issue driving it home to PA...which if he'd been a little more realistic would have at least said "well, I wouldn't try that..." but he said it should be up for it. In his defense, it ran great below 60MPH and around town and when i got there he commented "it'll run around here ALLLLL day". I was pretty pleased with my purchase upon inspection in person, and test driving the only sketch thing was the front brakes pulling hard to the left. It really accelerated and shifted great but smelled a little rich. Oh well, it was mine now! I had a friend down there who's house I used to do some work before hitting the road. I continued on my (foolish) planned mission of change fluids and give it a little tune before heading out.

In hind sight, I should have just driven it back to my buddies house, hopped a $40 return flight home, and worked out shipping back up north. That or what I ended up doing...which was even suggested by my friend. To spoil the ending, I wound up driving it down a little further south to Sanford, FL and boarded the Amtrak Auto Train to Lorton, VA where I figured I was within 200 miles of home and could easily work my way back under my own power. But I was wrong again haha...

After flushing coolant and finding nothing but rusty water, I decided to change out the water pump and give the entire coolant system a good purge. I don't think this was a mistake, but it was certainly a much bigger job than I anticipated, mostly in reassembly, so other equally important things didn't get done. During this time, Hurricane Hermine was also threatening to pound FL while I'm doing this. And I'm in a driveway. So every hour or two I have to duck for cover from the hurricane rains. Skipping over the details of struggling through all that, I headed out a day later than anticipated, with the hurricane still looming. At this point my wife is super pissed that I've run off to FL to buy a Jeep that won't get me home. It's labor day weekend, and flights now are at least $400 if you can find one with the airlines worried about the hurricane.

It did fine on the highway at first, but with 33" tires and stock gearing, he wanted to be at either 55 or 70 MPH, not anywhere in between. At 70 the temperature was riding about 2 ticks below red, at 60 it was in the comfort zone and at 55 it was cool as a cucumber. Also, since I didn't get to do anything with the ignition system, every time I hit rain (about every 20 miles) the engine struggled to stay running. I think this was due to the ICM mainly, but more on that later as I've since replaced it. Shortly before I made it to the GA line the transfer case started making noises. Turns out this was just the lever not being positioned correctly but I really couldn't get it to move so I tried to ignore that. It was starting to get dark and I was only about 2 hours into my 16 hour trip. I went to turn on the headlights, and...nothing! I had noticed the switch was a little funny, so I messed with it and really couldn't get it to work. At this point I'm really starting to feel like the idiot I was for trying to drive 1000 miles in this thing, so newly acquainted. I
figured I'd mess with the lights later, I could get the parking lights working and I knew I could hard wire one light to the battery if I needed and they'd both come on. Onward. Another 25 miles or so and the transfer case was really starting to sound like it wanted to grenade. I pulled over and called my friend. He encouraged me to come back and figure something else out, so that's what I did. Like I said earlier, I ended up using Amtrak Auto Train which worked out OK...More about that in my next post.

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Adventure_Wagon88
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Re: 1988 Grand Wagoneer Diesel 5 Speed build

Post by Adventure_Wagon88 »

Image

With a $40 plane ticket you don't get a checked bag. So for $10 I flat rate shipped my tools ahead of me. I didn't want for anything while I was away and yes, the postal worker grunted when picking up the box off the counter! But they did not otherwise complain about the weight and the box was intact upon arrival.

letank
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Re: 1988 Grand Wagoneer Diesel 5 Speed build

Post by letank »

Great story, very entertaining break while doing some electrical upgrade on the waggy...

Did you check the fluid level after one hour drive on the TC and transmission... When I bought the 85 for $250 -that was 14 years ago- The TC slowly bled itself... after 3 months there was barely 1/2 pint. The rear seal was leaking.

Not familiar with the headlight switch on the 88, or post 85 wiring system, as usual test for voltage - and especially the ground, but as you said, you can wire directly to battery -add a fuse, a thermal fuse is better-

Waiting for part II
Michel
74 wag (349 Kmiles... parked, next step is a rust free body)
85 Gwag (229 Kmiles... the running test lab)

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Re: 1988 Grand Wagoneer Diesel 5 Speed build

Post by Adventure_Wagon88 »

Thanks letank! I bought the Jeep back in August so some of this is just going over the beginnings and I have sorted a few things out since what I am writing about in the "story" part. I bought a headlight switch off a member here which fixed up my headlights/parking lights all beautifully. Well, except for the one rear tail light wiring that was cut into for a cob job trailer hitch wiring but I just fixed that up nicely last week. Trans fluid level is good but I have not changed it, and the T-Case was nearly dry when I got it and that was flushed and filled before my attempted trip home.

Back to the saga of getting this thing up north...

So it's Labor Day weekend (Friday night/Saturday morning) and I have few options for getting this guy and myself home in a reasonable time frame. I looked into shipping, but with a 1 way rental car or plane ticket over the holiday weekend we were at close to $1000 there. Plane tickets dropped significantly by Tuesday but I did not want to be away for basically 4 more days at this point. So I had 2 real viable options. Have my buddy with his Cummins and car trailer head south down 95 while I headed north and *hoepfully* meet somewhere in the middle (very risky option and I probably would have been waiting for him on the side of the highway somewhere in Georgia) or take the Auto Train. The Auto Train was actually totally shut down from Thursday to Sunday, so Sunday morning was my first opportunity to get out on that. Thankfully I secured a ticket just in time for a sold out train to VA.

As I mentioned earlier, I should have just done the Auto Train from the get-go, or jumped a flight back to PA and had a shipper pick it up at my Friend's house in FL. The Auto Train was only about $370 for me and the Jeep and it was only about 175 miles from Lorton to home. I was trying not to spend that money and have myself a little road trip adventure though (haha). So Sunday morning I drove down to Sanford which was about an hour south of my friend's house. This is when I fully realized how foolish I would have been to try and drive this thing 1000 miles north with a hurricane hovering over me the whole time. The carb was so bad and poorly tuned it was acting like it was running out of fuel on the highway. I basically had to keep it at 55 the whole way to Sanford. I made it though, giving my keys to the attendant made me pretty nervous that something was going to happen and they wouldn't be able to get it loaded on the train. The attendant LOVED the Jeep and chatted with me about it for a few minutes. I went and sat in the stuffed waiting area for about 2 hours before we could board the train.

If you've never been on a long Amtrak ride like this, you definitely should sometime. It was a pretty neat experience, and it even included dinner and breakfast which to my surprise were fantastic. The views were somewhat boring but worth seeing for the most part, and sleeping was not impossible. I also had my laptop so I could watch some movies and get some editing done as well. So here's the best part of this story. It's about 1:30 AM and I'm in a light sleep. I feel the train come to an abrupt stop. I commuted on SEPTA trains daily for a while and have ridden Amtrak numerous times and only ever felt a train stop like that once before, so I know what had just happened was an emergency stop. Passengers are starting to talk in hushed tones about what might be happening. One person says that we've just stopped to change engines from electric to diesel (wrong, we're diesel the whole way) another says they smell gasoline and this must be a fuel stop. Out my window I can see a shopping mall, and trains don't run on gasoline so I just roll my eyes at both of these assumptions and try to go back to sleep. Finally another passenger comes from towards the front telling people we've hit a vehicle at a road crossing. Yeah, that sounds more like it. Perfect, how long will this take? The news articles online gave us more information than Amtrak ever did. Hung Tran (no joke, that was the vehicle owner's name) wanted to hang up the train I guess. Here's the article - http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/201 ... -carolina/

So when we finally winch the car out from under the train we get moving again. Long story longer, we had a small fire hours later caused by the accident damage (part of the car was dragging under the train I think?) and what should have been a 16 hour train ride was about 23 hours. Needless to say I was happy to be off that train and a free man again! They unloaded my jeep without any trouble, I hopped in and blasted out of there. I made it about 3 miles before he quit on me. The engine just softly idled down to 0 rpm as the light was turning green. Thankfully I was on a down hill so I was able to coast off the road and into a shopping center entrance. I wasn't really on the shoulder completely but I couldn't get it any further. I tried to ask the owner of a modded JK at an adjacent car wash if he could possibly be a non douche Jeep owner for a second and tow me off the road but the dude wouldn't even make eye contact with me. A wonderful older woman offered to help me and took me to a gas station where I bought a tank and 5 gallons of fuel to see if that would get me going again. It did not so I called AAA to get me off the road, and my buddy with the Cummins to head down to VA and just get me the heck home already without any more drama. While I was waiting...after I had a tasty burger...I decided to pour some gas down the carb to see if I could get it running so we wouldn't have to winch it on the trailer with a come-along. The engine fired right up. It's shut off like this on me a few times now and I've learned this was just the starving beast's way of running out of gas. I'm pretty sure I was getting about 3 gallons to the mile at that point. Yes, gallons per mile.

That's about where the drama of this story ends. My buddy and my dad actually came down, we loaded up, got some coffee, and hauled ass back to PA.
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ClovisMan
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Re: 1988 Grand Wagoneer Diesel 5 Speed build

Post by ClovisMan »

No wonder you call it Adventure Wagon. :)
88 Grand Wagoneer - The Money Pit - 360/727/NP208 - SOA/SF - Lots of other stuff SOLD
78 Cherokee Chief - Copper - 360/TH400/Quadratrac - 4 inch BDS lift - 33 inch tires SOLD

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Adventure_Wagon88
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Re: 1988 Grand Wagoneer Diesel 5 Speed build

Post by Adventure_Wagon88 »

A helper in FL
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Bracing for Hermine
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Breakfast of driveway mechanics
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Waiting to valet at the Auto Train
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Re: 1988 Grand Wagoneer Diesel 5 Speed build

Post by Adventure_Wagon88 »

Have not done a whole lot to this since getting it home. I did not have power in my shop from June until now (tree branch took out the power line from my house to the barn) and I finally got that reinstalled so that is one major thing that will make it easier to work on at home. The few things I have done, roughly in order, since September:

Gutted remaining interior parts
Washed interior, exterior, insides of door panels, flushed out quarter and rocker panels
De-greased and power washed engine bay, driveline, and underside
Replaced headlight switch (headlights and all running lights work, but the gauge cluster is still out haha)
Bought front and rear tan leather WJ seats. Welded up brackets to the drivers seat so it bolts to the factory bucket seat base
Cut out the only rust on the whole Jeep - the passenger side floor, and replaced with Z&M Jeeps replacement panels
Bought a factory rear tan/cordovan rear seat in beautiful shape...not I'm not sure what seats I'll run hah
Got rear window working with a new lifter bar on the glass and new tracks for inside the gate. Still need to order inner and outer wipes for it to work properly.
Did a compression check. Lackluster results, with the lowest being 90 in a few cyl and highest being 120
Replaced plugs/wires/cap/rotor
Picked up a "NOS" (supposedly) ICM
Rebuilt MC2150 carb
Sold AR wheels it came with, bought a set of factory wag wheels and installed the 33's on those
Bought a new battery and replaced ground cable with new 2 gauge and brass terminal
Have been replacing vacuum hoses as I can

I really haven't had any time or motivation recently to work on it. It ran fine in FL other than how I mentioned earlier how it behaved on the highway, but since it shut off on me in VA it has not run well at all. Since replacing the plugs/wires/cap/rotor and rebuilding the carb it's only gotten worse somehow. It starts up and idles fine, but under any power it sputters and pops, and also does so at idle once it's warm. I suspect it's a vacuum issue but I really don't know. Since my long term goal is to do the diesel swap I've gotten easily frustrated with the ailing 360 which I really don't want to put much more money into. That said, it would be really rewarding to be able to drive it around a bit especially since it will realistically be at least a year until I am driving it around under diesel power, so part of me really does not want to give up on that yet. Any suggestions on that front would be greatly appreciated.

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Re: 1988 Grand Wagoneer Diesel 5 Speed build

Post by Adventure_Wagon88 »

Some pics of the floor job

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The new wheels

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Re: 1988 Grand Wagoneer Diesel 5 Speed build

Post by Adventure_Wagon88 »

Well I've barely touched this thing since winter. It's been parked in my barn, which I've slowly been cleaning out (seems that's a 2 steps forward 1 step back kind of process) to make room to actually work around this thing. I started to actually get some cash piled up for parts, and came across a very awesome deal on a 4BT/ZF5 speed combo which would have been perfect for me. The guy was only available on weekends, and since I work almost every weekend during the summer I was not able to get out to see it. I should have just told him I wanted it sight unseen and sent a deposit because it sold just a few days before I could get out to see/buy it. Oh, well another deal will come along. My original plan was to keep the 360 in until I had a motor to replace it, thus keeping the Jeep mobile under it's own power. Plans change, and due to the fact that it has not moved in months, I decided to list the motor and trans for sale. Both sold quickly, so I'm going to be removing the front end and pulling the motor to get the whole engine bay and frame prepped for the Cummins swap!

While I continue to pile up cash I'll be doing little things like body mount replacements, bed lining the interior floors, and also shopping for a set of 1 ton axles. Not exactly exciting stuff worth taking many photos of, but I'll try to keep some updates coming in.
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Stuka
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Re: 1988 Grand Wagoneer Diesel 5 Speed build

Post by Stuka »

Thankfully 4BT's are common enough that you will find another one.
2017 JKU Rubicon
Pevious Jeeps: 1981 J10, 1975 Cherokee, 2008 JK, 2005 KJ, 1989 XJ
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az chip
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Re: 1988 Grand Wagoneer Diesel 5 Speed build

Post by az chip »

Always take photos. Words are hard for us.
'81 Cherokee Chief 81 WT Chief/MSD 6/Holley Sniper/ Rusty 4" Spring lift/ Bulltear oil adapter/K&P Engineering Oil Filter/ NP 208/ Serehill Light Harness/KC LED Headlights/ Evil Twin Fab Roof Rack and sliders/ Ross mirror mounts.
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dodgerammit
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Re: 1988 Grand Wagoneer Diesel 5 Speed build

Post by dodgerammit »

az chip wrote:Always take photos. Words are hard for us.
:lol:
84 Grand Waggy-Radio Flyer (Garnet Red/3M Ebony Metallic woodgrain, with honey interior) AMC 360 :cry: 2004 4.8LS/Advance Adapter/727/242 D44/AMC20 Serehill tailgate and headlight harnesses :fsj: Ongoing thread-viewtopic.php?t=11897

92 Wrangler Islander 4.0/32RH/231 D30/D35 RHD

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Re: 1988 Grand Wagoneer Diesel 5 Speed build

Post by Adventure_Wagon88 »

Ok, here's a pic: bought a motor Image 1990 Isuzu 4BD1T. For those not familiar it's a 3.9 liter turbo diesel. 1990 is one of the best production years. They run quieter and smoother than a Cummins 4BT. They are pretty hard to find and I never thought I'd find one. Especially for the deal this one was! Comes with a GM bellhousing adapter so it looks like I'll run a GM NV4500 behind it.

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WT91
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Re: 1988 Grand Wagoneer Diesel 5 Speed build

Post by WT91 »

What does that motor regularly come in? Awesome score!
  • 1990 Grand Wagoneer
    440 swap, 727 MVB, NP208, D44 F/R 4.10 gears ZIP locker up front Detroit out back. So much other stuff. Check out the build.
  • 1994 Ford F350 Crew Cab Dually
    7.3 PS, ZF5, 6.0 Intercooler, KC Turbo
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