Full Size Jeep Network

BaldBeardedBastard wrote: ↑Sun Oct 24, 2021 4:40 pm It's just to get the registration sorted. You register in your state with the VT title/registration after.

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Ah. That makes sense!

BaldBeardedBastard wrote: ↑Sun Nov 25, 2018 7:01 pm

tedlovesjeeps71 wrote:Would you mind listing the general prices you ended up with for motor etc? Be very helpful to those of us dreaming but pinching pennies.

Not at all. The price is up on Cummins Repower website- you buy it directly from them. They go for $8.9k. I got a little better price with the SEMA show discount.


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Wow. Anything less than $10k for a drop-in LS style big C brand-new crate motor is a steal. When they first started talking about doing this they were around $16k for the little motor and $25 for the big brother. That was too rich for me. If this would have been out and at this price, I would not have gone down the 4bt swap road. The 4bt engine is everything I want except for the weight. It is just too heavy. On the bright side, it is cave man simple.

derf wrote: ↑Sun Nov 25, 2018 7:46 pm ...
As far as the Liberty 2.8, that is an entirely different engine. It was made by VM Motori in Italy. Jeep dropped it because of the new emissions laws that went into effect. They weren't selling enough to justify doing the work to make it meet the new standards. From what I understand, the work was later done and it's been updated in many ways to became the 2.8 Duramax that you can get in the Chevy Colorado. But I don't know what all was done.

The original 2.8 VM in the Liberty was an old tractor/ag motor with a new head on it and some tweaks. It was-- like all things VM-- poorly made. At the time, Penske was a joint investor trying to turn their QC around. That didn't work and Penske got out.

Anyway, VM designed a new 2.8 motor at this time to replace the old one sold in the Liberty. The new one has the same displacement as the old but is a totally different VM engine, it wasn't just tweaked for emissions. It was used for the export market JK in the early JK years. VM also had a 3.0 diesel designed originally for the Cadilac STS in the European market. That ended up being the first eco-diesel engine in the RAM. Fiat eventually made their own diesel to replace it in the RAM and to put one in the new Wrangler JL.

It isn't a shock they could not sell the older 2.8 VM engine equipped Liberty-- the engines were trash, the packaging job was very bad and they did not support them with parts or service after the sale.You were basically on your own. When they broke down, you waited 3 days at least for parts to get shipped from LA. The product wasn't even beta quality really. I still cannot figure out how they sell a a new JL of any kind to anyone, let alone a diesel one. They really expect you to buy something both Italian, and without a warranty. LOL. No way.

Final got around to getting some of the notched firewall pics.

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Spent the day tuning the transmission controller while running errands. The compushift has a lot of parameters to perturb and observe. It's starting to drive much more comfortably once I stopped trying to stall it with keeping the lock up to 3% throttle(!!).

Any experience from the community with converter lock-up settings? I have it locking up in 4th above 50mph between 25-85% throttle. It's a 4L65e. I will continue to tweak it. I would love any reference material that has a more programmatic/engineering approach to tuning it if anyone has it.

Also got to install the Thule racks- attached. The RTT should be here this week. It's the 8inch gutter mount that give about 1.5-2" clearance over the factory rack.

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You will want 3rd to lock at 40 with the same throttle parameters. IIRC you can turn 3rd lock up off unless 3rd is manually selected. Been a long time since I messed with compushift and I could be thinking of a different controller or even a different trans. Being able to lock in 3rd is important for those long slower climbs.

Thanks Yeller! The TCC setup does let you set which gear you allow lock up to start at. Here is the original (very wrong) set up in the compushift app.



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I have a 700r4 in one of my trucks. Really wanted 4l60/65/70 but funds said no, I had the 700 and it was fresh. Lock up is one thing I wish I had better control of. It locks 100% of the time in 4th which causes some downshifts to 3rd, where all it needs is just the bump from unlocking. It also needs lock up in 3rd that it doesn’t have. That and it shifts too early at WOT but that’s a different story LOL. Really like your build, the R2.8 builds always draw my attention and yours is well executed.

@yeller- Thank you for the insight! Changed it up and significantly better. Still fiddling with the shift sensitivities, but far more enjoyable to drive on 50mph two lane roads like you said. I appreciate the help. And while I consider the medium blue the best color for a Grand Wagoneer, your truck is easily one of the best color/grille combo I have seen on a widetrack.

Took the GW to and from work- overall ran great & gave me a chance to fiddle with the trans controller set up. Temperatures for the trans ranged from 145-165°F depending on ambient and drive conditions. Engine was pretty solidly 180-190°F, from 75mph on the highway or crawling in traffic. So generally a win there.

Have a few leaks to chase down- 1 is the speed cable to the NP228, one at the lower radiator, and most unfortunately one at the union of the hydroboost and the adapter plate. Any experience from the collective on troubleshooting this? I have found a few threads over on the mothership around seal replacement is a good avenue as well as ones saying its a waste of time that you need to replace the unit. That would be a big bummer as its a brand new unit from BJ's. Once the rig cools off I am going to go investigate appropriately- too many tight spaces for me to burn the h*ll out of myself right now.

Thanks for the compliments and glad your getting happier with the shifting. I had a similar leak on a HB, I had another and just swapped it out. I have also heard mixed reviews of seal replacement. If it’s new it’s worth a call. There are 2 seals on the Speedo, one in the housing that goes into the tcase housing and one on the gear itself, both are easy but the one on the gear can be difficult to find if your parts guy isn’t really savy

Another day working on the truck after a week of planning and tech support.

The hydroboost leak is from a poorly installed fitting. I have to give a whole heap of praise to Ryan from BJs Off-road. I bought the unit back in 2018 and without a hesitation he was helping me troubleshoot and even reaching out to their vendor for the units to figure out if it was the unit or the idiot with the unit( tldr: it was yours truly, the idiot). Great service and just good people. I got the new fitting in today and will be installing it tomorrow.

Today's project was the new gauge cluster. The PO's wiring "improvements" made this a bigger hair ball to sort out than I expected, but I am pretty happy with the results. I am waiting on the GPS unit for the speedo and will be installing the oil and temp sending units tomorrow. Here is a few pics. I'll post a video once I figure out how to do that.



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https://youtu.be/qHmFUBpKZxU

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Love your build and its great to see one finished and driving. One question, your Diesels is running at 190-ish. Dont diesels want to run hotter around 220-230?

rocklaurence wrote:Love your build and its great to see one finished and driving. One question, your Diesels is running at 190-ish. Dont diesels want to run hotter around 220-230?

Hey Rocklaurence- the fan relay is triggered by the ecu, so it modulates the temperature range. It's within tolerance(took a little scrolling to the find the spec in the manual). I haven't "gotten on it" with any extended hills or hard pulls as I am still in shakeout, so it makes sense that I am not near the top 1/3 of the temp range.

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Productive day of puttering and fixing things.

Got the hydroboost sorted- it's amazing how well things work when you have the right fitting installed. The blue anodized one is the wrong fitting installed by the first builder of the motor install. BJs sorted me out with what type of fitting to used so I installed that.

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Also got the speedo working with the Dakota Digital GPS unit. Was relatively straight forward- I used the cruise control 12v constant and on key.

The install is semi-temporary as I am working through a complete rewiring as the amount of jank in the PO's wiring is too much to try to sort out without a complete refactor.

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And lastly got the rooftop tent installed. Went with a Autohome Columbus Variant (size: medium). The clamps for the third cross member are still on order, but it's solidly up there.

First impressions- very impressive and VERY comfortable. Will hopefully be heading out with this in the coming weeks for a weekend shake out.

Oh and installed a non-dented grille.

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Cool tent! Been eyeballing those, looks way more user friendly than the traditional/typical RTT. Really wish I could check one out in person before buying.

I'm all for cannonball runs, but you are a smidge farther than a thermos of coffee and a tankful of diesel can get me.

Happy to snap whatever pics you want. I am still green with this tent but I am impressed with what I have seen so far and I research the ever living out of it before I got it.

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Yes you are 1500 miles is a good hike LOL.

I get closer to ready to purchase I’ll definitely reach out.