Hey TJers,
In 2018 I started my journey of diesel swapping a 2006 Right Hand Drive TJ Wrangler. I’ve documented the entire build in this thread here:
Building a diesel powered RHD TJ Wrangler (Picture Heavy)
The long and short of it, I finally got it road legal, running with a BEW TDI and a hybrid AW4/A340 automatic transmission. The issue? Aside from the BEW TDI developing a head issue, I could never get comfortable or feel safe driving the Right Hand Drive. The best highlight of the RHD Build was the fuel economy with incorrect gearing, 33ish MPG highway (55 ~ 60 mph) with around 24.5mpg city driving. Over double the original MPG of the factory 4.0l and 42rle automatic transmission. Honestly not bad for a TJ Wrangler.
So in late 2023 ~ early 2024 I started planning on getting the build done with the intention of moving everything over to a clean idential Impact Orange TJ that was Left Hand Drive instead of Right Hand Drive. In 2024 I found a clean base model Left Hand Drive Impact Orange 2005 TJ Wrangler:
This 2005 TJ Wrangler has the PowerTech 2.4l DOHC 4-Cylinder Engine with a NSG370 6-speed Manual transmission. No Cruise Control, No AC, No ABS, this is a base of base models which is perfect for me since I’m about to yank the entire driveline out of the TJ Wrangler for my build. I would have liked to have found an automatic, but everything else on this TJ was perfect so I went with it.
So here is the plan for the build: I’ll be combining a wrecked 2004 TJ Wrangler Rubicon, a 2005 Left Hand Drive TJ Wrangler (the focus of this build), my 2006 Right Hand Drive TJ Wrangler and the engine out of 2014 VW Jetta TDI which comes with the Common Rail CJAA TDI Engine.
I’m going with the CJAA TDI engine for the following reasons:
The combination of the lower factory idle, smoother idle and lowered minimum cruising RPM speed of closer to 2000 rpm for the CJAA TDI engine instead of the 2200rpm for my BEW TDI engine will allow me to get better use of my AW4 automatic and lockup torque converter. Check out the following graph which is calculated with 4.10 gears in my Rubicon axles with my current 235/75r16 Tires:
With my BEW TDI I was good in 3rd gear for 55mph but to do 70mph, I would still be in 3rd gear OR in 4th gear torque converter unlocked. While I’m over that 2200rpm threshold, the air dynamics, or the lack there of, for the TJ means I need to be closer to 2400rpm minimum to cruise in 4th gear with my BEW TDI.
With the CJAA engine where the minimum cruising RPM is around 2000rpm, I’m almost 300rpm above the minimum cruising RPM speed when doing 70mph in 4th gear. This is because of the crossflow head design and 4-valves per cylinder for the CJAA TDI engine vs the 2-valves per cylinder in my BEW TDI engine.
As for the rest of the build, I want this 2005 Left Hand Drive Impact Orange TJ to look identical to my 2006 Right Hand Drive Impact Orange TJ. So I’ll be moving over a vast majority of the parts:
The other thing I want with this build is to have the interior as close to stock as possible. I didn’t do that with my RHD TJ and it’s something I grew to regret later one. In many ways that is one of the best things about this build, I get to address mistakes and design decisions that I made with my first build.
I’m very much so in the planning phase at the moment, I have the majority of the parts that I need to do this build, I just need to figure out the order of operations since I can only have two vehicles in my shop at any given time. Planning and mapping everything out now will save my months of work and headaches down the road.
As with my other build thread, I’ll be posting several pictures with each update along with the video of the progress at the end of my post.
Thanks
Grant aka RustyAutoholicGuy
In 2018 I started my journey of diesel swapping a 2006 Right Hand Drive TJ Wrangler. I’ve documented the entire build in this thread here:
Building a diesel powered RHD TJ Wrangler (Picture Heavy)
The long and short of it, I finally got it road legal, running with a BEW TDI and a hybrid AW4/A340 automatic transmission. The issue? Aside from the BEW TDI developing a head issue, I could never get comfortable or feel safe driving the Right Hand Drive. The best highlight of the RHD Build was the fuel economy with incorrect gearing, 33ish MPG highway (55 ~ 60 mph) with around 24.5mpg city driving. Over double the original MPG of the factory 4.0l and 42rle automatic transmission. Honestly not bad for a TJ Wrangler.
So in late 2023 ~ early 2024 I started planning on getting the build done with the intention of moving everything over to a clean idential Impact Orange TJ that was Left Hand Drive instead of Right Hand Drive. In 2024 I found a clean base model Left Hand Drive Impact Orange 2005 TJ Wrangler:
This 2005 TJ Wrangler has the PowerTech 2.4l DOHC 4-Cylinder Engine with a NSG370 6-speed Manual transmission. No Cruise Control, No AC, No ABS, this is a base of base models which is perfect for me since I’m about to yank the entire driveline out of the TJ Wrangler for my build. I would have liked to have found an automatic, but everything else on this TJ was perfect so I went with it.
So here is the plan for the build: I’ll be combining a wrecked 2004 TJ Wrangler Rubicon, a 2005 Left Hand Drive TJ Wrangler (the focus of this build), my 2006 Right Hand Drive TJ Wrangler and the engine out of 2014 VW Jetta TDI which comes with the Common Rail CJAA TDI Engine.
I’m going with the CJAA TDI engine for the following reasons:
- Factory Idle of 800rpm vs the BEW TDI factory idle of 913rpm
- Crossflow Cylinder Head with 4-Valves per Cylinder
- 2x Counter Balance shafts along the cylinder block
- Common Rail injection
- 200rpm lower minimum cruising RPM speed.
The combination of the lower factory idle, smoother idle and lowered minimum cruising RPM speed of closer to 2000 rpm for the CJAA TDI engine instead of the 2200rpm for my BEW TDI engine will allow me to get better use of my AW4 automatic and lockup torque converter. Check out the following graph which is calculated with 4.10 gears in my Rubicon axles with my current 235/75r16 Tires:
With my BEW TDI I was good in 3rd gear for 55mph but to do 70mph, I would still be in 3rd gear OR in 4th gear torque converter unlocked. While I’m over that 2200rpm threshold, the air dynamics, or the lack there of, for the TJ means I need to be closer to 2400rpm minimum to cruise in 4th gear with my BEW TDI.
With the CJAA engine where the minimum cruising RPM is around 2000rpm, I’m almost 300rpm above the minimum cruising RPM speed when doing 70mph in 4th gear. This is because of the crossflow head design and 4-valves per cylinder for the CJAA TDI engine vs the 2-valves per cylinder in my BEW TDI engine.
As for the rest of the build, I want this 2005 Left Hand Drive Impact Orange TJ to look identical to my 2006 Right Hand Drive Impact Orange TJ. So I’ll be moving over a vast majority of the parts:
- Hard Top
- Body Lift
- Shocks/Suspension
- Control Arms
- Fuel Tank
- Wheels and Tires
- Headlights
- Possibly Entire Front Grill
- Apex Edition Seats
The other thing I want with this build is to have the interior as close to stock as possible. I didn’t do that with my RHD TJ and it’s something I grew to regret later one. In many ways that is one of the best things about this build, I get to address mistakes and design decisions that I made with my first build.
I’m very much so in the planning phase at the moment, I have the majority of the parts that I need to do this build, I just need to figure out the order of operations since I can only have two vehicles in my shop at any given time. Planning and mapping everything out now will save my months of work and headaches down the road.
As with my other build thread, I’ll be posting several pictures with each update along with the video of the progress at the end of my post.
Thanks
Grant aka RustyAutoholicGuy
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