John's 98 Build Thread

[xeroOTG]

This summer has been busy. Lots of wheeling and lots of work. Unfortunately I missed NW Fest due to work. There’s always next year.

1. Steering

My steering was starting to wander on the highway, and I wanted to upgrade. I know the stock setup is just a hop and a skip from failing when I need it the least. I went with a complete V8 ZJ tire rod set. It’s nice and beefy, and should hold up against 31’s. And I’ll be able to buy spares at AutoZone if I need to.

I understand that the RHD drag link can be used to do a complete knuckle flip (right and left), so that may happen yet. I’m intimidated by moving the drag link point up to match, but it would be nice to get the complete steering up under the front skid.

2. Gas tank skid

I decided that the bottom of my Jeep was in the way of rocks after seeing the bottom of a friend’s TJ, so I went and found a factory set of skids. I accidentally picked up a set off of an early XJ, so I had to modify the gas skid. It really wasn’t as bad as everyone would have you think, cut two welds, pound it out, and weld up the gap.

3. Ball joints

While doing maintenance after a trip into the cascades, I noticed the front ball joints were a little sloppy. The stock Spicer ball joints seem to have survived 180k so I got another set off amazon, 706944x. Very nice machined quality! Pressed all four out and back in in about 2 hours.

4. Distributor

The dust on that same trip made my distributor start squealing. I tried lithium grease, but it didn’t help. I am not a fan of walking, so I got a Dorman reman off amazon. I kept the old one since there was no core, so maybe someday I’ll take it apart and fix it. For now it’s a trail spare.

5. Sway bar disconnect points

When I got my lift, I got the DPG swaybar disconnect cables, but the JKS disconnects came with some spiffy mounting points. I now had a front skid, so I could finally use those. Got them mounted!

 

[xeroOTG]

6. Tablet mount

I attempted to make a tablet mount for using BackCountry Navigator on the trail. It was alright… but I have decided that the XJ dash just doesn’t lend itself well to mounting accessories. Two trips after I built it I was ready to find a more permanent solution.

7. Front frame cladding

Since my jeep had a “questionable” past, before I owned it, and after it was stolen the front bumper mounting frame holes were torn. I was one hard winching away from losing my bumper on the trail, so I got a set of the Iron Rock Off-road front frame cladding. The quality is awesome. I want to center set and wish they made a rear set. It took about 6 hours a side. I finished them up with some POR15.

8. Pinched battery cable

I did a really crappy job of tying up the very nice 5-90 battery cables that I waited 6 months for, and the alternator lead got pinched between the engine and the battery tray. It took the alternator with it while winching an Xterra up Hawkins Mountain by Gallagher Head Lake. Good trip, but I had to use AAA to get home. Oops. Lesson learned, do a better job of wire management. When I did my motor mounts later on I discovered my driver’s side mount may have helped this failure happen. I didn’t take any pictures really, but I did get this.

9. Upper control arms

As part of the ball joint repair, I noticed the upper control arm axle side bushings were starting to split. I did the axle side uppers and after looking that the OEM arms, I decided there was no way I would put them back on. I picked up a set of EBay from Core 4x4 Fabrication. There seems to be a lot of negative speculation about these on , but seeing as how factory is folded sheet metal, these will be just fine. One thing to note, the front factory bolts are too short. I THINK they are 10x1.5M x85mm, I ended up with some grade 8 4” 3/8 zinc plated with crush nuts.

This is the upper mount bolt, yes I measured it wrong, BUT its long enough, whereas the stock lower is not:

10. Brown Dog Motor Mounts

My wife got some brown dog’s for her Jeep but decided hers looked new and it doesn’t spend any time off-road yet, so I put them on my Jeep. Of all of the things to spend money on, this is probably the second best upgrade after a lift. The way the vehicle drives is so entirely different! I highly recommend them. I only got one bad picture, but here it is for your viewing pleasure:

11. Brake line tear

I tore my brake line off 20 miles southwest of Cle Elum, going up a nice slimy rocky hill to recover a stuck 2.5l TJ. Of all the times I have broken something offroad this is right up there for the worst timing. I lost brakes in the middle of scaling the beast. Once I made it up I had to pinch the line off with vice grips and duct tape those to the control arm. I drove back to Ellensburg on Sunday once the sun came out and dried things out a bit, and got a C1500 front brake line. I like how it attaches, so I have a passenger side coming in the mail. I will carry the last braded one as a spare, I just don’t like how it drops down a good inch.

Earlier that day:

 

[xeroOTG]

12. Drivers door grip

Somewhere on the interwebs I saw a drivers side door handle, and I had an extra. So I mounted it. I don’t know what to think of it yet…

After some additional hole sizing (square hole), here’s the result.

13. Electric seats

I got a set of ZJ power leather seats a year ago for cheap, in good condition. I finally got around to getting them mounted. I didn’t have power rails, so I fabbed up some using 98 ZJ rails. It was a lot of work, but the seats are massively comfortable! I still need to hook up the heated seat portion… but its 90% done.

Not my best but it will do.

I ground the old mounts off, leaving this to weld to

Passenger frame was “simple”

The drivers frame took more creativity:

Final notes, the modified seats and frames sit a good 4 inches higher. Because I was able to carefully position the rails, the seats are well away from the B pillar that the factory rails have an issue with on these seats:

 

[xeroOTG]

14. Double din mod

My tablet mod left much to be desired, specifically it was impossible to use my radio if the tablet was mounted. I found the Chinese “huifei” line of head units and found one without a DVD player, yet has the quad core processor. I initially was looking at integrating my nexus 7 2014 into the dash, but this is massively easier. I took the plunge and cut my dash up. So far (week 1) I like it but I can’t seem to find matching agate dash paint. The Chinese head unit is better then what you can expect for $200, but it’s no $500 Kenwood.

I started by making sure I had enough depth – yep, I have like an extra 2” which is great because I would need a set of power filters, a power regulator for the USB hub I was going to be adding, and an RF amplifier. This was all needed because the electronics in these units are… poor.

I started with a Metra 95-3527 2004+ Pontiac Grand Prix fit kit. I copied this, but mine isn't as good. I floated the entire kit in JB weld, I used a full pint of JB weld between the front and the rear. I also used bondo to make everything presentable.

The black that I found looked terrible.

I bought a lifetime activated Sirius radio on EBay, it was less then renewing for a year. I also placed a power point, audio line, and usb port in there, as well as relocated my remote start disable switch. I like it.

Here it is as of today. I have got a webcam hooked up as a dash cam using DailyRoads Navigator.

NEXT: Rear bumper, center frame cladding, rear frame cladding, and probably rock rails all hopefully by this winter. I really want to keep this Jeep clean and for a long time.

 

[Sean112280]

looks good man!

 

[TMC-XJ]

Awesome build so far!

Great attention to detail. Nice work!

 

[thesteveyo]

Awesome! I like how all of your mods are PNW functional. Lots of great ideas and inspiration!

 

[xeroOTG]

Thanks guys! I try to pay attention to the small details.

I've got a couple things out of the way this month, before it gets wet and cold for the winter.

The cowl intake, I wanted to try to mute the noise in the cab a bit, so I tried using spray "boom mat". The effects were negligible, but it gave me a chance to take everything apart and take pictures, since people have had questions how I put the silicone elbow in the cowl to help with noise.

Here is the attempt to mute the cowl more. I don't think it hurt anything but it really didn't help.

 

[xeroOTG]

Next on my list, my NP231 was bleeding fluid and the chain had lots of slack. I had a NP242, and I liked the 242 in my wife's Jeep. I had read about some mystical 242 on NAGCA that had a tom woods HD SYE AND the 1.25" chain of a 242HD, so I decided to make the strongest 242 possible.

I had a partial success. First, I tried using the 1.25 sprockets, but they interfered with the oil pmump engagment, then the tail housing on the HD has a different set of oil galleys, and the final straw was the pitch of the HD was 3/8" and the 242J is 1/2". I found that generally speaking longer pitched chains are stronger, and that the 242HD has a shorter pitch than a 242J. Then there's the type of hy-vo chain, some are rocker joint and some are pin joint. I found that the 242ECE has a stronger chain than the 242J from what little documentation I could find (and I also talked to an engineer who was familiar with inverted tooth chain), enough so that the 242ECE chain is stronger than the 1.25" chain in the 242HD. From what info I could find using a parts catalog, the sprockets are the same in the ECE and the J. One catch, the ECE chain is out of production, so I had to do some calling around to find one. All I had to do is ensure the chain had the same tooth contact pattern, and after that squeeze the whole thing back together.

Here is what a rocker jointed chain looks like.

A trick I found for stacking the needle bearings was to spray everything down with spray lithium as I went.

I warped the rear case half trying to replace the rear front output shaft bearing, so I picked up a new one on Amazon. I left the front case half submerged in degreaser for several days, and everything came out nice and clean.

I put everything back together with ATF rated RTV.

The size of the 242 compared to the 231, its impressive.

Length-wise it is exactly the same as the 231, but with the HD SYE, its actually shorter.

I am very happy with how it all bolted up.

 

[xeroOTG]

I had to do some custom work for the shifter and the electrical.

This is the boostwerks 242 shifter. I had to cut the allthread so the whole thing was short enough and notch the end of the shift handle extension.

C107 (one of the main harnesses on the passenger side of the block) needs pin 13 added. I carefully depinned c107 on the donor, and moved the wiring to my manual transmission harness.

Its hard to tell, but I spliced the 242 harness part-time wire and ground into the manual transmission harness. If you do this, be sure to use waterproof heatshrink.

The result was priceless :clap:

If you want the research I did about chains and the differences between a 242HD, 242ECE, and a 242J, look here.

 

[xeroOTG]

Work has been stressful, so I took a day off to do the rest of my stiffeners.

The hardest part? Pulling the transmission cross member studs. After that it was about 8 hours of work in all, including prep, welding, and painting.

I test-fit the stiffeners, and marked the areas to be cleaned for welding. I used a knotted wire cup to clean off the undercoating.

Specfab (Adam) had a neat trick he was telling me about to get a tighter fit, Lay a hot tack and while its still red hot, smack the stiffener with a mallet. Proceed to complete the bead, and it will be a good fit. It worked.

I used automotive seam sealer, let that cure for a while, and then put down some POR15 Chassis Coat that I picked up at the Moonshiners swap meet in Puyallup. I got it for $5 a can, I didn't realize that stuff usually goes for $25. What a steal!

I keep hearing that by welding the complete perimeter of the stiffener I will have weakened my unibody. Time will tell, as I welded this whole area solid due to a nice dent in the unibody keeping things from sitting flush. If it folds like a taco, then I'll just have to move everything to a new Jeep.

I used the Iron Rock Offroad set, and after talking to Adam he was thinking they might have been 10 gauge. I threw my micrometer on the mid section, they are a true 3/16ths. The front however are thinner at 8 gauge which isn't much thinner. I am exceptionally happy with the quality and fit. Between the 242 being nice and tight and the stiffeners, I cant believe how quiet and well the Jeep drives! I have put about 300 miles on them this week, and on the highway they have solved my road noise problems. I will be testing them out this weekend with some friends from work out in Liberty, I'll let yall know how it goes.

 

[xeroOTG]

Hey guys, not a lot has happened over the past couple months. The only things I have done since October is wheel and replace my steering box. In the process I broke the secondary battery tray (convenient) and unfortunately the drain on my power steering box. For anyone who cares, a reservoir from a 91-96 XJ fits a 97+ power steering pump. Not sure why NAPA says otherwise, an o-ring was the only difference.

I fabricated up a new battery tray for the pc1200 using an Artec Industries OY1201. It turned out pretty nice, used only factory holes for the new bracket.

I went out to Walker valley, its pretty torn up. I left with some body damage and spent more time winching myself or the rest of the group than having fun.

I rubbed up against a stump twice the size of my Jeep.

In other news, my wife and I have been trying to buy a house. I hate this market. We have written 7 offers since January 1st and lost to cash on all of them.

I'm working on a TDI swap. My 4.0 has started to consume oil, and frankly I'm bored with stock. A stroker just isn't appealing to me. Its been a fairly complicated project, including buying an engine from Victoria, BC (BEW, it was blown) and now parting it out to finance the next part of the project (BHW and a GTC1549VZ is the plan so far). I completely reverse engineered the TDI CANBUS protocol and I'm working with another guy to build a replacement gauge cluster PCB. Is anyone interested in how that's going?

 

[muddypunk]

I am I've toyed with the idea of a diesel swap instead of going the stroker route.

 

[Boxil]

diesel would be frickin awesome.

 

[Bstew_]

I can 2nd that housing market comment! Very frustrating...

 

[xeroOTG]

I was just cruising youtube when I came across one Coty Built's builds, and thought, "man thats schweet!" I started emailing back and fourth with them, and once I started asking questions that were deeper than "I want to spend $7k on your starter kit" they stopped corresponding. Right about then, this guy started selling his adapter kits. It occurred to me that I should be able to piece together my own setup that wasn't so questionable. My primary concerns with the Coty setup is the truss. The truss, while it places all of the accessories in the correct position to retain stock parts, looks like it would make wrenching difficult, and these engines do have a 60k mile timing belt.

So far I have got together most of a BEW out of a Jetta, a BHW (Passat) ECU and harness, and a couple blown turbos from a handful of vehicles. I popped the head off of the "running" BEW to find that the compressor inducer ad removed considerable material from cylinders 1 and 2.

Found the BEW I picked up on Craigslist for $600 with about 180k miles on it in Victoria, BC. The prior owner helped me hoist it into the back of my XJ, and I brought it home!

I got ahold of a reputable machine shop who specializes in PD TDIs, (franko6) and found out I was looking at needing a rebuilt head and block thanks to the cylinder walls being scored. Also, it had considerably uneven piston protrusion. The cost of this rebuild pushed me to look for a different engine to start with before I dumped too much in the smaller of the TDIs in the USA.

Using an EBay ECU bench I was able to dump the ECU and remove the immobilizer. Once I get a running engine, ill start it up before getting anywhere near the Jeep.

At this point I am planning on selling off the parted out BEW components that aren't ruined and building a used low mile BHW. The BHW has 2mm of extra bearing journal surface, better pistons, larger injectors, and a slightly lower compression ratio for better ability to take boost. Its weakness is this miserable piece of German overengineering called a BSM (Balance Shaft Module) that tends to die and take out the oil pump, but fortunately the BEW's robust oil pump will move right over to the BHW.

The purchase list:

• BHW Long Block - starts at 134HP/247 ft. lbs., tunes up to 175hp/305 ft. lbs with a tune alone.
• GTC1549VZ turbo - it spools fast and stays strong up to around 200 HP
• EVGuy's Motor mounts, oil filter relocation, and engine adapter
• Sprinter intercooler
• NPG Racing steel oil pan
• 4cyl radiator support (to move the radiator forward to make room for an intercooler)
• late 90's Dodge Diesel fuel pump unit (low pressure, the mechanical pump on these engines only needs 8psi)
• fuel-water seperator, 1 micron filter
• return fuel line
• some sort of fuel pressure regulator that is reliable
• AX15 shifter out of a Dakota to bend up (the engine moves the transmission 4" forward)
• Novak transfer case shifter

I want to retain the AC, Defroster, high idle, and the cruse controls. My plans for those are to use a VW AC module to run a VW compressor for both defroster functions and AC. I plan on using the documented (but unused on anything VW put out in the US) high idle ECU pin. For the cruise, I will have to run an arduino to translate button presses on the resistor ladder to individual IOs the EDC16 (Bosch ECU) expects, while I am doing that I wouldn't mind having some media buttons on the steering wheel... so I'll be looking for either a ZJ, WJ, or KJ steering wheel to butcher up.

As I said, I've been working on the CANBUS aspect, and thats promising for some info, but the speedo data is crap at being on a scale of 1-254 of an unknown unit. VW decided that the ECU shouldn't send distance to the cluster, so they pass the VSS through the cluster and condition the signal received by the ECU, so I need to replicate that signal and track distance at the cluster. I have two options there: 1) analog gauges - I like the VDO Viewline Onyx series in a auto meter 5381 panel or 2) drive a stock dash's air core gauges using another arduino. McNeil on tdiclub has been working on just that for his Wrangler but I'm leaning towards the VDO stuff.

My wife got me a 30 gallon genright for the project and I have read conversions like these get between 25 and 35 MPG... so after I've spend untold thousands, I should be able to go almost anywhere without fueling up!

So, tell me guys, how insane is this project?

 

[Boxil]

very insane but i am definitely gonna be following along on everything. You have a good style of writing up your posts and documenting the entire procedure.

 

[muddypunk]

Damn subscribed to this for sure.
Now rethinking Diesel lol I'm the cheap ass and swapping a H.O. over is simple haha totally awesome thank you for sharing!

 

[xeroOTG]

I picked up a BHW (2.0L - 134HP stock) out of a 2005 Passat off EBay. Now the work begins

First order of business, the accessories need to be a little more compact to fit in between the XJ frame rails. To do this I am going to use the accessories bracket off of a BEW, 04-06 Golf or Jetta will do.

The accessories fit nice and tight.

This bracket needs to be notched to work with the BHW longitudinal motor mounts. My grinder makes short work of aluminum.

The compressor unfortunately hits, this chunk needs to be trimmed.

I swapped the dampner from the BEW too, the BEW accessories are on a 6 groove belt and the BHW accessories are on 2 separate belts. Everything fits now, just need to rebuild the power steering pump, alternator, and compressor before giving them the final tightening.

Now... realistically I have compromised the structural integrity of the left motor mount with my extreme trimming. I either need to replace it or reinforce it. If i choose to fab, it will serve as nothing more than a template, because I would feel better fabbing brackets to use OEM Jeep mounts anyway. The brown dog mount seems more sturdy than the VW oil filled mounts. I am not afraid of vibes.

The to-do list right now is:

• Fab a set of mounts that place the engine inline with the transmission. Does anyone know the eye-to-eye measurement of the stock 4.0 mounts?
• Buy the engine adapter
• The thermostat housing contacts one of the hard coolant tubes or the compressor with the two flanges I have, need to find a sutible workaround
• figure out intercooling - on the fence over water-air or water water
• figure out air filtration
• BSM delete, new cam/lifters/timing belt/water pump
• rebuild tandem pump
• rebuild A/C, alternator, PS Pump
• Plans changed on the fuel module, time to play musical lift pumps and get fuel filtration solidified.
• Find a radiator support from a 4cyl XJ, before they used the same radiator as the 4.0 - anyone know what years this was?
• Found a snorkel that goes on the right hand side of an XJ, debating one of those.
• Route A/C lines

I also just went into contract on a house. If it passes inspection on Wednesday, this project will be shelved for a while, since I now have to move. The good part of this though, 2 car garage and my payment is less than rent!

 

[xeroOTG]

Heres an update! The last to-do list grew and was dramatically modified as I learn more about this project.

Heating:

I do not like being cold. I also like traveling to cold places. I have a three phased approach to cold on this project:

• Use the 3 glowplug rear head housing available on European TDIs. I ebayed and got part # 038121145 and 03812133A which bolts up nicely. I will butcher up the extra BHW harness to build a relay setup for this and either flash a BGW s/w load onto my edc16 or have a tuner figure that out while doing the needed manual transmission conversion needed for the BHW software.
• I REALLY like the idea of Malone's dynamic EGR he has figured out. His tune basically uses the EGR only to bring the temperature of the coolant up, then shuts it off for the duration of the cycle. 99% likely to go this route.
• EBay Webasto Thermo Top. This has been purchased, and will be plumbed in when the gas tank gets swapped. This is a diesel powered auxiliary heater that brings the block up to 160f without running the engine or plugging the block in by circulating engine coolant through its boiler.

I had issues with the BHW hard coolant lines, the thermostat housing, and the motor mounts. I ended up mixing in a Dorman 902-990 (VW# 048121121B) thermostat housing off Amazon. It does not interfere with anything yet... time will tell and something will have to give. The hosing has had some iterations (combos to BEW and BHW hoses) but this is what it looks like generally speaking:

I favored the aluminum thermostat housing you can get for the 1.8t engine, but I couldn't justify the ($90) price for something that I'd immediately chop up to make fit when a replacement that does fit is $10.

The 3 glowplug head looks like this:

AC Compressor:

The stock compressor DOES NOT fit with the EVGuy motor mounts. This is not an issue for me, the VW pump was "special" and only used VW proprietary fittings and was a variable displacement design specific to VW. There are several options here. I am looking at an HD option that has the same displacement as the TDI had but has an improved head for better efficiency. The Sanden 4660 is the current option, but I also considered Sanden part numbers 4455, 4323, 7304, and 4711. 4660 is the HD version of 4711 from what I can tell.

The stock VW compressor has the same ear to ear dimensions as the average long ear mount Sanden BUT the compressing bushing that is pressed into the rear ears takes up a 3mm difference in the mounting pads. No matter what compressor I go with, I will need to fabricate some spacer and possibly mill the accessory adapter to work.
I've been doing math on fitting a compressor. I have 185mm from the center of the forward-most tooth on the serpentine belt to the front of the motor mount to work with here. The stock compressor is 214mm long from the first tooth to the rear of the compressor for anyone wondering why it won't fit. The 4660 I favor for this swap is 192mm from the first tooth to the rear of the compressor. 112mm of body, 46.5mm of first groove to body, and a 33.4mm head. It has an 8 groove pulley, so chopping off 3.56*2, we have 184.78mm to work with. Good grief, that's TIGHT.

Next I need to calculate where that puts the ears of the compressor in relation to the alternator bracket. The stock compressor is 68.9mm from the first tooth to the bracket (rear of the front ear on the compressor). This 4660 is 53.78mm to the same point, leaving a 15.12mm gap to fill.

4660:

4255 (VW OEM):

The rear ear is 14.4mm long and is 3.3mm further back from the bracket mounting bar, since the mounting bar on the bracket is 80mm long and the 3.6mm gap left on the VW compressor is taken up with a friction compressed bushing that sleeves into the rear ear of the VW compressor. Normal Sanden 8 ear compressors do not have this. I need to cut 15mm out of the rear of the bracket, so there wont be any rear support and the rear half of the bracket mounting bar will only have 3.3mm of aluminum left after moving the compressor forward.

Here's an overhead view of my logic:

Here's my bracket plan:

Fans and AC Control:
I am using a 28mm "temperature gauge pipe", milled the top off (read: orbital sander and 40 grit sandpaper, chucked in a vice), drilled the hole out to 13/16", and tapped it to m22x1.5 to fit the temperature sensor that usually goes in a Jetta radiator.

I also got a Volvo fan. Its like the Taurus fan everyone is gaga about BUT its brackets are FLAT and do not require excessive modification to fit everyday applications. I plan on grafting this into a stock Jeep fan shroud.

Fuel:
Fuel will be filtered through a 2um CAT or Donaldson class 8 truck filter on a Duramax filter head with an integrated priming pump and heater. I picked up a GM 12642624 filter body since it has banjo bolt fittings to make plumbing easier.

I also picked up the 68003865AB fuel pump kit for a 2000-2001 dodge 2500 with a 5.9l. It is a tad too tall. Atleast its too tall and not to short, to fix this problem, you trim the guide tubes, flair to fit, and cut the springs. In other good news, it has an aux fuel port for my Webasto built in, I only have to plumb it up. This guy has a 3/8" quick connect supply and a 5/16" quick connect return. Theres also an auxillary pickup straw for the webasto. I am thinking of replacing all of the XJ fuel lines with b100 friendly line, specifically Parker

Mounts and Adapters:
I have procured EVGuy's Motor mounts and engine adapter

Transmission to Engine mating progress

I got EVGuy's mounts and engine adapter as I had said I would probably end up doing earlier. Great quality! I also got a LuK 05-065 clutch kit and LuK LFW193 flywheel. The clutch in the Jeep now is about 30k old, I'm sure its got lots of life next, but with as much as I am into this project theres no sense in not just replacing it now. The flywheel on the other hand is OEM, 200k mile old.

Instruments

member Alexia has been developing a GREAT piece of code to emulate enough of CCD to run ALL functions of the instrument cluster with about $40 worth of hardware. I am completely onboard with using the stock cluster now! I will be building the hardware he has to do my own testing soon.

Whats left on the purchase list (in order):

• Sanden 4660
• GTC1549VZ turbo, drain, oil line, adapter plate
• Stage 2 cam, timing belt, lifters, BSM delete.... blah blah
• NPG Racing steel oil pan
• downpipe, misc exhaust parts
• b100 fuel line
• AX15 shifter out of a Dakota to bend up (the engine moves the transmission 4" forward)
• Novak transfer case shifter
• Coolant hoses

The to-do list:

• finish buying parts.
• tandem pump, crank seals, BSM delete, cam, lifters, timing belt, water pump, rollers
• driveshafts will change - need to calculate these. Looks like a handful of OEM applications will work for me, the 2.5l front shaft is looking good.
• figure out intercooling - still on the fence over water-air or water water
• figure out air filtration - looking like a Donaldson PSD
• plumb cooling and air, atleast roughly before pulling the 4.0
• FINISH wiring cleanup. I want the TDI harness close to standalone, then splice it into a 4.0 engine harness.
• rebuild tandem pump - I have a rebuilt pump minus a seal
• Still debating the snorkel.
• figure out if tank venting needs to change
• route fuel lines, remove EVAP when the engine is pulled
• check fuel filler neck to see if it needs to be modified to work with diesel spouts
• Route A/C lines
• Mount A/C compressor

I just bought my first house. In the process, my wife and I decided we would remodel just about every aspect of it, leaving me with no garage till thats done some time in the next 3 months. This has severely slowed progress... but in the Seattle market, it made more sense than renting, since my mortgage is less than rent was!