Diesel/Bio-Diesel Conversion?

tonytony9

tonytony9

New member
Has anyone ever converted their jk unlimited from a 3.8 v6 to some sort of diesel setup?

I am interested in the costs and work which would be expected. I am also really curious on the idea of bio-diesel.

My current rig is a 2008 wrangler unlimited x 3.8l v6 automatic with 100k miles.

Just an idea I got interested in and wanted to hear some feedback!
 
tonytony9 said:
$20,000...wow was not expecting that much. Any shot I could pull a Diesel engine out of a salvage?
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more than an LS swap and sold as off-road only use - you may not be able to get it registered for street use.

I looked at this option and while it was tempting, too many hurdles to consider with licensing.

I'm holding out hoping Jeep releases a diesel model for the 2016 model year.
 
jeeeep said:
more than an LS swap and sold as off-road only use - you may not be able to get it registered for street use.

I looked at this option and while it was tempting, too many hurdles to consider with licensing.

I'm holding out hoping Jeep releases a diesel model for the 2016 model year.
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Ya I would love to cheaply do this. Such great gas mileage, super reliable, and I want to keep my wrangle for a very long time. Even if it is not my main car in a few years.
 
Keep in mind that the new diesel are not bio diesel friendly(20% max)
Older model like the Cummins are better suited for bio diesel.
 
ssgp2 said:
Keep in mind that the new diesel are not bio diesel friendly(20% max)
Older model like the Cummins are better suited for bio diesel.
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True about the 20% however you can make them 100% bio friendly of you do the DPF/EGR delete.

I converted my 2006 Dodge Ram 3500 to straight veg oil and then removed the whole system and took it back to diesel. I had constant issues with the oil that it just wasn't worth it. I purchased a very high quality kit that was over $3500. It started out great but I spent so much time driving and collecting the oil then cleaning it. After a few thousand miles I needed new injectors that ran me another $3000. For me, the potential for problems and getting stranded with a major issue just didn't justify the savings.

Also on the bio side of things remember that the chemicals used to convert oil to bio are very toxic so if you're doing this in a garage make sure you don't have animals or kids around. This was the main reason I chose veg over bio.

I'm sure in a perfect world its great but our garage had a constant smell of old dirty veg oil, it always made a mess when the oil spilled and the residue from it left in the truck bed, garage and even in the driveway was a real pain in the ass. I was one of those people who said I could keep it all clean and organized but I was fooling myself. When dealing with things like this, it's always going to make a mess from time to time, kinda like changing your engine oil.
 
K.D.C.H said:
True about the 20% however you can make them 100% bio friendly of you do the DPF/EGR delete.

I converted my 2006 Dodge Ram 3500 to straight veg oil and then removed the whole system and took it back to diesel. I had constant issues with the oil that it just wasn't worth it. I purchased a very high quality kit that was over $3500. It started out great but I spent so much time driving and collecting the oil then cleaning it. After a few thousand miles I needed new injectors that ran me another $3000. For me, the potential for problems and getting stranded with a major issue just didn't justify the savings.

Also on the bio side of things remember that the chemicals used to convert oil to bio are very toxic so if you're doing this in a garage make sure you don't have animals or kids around. This was the main reason I chose veg over bio.

I'm sure in a perfect world its great but our garage had a constant smell of old dirty veg oil, it always made a mess when the oil spilled and the residue from it left in the truck bed, garage and even in the driveway was a real pain in the ass. I was one of those people who said I could keep it all clean and organized but I was fooling myself. When dealing with things like this, it's always going to make a mess from time to time, kinda like changing your engine oil.
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Thanks for the input! I meant veg actually. But ya I just was semi interested in it because basically free fuel sounded great to me. But I guess it's not that great.
 
tonytony9 said:
Thanks for the input! I meant veg actually. But ya I just was semi interested in it because basically free fuel sounded great to me. But I guess it's not that great.
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Yes it can be free fuel but keep in mind you have to spend a lot of time driving around collecting all the used oil, taking it home, cleaning it up (which takes forever) and then transferring it back into a tank in your truck.

You'll also need to find a place that's willing to give it to you. It's a hard thing to do because you want to find oil that's as clean as possible which means restaurants that change out the oil every night. Your average dive place will use the same oil as long as possible (like a week) and then change it out. The problem is after a week it's so filthy it's almost unusable and even then it's probably only 2-3 gallons.

The sooner a restaurant changes the oil out in their fryer, the fresher their food tastes so ideally you want to find a nice classy restaurant that changes it out each night. The catch is that most restaurants like that have contracts with major collecting companies that actually pay the restaurant for the oil.

I had addend up the cost of everything I spent on everything and then figure out how many miles I had to drive on pure veg before I started saving money. Each time I had mechanical issues and had to spend money to fix it it just made it longer until I was able to save money.

The biggest mechanical issue that will come up was is that the ports in your injectors are so fine that in the event you don't get every single particulate out of the dirty oil, you run the chance of clogging up the injectors.

Again to me it just wasn't worth it after all the time I spent dealing withdraw stuff.
 
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