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OM617 Jeep Cherokee Questions

29K views 56 replies 14 participants last post by  JAFO 
#1 ·
Hey everyone im new here. I mostly hangout on the gun forums like gunco but have been lurking around and finaly decided to join because ive been really interested in diesel conversions and wvo stuff lately.

Anyways I have in my posession one 1995 cherokee with ax15 transmission "2wd" and one mercedes 300sd and I wanna do the swap....but i have a few questions

1. Can i pull this off with no lift kit by getting the drop pitman arm and doing some oil pan mods?
2. How should I do the engine mounts?
3. How can i make the jeep ac compressor work with this engine?

I know I'm gonna have more questions but cant think of any more at the moment, also my reason for wanting to do this conversion is i want improved mpg and to eventually do a WVO system. I got the 2wd version because it was the only 5 spd cherokee i could find and it was only $800.
I dont plan on taking this thing off road anywhere where i would need 4wd and i really like stick shift boxy shaped suv's like my 88 trooper.
Feel free to correct me on anything cuz i'm no expert on this stuff.
 
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#2 ·
Yes you should be able to go without lifting, and no pan mods providing you place the motor in the right spot. A drop pitman and trac bar mod will be required. As far as the ac compressor, you can make it work with fabbing a new mount ( the benz unit mounts way too low) and swap the pully to a v-groove. Mounts will have to be fabbed, reinforcement on the frame rails. Good luck!
 
#6 ·
I don't belive so, the oil pump keeps the sump where it is right in line with the trac bar. Your best option is to re-work the shape of the trac bar, you don't have the dif to work around so it can be in the shape of a U if need be. The modded pan is more for dif clearance.
 
#8 ·
I did this same swap with a 96 2wd XJ last summer and it's working out well. One thing that got me though is almost all manual XJs came with 3.07 gear in the rear axle stock. This makes 5th gear pretty useless and acceleration didn't happen. I got a deal on a 4.10 axle and swapped it in, with 225/70-r15s this is a little too much gear. I had some thing from another project stuck in my head when I was trying to calculate a gear set and I got stuck on needing the 4.10. I think a 3.55 with stock tires would get the best MPG and performance, but I haven't had a chance to test that theory yet.

I used a pitman arm for a 3" lift and made custom track bar brackets at both the frame and axle, I still needed to cut out about half of my oil pan for clearance. I did use the stock track bar though, if I'd have ponied up the money for an after market strait style TB I would have made out better. I also ended up using a KYB universal steering stabilizer 'cause the stock one just took up too much space. My engine mounts are really generic and not very visually pleasing, but they get the job done. And I just deleted the AC, it didn't work in the truck I had gotten anyway. I did leave enough room in the front between the oil cooler and the radiator so I could mount a condenser if I want to, but that would mean making the room to mount the compressor.

Here's a link to some of the pics from the build: OM617 swap

Good luck with your swap.
 
#11 ·
Like FTE said, a remote filter is not required. Here's a shot of the engine in the truck with the stock filter housing: Filter housing. I spent a bunch of time talking with the guys over at STD about different oil filters and cooling and decided to use the remote filters because it made it easier for me to run my cooler and lines with supplies I had on hand. Basically it saved me from buying metric-to-JIC adapters to run new lines and I made the block-off plate at home in my spare time with a piece of 1/4" plate. There's a guy over at STD that sell nice aluminum ones for a really reasonable price.

I did a lot of things in my build that people didn't agree with or like, heck some of it I didn't/don't like. But I did the truck on a $2500 budget(that includes the truck and engine costs) and in about two months worth of time. If I did it again I'd take some more time and make some things look a little "cooler". But all in all it has become a good little daily driver.
 
#15 ·
Also this is kinda a newb question but im a little confused about the concept of flywheel balancing. I understand things that rotate and dont have uniform density have to be relieved in certain areas to keep them from wobbling but dont they do that to all flywheels? so why do i need to have my flywheel balanced again? I am using the mercedesdiesel4x4.com mb202 adapter and the instructions on the website arent super clear.
 
#17 ·
There is some (internet) speculation that some of the om617's are externally balanced. That is, the engine is not balanced in and of itself. Instead, it relies on the flywheel being inversely (un)balanced to account for it. My understanding is that one needs to check the balance of the flywheel that came with the 617 you are trying to use.
 
#20 ·
I personally have a hard time believing this. There are 12 bolts that hold the mercedes flywheel in place, they are absolutely symmetrical in there location. The is no indexing pin or offset hole for an unbalanced flywheel to be aligned with, therefore Mercedes would have had to balance crank and flywheel together prior to assembly and mated for life as no two would be alike.
 
#18 ·
Its all good jrobz23

asheville that makes alot of sense thanks for dumbing it down to my level lol.

Im still gathering stuff and contemplating this swap so no progress yet. gonna try to get this engine started soon hopefully. I bought it along with another complete 300d that some guy had been running on wvo the wrong way so the injectors are gummed up. I'll be sure to post once i make progress.
 
#19 ·
the 2wd has a fake axle in the front. how is it any different? almost like the 90's fords rangers and bronco II's that had a fake transfer case just so the dirver shafts didn't have to be different. a lot of people just put front axle and transfercase and you have a 4wd
 
#27 ·
What have yall done about power steering lines? searched google for a while to figure out what fittings are on the merc pump end and what fittings go to the jeep side and have not found anything. I have decided to go with the merc motor mounts and the brackets from mercedesdiesel4x4 and Im gonna straight pipe the exhaust.
 
#31 ·
Got a jeep power steering line from LKQ and flared it and I think its gonna work nicely. On another note i called a few machineshops about the balancing and they didnt know what i was talking about but im gonna try one more place. This flywheel business makes me uneasy because I have heard machine shop horror stories where the machinest simply doesnt care enough to do a good job. So would removing the crankshaft and having it balanced then having the jeep flywheel with the flywheel adapter balanced be another good option?
 
#32 ·
If you're going to pull the crank you'll want to take the adapter and Jeep flywheel with it(three pieces total) and have it balanced as an assembly. A good shop will mark everything so that you can't put it together incorrectly. I'd just zero balance the flywheel though, then you don't have to worry about it. Just take the flywheel and adapter to the machine shop as an assembly. They got mine really really close to zero, but not perfect, and let me know up front. My wife's been daily driving it for over a year now with no issues. As a side note, if the machine shops you've called can't at least recommend a shop to balance a flywheel never take any work to them. That's just MHO. The shop I deal with regularly doesn't do balancing themselves, but sends them out to another shop(of good rep.) to get them done.
 
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