Check This Thing Out, 1:45 left
 

No, this isn't my auction but since I can't afford it I thought I would pass it along to anybody who's interested. It's a 2.1L Renault Diesel FACTORY Jeep Cherokee.

The guy says it gets 37mpg highway.....

Why aren't there more cars like this available to us!?!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150398913292&viewitem=&sspagename=STRK:MEBIDX:IT#ht_2743wt_1165

What do you mean? It is available to us. Which ever guy wants it most will win the bidding.

Mostly because no matter how much you talk it up, it's still a Renault engine. Brought to you by the same marriage made in hell that brought you the Eagle Premier. Build quality by Chrysler, wiring by AMC, and component fitment and accessibility by Renault.
The XJs were a great concept, but poorly executed, and God help you if you need to work on anything under the dash or in the engine compartment.

Touche, I guess...

Do you mean that it's very tight in the engine compartment?

I had a '98 XJ with the 4.0 straight six and it was easy to work on.

However, it didn't have a turbo like this one does.

Chrysler would have had no involvement in the "build quality" of a Renault-powered Cherokee.

I own an '88 Cherokee which I bought in '87. It has required far less maintenance than my '82 300D, which has essentially the same mileage. I don't find it to be particularly difficult to work on.

It just sold for $5601.

I'm not surprised it brought that much, these are few and far between. I passed on one about 10 years ago for $2500 and it was in really good shape. The engine is decent but it has a timing belt that became I believe the achiles heal of most of these. No one remembers to replace it and even this seller didn't mention that it had been replaced although with all the work that's been done on that engine I believe it likely has.

There was also one for sale out in WA last year sometime I think but when I got to questioning the owner he finally admitted that it wasn't running because the timing belt broke.

I think personally the Peugeot 2.5TD would have been a better candidate for the Cherokee, especially the intercooled version we never got in the states. Then again Peugeot didn't have a relationship with Chrysler so it makes no difference.

At any rate, someone must have wanted it awfully bad, the price is more than I would have paid for it...and it's in my back yard too.

steve a

I own an '88 Cherokee which I bought in '87. It has required far less maintenance than my '82 300D, which has essentially the same mileage. I don't find it to be particularly difficult to work on.[/QUOTE]

if you are looking for gratification on owning another make of a vehicle i suggest looking elsewhere.I have thought of putting a 617 engine in a jeep or an explorer.because the engine are cheap and easy to find and they are easier to fit into when you are nearly seven feet tall.even though i like my w123 ,sitting in a vehicle with your eyelevel at the top of the window isnt fun for long.if that jeep has a timing belt I will steer clear.

Yes, but you can stick a small block Chevy into just about anything. It will be fun, reliable, and extremely simple to work on as a result. Sorry guys, I'm just so into these old school Chevys. I haven't liked anything GM, since the mid 90's. It's just that they were so good mechanically, up to that point, that I have to keep mentioning them. I'd happily put one in just about anything with atleast two wheels under it, and be able to get the same great results everytime..

I thought he did mention it but he also mentioned that he had the head either replaced or rebuilt.

He said the lower end had also been rebuilt at some point so the engine as a whole has fewer miles on it than the stated 228K.

Hey now the Eagle Premier was a fairly decent car when all of the electronics worked

So were Pintos, Mustang II's , AMC Pacers, and Gremlins. As long as you either didn't get hit in the rear, or slam a door shut with all the windows closed. :D Oh yeah, or have a Mad St. Bernard trying to kill you on a hot summer day...

Perhaps you are not aware of it, but there were a few years when Jeep Cherokees and MB's were both being manufactured by the very same company. Evidently, Daimler was so impressed with Chrysler that they bought the company!!!

True, and in the process of partnering up with Chrysler, they saved Chrysler's a$$ from completely going out of business at the time. Much of the details of a lot of Chrysler vehicles are the same as Mercedes, or are direct Mercedes components. The Jeep liberty, the newest Cherokee, and the Dodge Nitro, all have the 3.7 litre Mercedes engine and tranny in them to this day, even though Mercedes dumped Chrysler a few years back.

Perhaps that has something to do with the fact that Daimler initially "dumped" only 80.1% of its interest in Chrysler.

well than maybe the 20% Mercedes still owns is actually the only thing keeping Chrysler afloat for the moment. Eventually, they'll back the rest of the way out and whom ever is still at Chrysler will be stuck holding the bag. That would be cool.

That train has already departed the station. But it was Daimler who was left holding the bag. And the bag was empty.

I doubt that they were impressed with build quality. I have a 2000 diesel ram. The dash cracked (multiple threads on the forums), the fuel system is incredibly weak, the front suspension antiquated & weak, steering box & related loose and weak. The truck takes $2000 in aftermarket parts to bring it to where it should have been off the production line. Once fixed, it is great - Dodge put a 500,000 mile motor in a 50,000 mile truck and deserves to go out of business.

Good thing that never happens to a Mercedes!!!

Hasn't happened to my '88 Cherokee, either.

Ha Ha! This is so much fun. I just love tearing up Chrysler. We need a rip up Chrysler, and a Rip up GM thread....Perhaps even sticky's. As I've mentioned, I personally love the old school Chryslers, and GM products, but nearly everything either one of them has produced for about the past 20 years has been total Crapola, and the only thing Ford ever really knew how to make was trucks. I feel that Ford trucks are very difficult for the others to compete with, save for that, they haven't been any better than GM, or Chrysler.

Yeah, well. Incase a lot of people haven't noticed, there's a reason they call them Dodge....It's their way of saying "Stay out of our piece of crap", while still sounding confident in their product at the same time....Imagine that, all that fits into one single word.."Dodge" Ha Ha! :D

Well, FWIW, I have 3 Jeep Cherokees and one Grand Cherokee, plus I just "retired" another Jeep Cherokee. The one that I just put out to pasture had 220k on it and never had anything more major than a head gasket replaced - without even a valve job - and a rear main seal replaced.

When I gutted it the engine still made 30 psi oil pressure at idle and nearly 50 psi at freeway speed. It never failed to start one single time in all the years that I owned it. It had finally gotten to the point of using a quart of oil between changes though. The tranny had never been touched. Nothing more than normal maintenance stuff was ever done to any of the other drivetrain components.

The only reason I retired it was that the body had been so badly beaten up 4-wheeling in the woods around here. All 4 doors had been caved in and pounded back out so many times that none of them sealed water-tight to the body any more. Rear quarter panels and front fenders - same story - caved in and beat back out several times. The coupe de gras was that a hole rusted through the rear passenger floorboard right above the muffler - due to the original heat shield being lost with the original muffler.

They are easy to work on IMO. Maybe not up under the dash, but then what is? Here's a tidbit for you. It was the FIRST vehicle completely designed and crash test modeled on a computer before the first physical prototype was ever built. At the time AMC was owned by Renault and the design and test work was all done on Renault's Cray supercomputer (one of only half a dozen in the world in 1983). It's uni-frame (monocoque) design was recognized as one of the most structurally rigid ever built at the time and became the pattern that all other SUV makers copied.

They have their quirks too, but they are a very solid, durable vehicle. One of mine is in the midst of a conversion. I've wanted a diesel Cherokee for years, but the puny little 2.1 liter Renault always turned me off. The only place in the states to get engine parts for them is a select handful of Winnebago dealers (the same engine went into some of their early 80's "mini winnie" motorhomes). So, I decided to do something different. I thought about the OM617, but wanted an automatic tranny and 4WD. The issues with trying to mate the OM617 to another auto compatible with a transfer case, or using the MB tranny and a divorced transfer case seemed pretty tough to overcome. So I found an alternative.

In 82-85 Oldsmobile produced a 4.3 liter V6 diesel that went in to about 5% of GM's FWD Cutlass Ciereas, 98s, Pontiac 6000s, and Buick LeSabers. Most all of the gaskets and rebuild parts are still available, and I have 3 complete engines, so I have LOTS of spare hard parts. This motor also has a bellhousing compatible with the trannies for the 2.8L-3.4L gas engines. So I picked up a 700R4 4-speed auto and transfer case out of an 85 Blazer, and had a custom torque converter made to marry them up. I have a T3/T4 turbo with a .63 AR hot side and a .60 AR/55 trim cold side that maps out perfectly to give it about 7-8 psi boost and bump the HP up to make it a bit peppier.

I'm just getting started on the transplant now. I've got just over a grand into the project, and don't expect to have to spend more than another $500 or so to complete it. I expect to get 35+ mpg and it will definitely have more oomph than the little 2.1 Renault ever could have...

I bought my '98 4.0 Cherokee with 28K on it and put 80K on it before I sold it.

The following things went wrong with it:

1) I had to take off the neutral safety switch, clean it, re-lube it and reinstall because my reverse lights weren't coming on when I put it in reverse.

2) The O2 sensors went bad and I bought two bad Bosch O2 sensors. I eventually had to take it to the stealer who told me that it's not uncommon for the Bosch sensors to be bad out of the box or fail shortly thereafter.

3) In the process I ruined my catalytic converter with multiple, powerful backfires so I replaced it with a high flow cat.

That's it.

It was a Sport 2WD model and I replaced shocks and installed a 2" lift kit because the rear springs started to sag(very common).

I still regret selling that thing.

Chrysler may have issues elsewhere but it wasn't with the Cherokee.

That transmission made the '95 C280 I bought afterward seem like an early KIA when it shifted in comparison.

It had the best air conditioner I have EVER owned or even been in. That thing would freeze you out in 100F/90% humidity days.

I was always having to clear the condensation off my glasses when I got out on a hot, humid day.

I understand that a/c was always a strong point with Chrysler but this is the only Chrysler I've ever owned.

I could take that 2WD off-road , I never got stuck in mud or anything else for that matter and I could climb some serious inclines without missing a beat.

I only sold it because when gas got to $1.70 a gallon I couldn't justify keeping it as my company car that I used to drive about 25K miles a year. It was cutting into my "profit" from the mileage reimbursement.

I bought the C280 to replace it and that thing was a mistake. Gas mileage was roughly the same and I had very little confidence in it in a very short time. I did make about $1,00 when I sold it two months later though...:D

+1 more XJ cherokees were great vehicles...DEAD easy to work on, both under the hood and dash regardless of what others may say. Compared to most other vehicles they're a walk in the park. They are also INCREDIBLY cheap to keep running, made from 84-01 with loads of aftermarket and interchangable parts

Junkman, what in the world do you mean that dodge the front suspension is antiquated? That's a linked coil front with a D60 if memory serves. Yeah, the dodge wrapper kinda sucks but at least they still put solid axles up front, sucks that the new ram has gone to IFS. Steering box is a well known issue and yeah I guess the CAs and links themselves aren't as strong as they could be. Compared to the weak-ass IFS chevy puts up front, I'd take the dodge. If its going to be weak, it may as well be easy to work on.

The XJ was designed by engineers from ford, AMC, and renault. The original little renault diesel wasn't that great in any respect, something like a 617 would be better and a bt4 simply awesome.

But several people say "I've looked at it" regarding the swap and I wonder how hard they looked. To put a 617 in a 4wd XJ will require about 5" of lift height and you'll still have to bumpstop aggressively. The oilpan will hit the differential otherwise.

Oh, one more thing- the 2.8 CRD in the liberty isn't really a mercedes engine. Its a VM-Motori common rail. Technically, since detroit diesel bought VM several years ago and then DaimlerAG bought DDC, daimler is the parent company by VM stands on their own, I've got a little turbo diesel of theirs in one of our snowcats and its a good little engine.

IIRC there was a member on here who did an OM617 swap into a YJ by mating it to an AX-15 5-speed. I don't think he had to lift it even close to 5 inches. The YJ and XJ layouts underneath aren't quite the same, but they aren't THAT different.

IIRC he was able to get the lower oil pan in front of the axle so clearing the differential wasn't that big of an issue...

Not quite true, YJs are leafs, different wheelbase, real frame off of which to base motor mounts, etc... If his axles were sprung over, that provides the height of the axle tube and spring perch above stock height- right around 5"

I bought my 300D specifically as a donor for that swap as my XJ is lifted right around there, totally possible my measurements are off, but they seemed to be confirmed by a swap I've seen over on NAXJA into a 2wd MJ...

Funny thing is I kinda fell in love with the 300 and there's no way I can chop it up now! Looking for another one that's in worse shape. But it better not have any parts I need for the DD 300.

Yeah there are a bit more differences between the XJ vs YJ than the XJ vs TJ - mainly the leafs vs slinkies.

You sure you can't just shift things forward enough for the oil pan to end up in front of the axle? 'Cause when I was looking at it, that was my plan. I was thinking of going the MB tranny and divorced T-case route and figured shifting the engine and tranny forward would help compensate for the divorced t-case being set farther back behind the tranny than a married unit would be.

I never took that many detailed measurements though, so maybe you're right and that wouldn't work. With all the driveline modifications required (custom t-case to tranny shaft, a shortened rear DS, and a lengthened front DS) at the rates that driveline shops charge around here, I abandoned the idea as too expensive before I got too far into it...

You need what I have - a good spare motor and tranny ;)

If you go to dieselbombers.com you can see lots of conversions.

There was one thread where a guy was documenting the conversion of his XJ to a 617.

He did have some issues IIRC with the steering. He had to weld two Pittman arms together in order for it to reach.

i will paypal you $2 for a profile pic of your almost seven foot tall self sitting in a w123. going to need to see you standing outside the car, too

I won't pretend to be certain that you *can't* get the pan in front of the diff, just didn't seem like it was lining up that way when I took the measurements. I'll have to refer back to the cocktail napkin I drew up my plans on...

I was thinking same thing, MB motor and tranny to something like a divorced 203/205. In a vehicle as short as a YJ that seems like it'd be awful long, shifting things forward would definitely be the right idea.

I guess as I think about it I also didn't work too hard on getting the pan forward as I don't want the pan the hang lower than the diff, I'd much rather hit a diff on something than my oilpan. I've also already got 4-5" of lift so I remember it just seeming like it would clear and knowing I'd lose some uptravel.

Yikes on the 2 pittman arms welded together...they make cast drop arms, and typically those aren't necessary on XJs until you're over 6" of lift...

Follwed i-osprey's suggestion and went to dieselbombers.com - ALL KINDS of interesting conversions going on there!

And as he stated, there is a guy who did an OM671 - XJ conversion and he put the oil pan in front of the 4WD front axle. And just like he said, the guy made a really SCARY looking drop Pitman arm by welding two together because he needed more drop than any of the aftermarked pitman arms offered. He claims to have done some serious stress testing on it and its holding up fine - it just looks really ugly...

And FWIW, it doesn't hang down lower than the diff - its just a matter of when the suspension travels upwards it has clearance BEHIND the pan - rather than into or in front of it.