colomtnbkr21 wrote:
Couple things I would like to add. First off - check out COTY built, they have TDI diesel conversions for TJ's, XJ's and YJ's and in a couple months will have a TDI swap for the JK with the NSG370 transmission. It will be a bolt on swap and all of the electronics will work with the transplanted TDI out of a 09-14 Jetta. With that said, in 08 the KK came with a NSG370 6 speed, (I have one) and was curious so I called the guys up over there and chatted it up with them and they believe their swap might work really well with the KK given fabricating some engine mounts, other than that it might be pretty easy swap given the KK and JK share the same computer system. Might be an option to TDI the KK. The TDI engines are readily available and are cheap. Their Kit for the KK minus engine is going to be ~ $5500.00, engines are going for $1000.00 to $1500.00 usually. You can tune the crap out of these engines and make them pull some serious weight, not to mention the fuel economy of 30+ mpg's on a JK
As far as emissions and being legal and all that stuff
I've got the solution. Drive up to South Dakota and get it registered there. As far as I know they have no emissions guidelines there. I was in Mexico last year and noticed everybody down there was driving around with South Dakota plates. and I mean tons and tons of vehicles. That got me wondering wtf??? so I did some research and apparently anybody with anything that has 4 wheels can get a South Dakota plate with simply just a drivers licence or valid form of ID and VIN #. That is it. So I guess if you don't mind driving around with South Dakota plates, then you can make your TDI KK or JK street legal. I don't know. Whatever
As far as the KK SFA swap that was brought up, I'm not going to get into it, doing one myself, and the crazy $26,000 price tag to do one is ludicrous. Get a JK front axle, weld up some long arms, be done with it. shouldn't cost you a crazy 2nd mortgage type of money to do it to get it off the ground at least. Certainly will not cost me more than 4K to do mine with a Rubicon Dana 44 out of a JK. Now I know this all depends on many things, and whether or not your doing it yourself or having somebody else do it, and what kind of axles and bla bla bla bla bla your using and doing what with, but certainly you can get this done with quality parts and have a capable rig under 4k in my opinion.
Your forgetting you need a physical address(no PO box) and be a SD resident to get plates,that means a SD drivers license.
Plus why on earth would anyone want to use a VW engine? They have terrible track record and can't pass emissions(none can to include those not covered by that recall).
Oh and your never going to do a SFA on a KK for $4000.It's not as simple as bolting a JK front diff in,you'll find that out.Many have and scrapped the whole idea,not just on a KK but KJ's also.My SFA build cost $26k in parts(no labor) but I did more then slap a solid front axle under it and I did not use any used parts besides the HP44 housing(and only housing).
The material alone for the arms and steering will run you $500 at least unless you skimp and use thin material.Then you got the builder parts,mounts,steering box,front driveshaft,rear driveshaft,and unless you want a dash full of lights on all the time your going to have to interface the ABS and ESP system to work.