Kubota swap- help push me over center

Long time lurker and I've admired all the kubota conversions thus far- so much so that I bought the adapters from Overland Diesel. I've delayed in getting started on my project for various reasons, chiefly trying to figure oh what exactly my first steps will be and what my options are to completely them.

That said here's where I stand and where I think I need to go particularly with a diesel conversion in mind, given my jeep is a "survivor" in mostly in rebuilt condition. My objective is to get it mostly up and running, then work on small stuff while driveable.

Rebuilt transmission and t-case given mine currently leak like sieves
Disk brakes on all four corners
New clutch pack
V2203 swap.

Can anyone give me some guidance as to what order I might do these things and what else should I look at with respect to the diesel swap?

Thanks for the input! Hopefully I'll have my own swap thread forthcoming!

Couple suggestions

Just a side note to add to what Peter and John have said.....

the RPM limitation is definitely a limitation.  However, when I had my flat head motor, I don't ever recal really driving faster than 3,000 RPM anyway, it always sounded like it was going to grenade when the RPMs get high.

What are your intentions for the jeep?  Do you intend to drive it on highways often? 

If you have the time and the gumption, I would look into moving the driveline forward a little bit, maybe 1-2 inches or so.  That will give you a bit more room between the motor and the firwall, and also probably make more room for the throttle linkage, depending on how you are setting that up.   I moved mine forward when I put the T98 in there.

I'd also look into a dual master cylinder for the brakes, if you don't have one already.

I had a Saturn overdrive when I was running the T90 transmission, but it didn't survive.  The planetary gears stripped, so I decided to not use overdrive.  I have 4.10 gears in my axles now, and 33" tires.  It drives very nicely.  I don't use 1st gear on the street unless I'm taking off from a steep hill, and it cruises 55-60mph just fine.   I think at about 60mph I'm around 2,500 RPM, so there's still RPM left to pass someone, or to speed up if needed.  I just got back from a 2,000 mile trip to Utah and back, cruising 55mph almost the entire time, the jeep did really well!  And got better than 30mpg average.

factory 5.38 gears and no overdrive, you won't be fast enough to drive on modern road speeds, it really depends on how fast you want to drive.  If 45mph is as fast as you want to go, you don't need to change the gears or put an overdrive in there.  If you want to do 55 or faster, you'll need to do one of the two.  Using my own jeep as my only basis for comparison, I would suggest finding newer axles with 4.10 gears (or whatever ratio you need) or re-gearing the axles.  My overdrive didn't survive, I don't know if that's typical, or if the newer Saturn units are just junk.  I really don't know for sure.  

I would still like to have an overdrive unit, not so that I can go faster, but so that I can split gears.  Driving the T98 like a 3 speed, there's often times where splitting a gear would be nice.

Good luck with the swap!  It'll be worth it, trust me!  It's definitely put new life into my old flatty.


Edited by Daniel_Buck - 31 Mar. 2016 at 5:20pm

I edited my post with a bit more information!

I've lowered mine back down to about 13 PSI .  I get a few excursions up to 15 psi sometimes, which maxes my gauge out.  

Thanks for all the replies. I appreciate the suggestions. One of the things I am also thinking about is Saginaw steering. Does the Kubota create any problems with that modification?

Hay Can I Please Get That List Of Parts for the Swap

I Did I Pm him just Waiting for him to get back to me just wondering if anyone already hade it