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Flywheel Housing and Bell Housing Mill Work NJ

JC93YJ

Plastic
Joined
Jan 30, 2018
Hey guys, I need a hand. I have a diesel project I’m working on, I’m mating a Kubota V2203 to an NP435 using an AMC 258 bell housing. Yes, it’s a mess, but it will work. What I need is a machinist that is willing to center the two housings up drill the bell housing bolt pattern into the flywheel housing. Both housings have machined center bores than can be used to index off of. The parts are 16” in diameter. I’ve been quoted almost $400 by a shop that wasn’t too happy that I only wanted one made, so any help would be greatly appreciated. I live in Jersey by Sandy Hook, but I’m not against traveling. This isn’t a rush job, either. Shoot me an email at [email protected] and I can send you whatever pictures and dimensions you need.

Thanks guys,
Joe
 
Just go with the shop that gave you a quote of $400.

Considering the time it takes etc it's a good price....

This, it isn't like you can toss those parts in a 6" Kurt vise and start drilling holes 5 minutes after you show up.
 
Yup, If the OP would do some of the "heavy lifting" by accurately measuring
the parts, and then creating a fully dimensioned drawing, I'm sure the cost
would come quite a bit.

Also the number of machine shops that will actually give you a quote
for the job will go up exponentially.
 
$400 sounds like a deal to me.

What are you using for flywheel/clutch/starter? That is usually the difficult part.
 
I always liked working on science projects, on paper it's easy and no none realizes how much skill / time is involved.

Eighteen odd some years ago, I was routinely working on car parts enjoyed every bit of it. My preference was crank grinding and block prep.
 
Open a credit card with introductory rate, pay the shop, cut up the card, and pay off the work at $50 a month.

Give them a month at their rate, then discount $50 for each week of delay. Put this agreement in writing, with owner of shop. Engrave your contact information on any item the shop takes possession of.

You may end up with paying nothing for it.

Why not an adapter plate?
 
Not to difficult strap the kubota bell to the table and indicate the bore clamp the AMC bell housing to the kubota and indicate .There are only two holes that need to be accurate the rest are just tapped holes. I think $400 I could make good money . Bill
 
Not to difficult strap the kubota bell to the table and indicate the bore clamp the AMC bell housing to the kubota and indicate .There are only two holes that need to be accurate the rest are just tapped holes. I think $400 I could make good money . Bill

Yep, clearly I need to start charging more. If I really took my time I think I could stretch that into a 2 hour job.
 
Kubota v223 Transmission Adapter --> Jeep Inline 6 4.L 4.2L | eBay

Might seem a bit steep for those couple pieces and a handful of bolts, but I bet he doesn't sell 10 a year.

I looked at pictures of the OE Kubota rear cast housing and if the OP really wanted that re-drilled for Jeep pattern I would say no thanks and suggest buying that $750 kit.

I do a lot of this kind of stuff and it's never just rough drill and tap a few holes and bore a couple dowel pins. There's always 10 things they have completely overlooked and they want it all for nothing.

And no, if you start making V2203 adapters you're not going to sell hundreds of them. There's like 8 people that think they're cool and another 50 that tried it and hated them.

It's a tiny engine and not going to work well in a road vehicle.
 
Garwood I don't disagree I get customers all the time wanting to install diesels in their Jeeps and after discussing it with them , I usually convince them that the "cheap" diesel install is twice the cost of a rebuilt original engine, way more practical too. Bill
 
Garwood I don't disagree I get customers all the time wanting to install diesels in their Jeeps and after discussing it with them , I usually convince them that the "cheap" diesel install is twice the cost of a rebuilt original engine, way more practical too. Bill

For what they might waste on it, they can fly to Milano, rent a 3-cylinder Diesel several times as effectively engineered, and find out for themselves they dare not risk a US style freeway on-ramp without a parade-permit and police escort to make a hole in traffic. DAMHIKT

I still LIKE those, Euro fuel costs as they are, but you do have to look ahead and plan ahead as if they were an auto wrecker with a dead Econoline on the t-bar.

"Cheap" Diesel of course rules-out Gale Banks, etc.
 
The "cheap end" of diesel conversions is Mercedes 5 cylinders, Kubotas and all other oddball engines. The driving force behind the guys that do this stuff is frugality. That is totally cool with me provided I'm making shop rate and not half-assing some shit "good enough" to last long enough they can brag they got 40 MPG.

The direct inject V2203T might be pretty OK in something real small and light like a willys jeep or very light 2wd pickup. Problem is that isn't what 99% of the V2203's are. Most are non-turbo IDI which sucks a big one and aint cheap nor intelligent to turbocharge.

I really like the opposite end of diesel conversions. Put a real nice, powerful engine into a worthwhile vehicle combined with great workmanship and experience and you got something.
 
Thanks for all the input guys. To me, it didn’t seem like a $400 job, but I’m not experienced with having machinists do stuff for me.
Garwood- that adapter is made by a guy named Ken out in California, he introduced me to the swap. He makes quite a bit of those adapters and he’s working on a full kit to swap one of these engines into a Cherokee. Yes, the V2203 doesn’t make a lot of power NA, but with the addition of a turbo pushing 20psi (they’re known to take up to 30psi reliably), these engines make 100hp and 300ft lbs of torque at the tire, which is a little more than a stock 4BT, and the Kubota weights half as much and is much more refined. I started the engine on two 4x4s and it didn’t shake whatsoever, except when I shut it off. Try doing that with a 4BT, they’re called paint shakers for a reason. And the Jeep the engine is going into has a gutless 2.5 four cylinder now, the diesel will make the same horsepower, twice the torque, and get realistically around 30mpg.

I’m not looking to spend $20 on the swap, but I’m not going to spend $10,000 on it either, I’ve spent a lot of time rebuilding the drivetrain I’m using and sketching up CAD drawings and models of all my adapters. This has been almost a year in the half in the making so far.

As for the flywheel, I’m using the Kubota flywheel and starter set up and I’m in the process of designing an adapter to bolt the Jeep flywheel to the Kubota flywheel. The Kubota flywheel is recessed in the flywheel housing, so I have room to play with. This isn’t a new idea, Phoenix Casting makes an adapter like this, but they don’t have a small enough adapter ring.

For anyone that wants more info on the swap, dieselbombers.com has a lot of these conversions. There’s a bunch of Ranger and S10 swaps, my YJ swap, two or three XJs, and a TJ. Ken at SPMachinig is also working on creating some new adapter plates.

Joe
 








 
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