Diesel Jeep Liberty DD build

JD3020 · Jun 1, 2015

Well as it always goes i was scrounging Craigslist a while back and came across a good deal on a diesel Jeep, had 1 picture and no info. Sent em a text but never heard back, 2 weeks later they finally replied so i went and bought it. Best part is i wasn't even planning on buying a vehicle. LOL

Its a 2005 Liberty, 115k miles and one owner. Overall its in decent shape, has a few minor issues, but the interior is beyond nasty and will take the most time to fix. Current plans are to just fix it up, replace the timing belt, and make it a nice DD. Hopefully do a full EGR delete, exhaust, tint it, and if i keep it long enough it'll get some tunes. Not sure yet if i'll keep it or sell it.

When i brought it home, first i saw it

Gave it a quick wash and soaked the rims in cleaner, shined up pretty good.

Starting to tear it apart and clean it up.

Emery19 · Jun 1, 2015

looks good so far bud. i just cant understand how some people let their sh!t get so bad like that. i mean im not the cleanest person in the world but still.

JD3020 · Jun 1, 2015

Yeah i don't get it, both of my trucks are work/farm trucks and they have never ever been close to that dirty. The people i got it from were in their 40's/50's and had custody of their 6 grandkids, oldest was around 10 i'd say so there was obviously a bunch of kids in the car. But still, its absolutely disgusting. I'm not a clean freak but i had to sweep it out and then wipe everything down with hot soapy water before i'd even drive it, and then i'd wash my hands as soon as i got done. If it wouldn't have been so damn hot i would've worn a long sleeve shirt and rubber gloves.

Best part is they said they cleaned most of the trash out of it before i came to pick it up. Guess that explains why i've spent close to 3 hours so far cleaning the interior. :morons:

tnadanzig · Jun 2, 2015

Not a bad find. The interior is pretty nasty. That will take some work. Gotta love the CCV system with all the build up on the turbo.
I have a 05 Liberty CRD. They are a pretty decent DD. I run GDE tunes on it and it really helps give it some getup.

smcox1 · Jun 2, 2015

That interior is f****** nasty try spot shot to clean it up. It would be pretty cool to turn into something like the srt8 jeep grand cherokee lower it and make it haul ass:naughty:

Emery19 · Jun 2, 2015

JD3020 said:
Yeah i don't get it, both of my trucks are work/farm trucks and they have never ever been close to that dirty. The people i got it from were in their 40's/50's and had custody of their 6 grandkids, oldest was around 10 i'd say so there was obviously a bunch of kids in the car. But still, its absolutely disgusting. I'm not a clean freak but i had to sweep it out and then wipe everything down with hot soapy water before i'd even drive it, and then i'd wash my hands as soon as i got done. If it wouldn't have been so damn hot i would've worn a long sleeve shirt and rubber gloves.

Best part is they said they cleaned most of the trash out of it before i came to pick it up. Guess that explains why i've spent close to 3 hours so far cleaning the interior. :morons:

That's crazy. When I was working landscaping my trucks would be dirty. But not even anywhere close to that. Its just gross. I understand kids are messy. But I keep things cleaner if kids are around then if it's just me.

Oh well I can't wait to see what you do with it man.

WILD_PHIL · Jun 2, 2015

I'm interested in this build. I like anything diesel and always flirted with the idea of buying one of these. They are pretty dang cheap around here.

E99 F350/zf6/guages/arp/comp/stellite/ billet wheel/ bellowed... Need more fuel and more air.

JD3020 · Jun 3, 2015

Emery19 said:
That's crazy. When I was working landscaping my trucks would be dirty. But not even anywhere close to that. Its just gross. I understand kids are messy. But I keep things cleaner if kids are around then if it's just me.

Oh well I can't wait to see what you do with it man.

I've grown up on a farm and in the lawn irrigation/landscaping industry, we had trucks and equipment get dirty but that was just dirt, nothing like this.

But the more i work on this thing the more i'm thinking about just fixing it and selling it. Typical POS Chrysler product, and being a diesel that was thrown into a vehicle ****s tight and doesn't make much sense, frustrating. Makes me wanna sell it and buy a Bronco to build. Maybe i'll change my tune once i have it fixed up. :shrug:

Emery19 · Jun 3, 2015

bronco with a cummins or a powerstroke swap would be sick.

JD3020 · Jun 5, 2015

If i were to do anything it'd be a PSD Bronco, at the moment i have damn near everything to swap a Bronco, only missing a transmission/t-case and the Bronco itself. Plus i'll never ever buy into the Cummings bandwagon.

Anyways back to the Jeep, it was making a loud roaring noise while driving, sounded like i was running a set of boggers. Front end looks to be in great shape and the tires look damn near new, jacked the rear up and found it pretty quick. Dropped the shaft off this morning, should be done soon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpXwY5JRpZM

JD3020 · Jun 5, 2015

Also got the engine bay cleaned up since i had everything apart.

JD3020 · Jun 8, 2015

Well my Jeep is fixed!(for the most part) After USPS kept screwing up and taking over a week to ship my sensor 100 miles, my new MAP sensor finally showed up. Now its running and shifting absolutely perfect. Gotta be careful taking off from a stop because it wants to light the rear end up, wish it was LSD. :fustrate: Next up will be finding out whats causing this roaring noise, doing the timing belt, and then some tunes. First video is how it was when i bought it, PO's were told it needed a turbo. 2nd vid is tonight after i swapped the sensor and cleared the codes.

YouTube Video

JD3020 · Aug 6, 2015

Its taken a while, but i've made some progress with the CRD. Been DD'ing for the past month or so, averaging 22mpg's around town. Finally got around to loading a tune onto it which gave it a HUGE power boost, and should give me a pretty good fuel mileage gain. Unfortunately the torque converter isn't liking the new power, so it will need upgraded at some point. Also gonna need tires soon since i picked up a screw in one Sunday morning. In the past couple weeks i went from dead set on selling it, to wanting to keep it, and now back to selling it again. LOL

Ran it at the dirt drags Tuesday, made 2 passes. This was the first pass by myself. 2nd pass was an actual race, gave it a smidge too much boost and jumped the light. Hope to have a video of it soon.

And heres a launch on asphalt, scoots pretty good for a tune only Jeep. And a pretty weak tune at that. If i get a new converter for it, i'm gonna do a intake/exhaust and tweak the tunes. I know this engine can make some power, has plenty of fuel, but the damn 40mm turbo limits it. LOL

YouTube Video

shmoozer · Aug 10, 2015

Garrett's website states that that little guy can support up to 260 horses. Makes you wonder how well a little 50 or 55mm turbo would perform lol. You might be on to something. Perhaps be able to embarrass a few overly confident muscle car guys.

JD3020 · Aug 12, 2015

For sure, theres a couple CRD's running around on the interwebz with larger chargers and they seem to do alright. I think the max right now is 260rwhp, i wanna say he has 30% over injectors. Pretty sure these have the same CP3 as everything else, so the limit is just the nozzle and the turbo. And being DOHC i've often wondered how they would respond to more aggressive cams.

But i need to resist modding this too much, the whole point of getting it was so i'd have a reliable DD and play with my 7.3. LOL

dieseltron · Aug 12, 2015

My parents had a crd same color as yours. It had like 60k perfect inside and out and kept going to limp home mode. They didn't want to put any money into tuning it and stuff so they traded it in. I was gonna buy it off them but didn't have the scratch laying around at the time. Looks like a cool project good luck

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

JD3020 · Aug 13, 2015

Thats a shame, bet it was something easy. Surprisingly these are fairly simple to work on for the most part, but there are very very few people in the U.S. that know a thing about em. Like my CRD, owner was told by a couple "mechanics" that it needed a $1k turbo among other engine parts because it was in limp mode and had 0 power. Turned out to just be a clogged MAP sensor, new one was $25.

Only real challenging part is the electronics **** since so much has to be done by a Chyrsler tech, and the dealers i talked to refused to help me any.

Mdub707 · Aug 17, 2015

Ahhh the old Liberty CRD's. There were a few guys in the veggie world that had these converted. I remember hearing a lot of griping about the torque converters being garbage in them, and something that needed updating with the rear window/wiper arm. I'll have to dig back in and see if I can find any info. Most of the guys I knew that had them ended up selling them and moving back to excursions.

JD3020 · Aug 17, 2015

The converters are complete ****, so ****ty that Chrysler issued a re-flash that severely de-tuned em instead of actually fixing the issue. BUT they are the same exact trans as the hemi v8's, and several people are having good results running your typical re-man converter for $150. I can get mine to slip/shudder, but only in O/D.

As for the rear window stuff i've never heard of that, and never had any issues out of the other CRD we've had for 7-8 years. But the door window mechanics are junk, and are super common to break. Parts are $25/door to fix though. Both my driver side windows are broke, just gotta get the time to pull the motors out and fix em.

JD3020 · Aug 17, 2015

BTW i filled up and worked out my mileage the other night, getting 21mpg's around town, including the dirt drags and 4 or 5 launches and runs on the street. Very impressed with it, can't wait to how this thing does once i do some intake/exhaust work and start driving it with some sense.