How does the Cummins Diesel Jeep Wrangler “Tubesock” compare to a gas-powered Jeep? On this episode of Dirt Every Day Fred Williams and guest host Cummins Steve transform Tubesock from a diesel-powered submarine Jeep to a trail and street Jeep
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MotorTranscript
00:00 This week on Dirt Every Day, Tube Sock is back from the bottom of the pond.
00:03 And we're going four-wheeling to compare its four-cylinder diesel to a straight six and V8 gas engine.
00:13 [Music]
00:40 You guys remember Tube Sock, the Jeep we drove underwater?
00:43 Well, Tube Sock's back in the shop because we're prepping it now to drive on the street and on the trail.
00:48 We had to make a few changes after it went underwater, but tomorrow we're doing a shootout between this Jeep and two other Jeeps.
00:54 The idea here is that everybody wants a Jeep with a diesel engine.
00:58 Some guys are stuck with a Jeep that has a four-liter straight six gas engine, and some people go to a V8.
01:04 Tomorrow we're going to find out which one of those three is the engine that you want.
01:07 We have less than 24 hours to put this Jeep back together and get on the dirt.
01:12 Come and Steve is back in town to tell you why we're putting a new engine in Tube Sock and taking the one that went underwater back out of the Jeep.
01:19 I'm going to get back to working on this thing.
01:20 Do it.
01:21 The floor is yours.
01:22 All right, guys. So the Jeep did great. It did great underwater. There's no movie magic there.
01:27 The Jeep ran for about 45 minutes total underwater.
01:30 [Music]
01:50 But that engine is an early prototype engine.
01:53 The engine we're putting in Tube Sock right now is much more like what we're going to offer as a 50-state legal crate engine.
01:59 So we'll show you a bit of the differences between this and what's in Tube Sock right now.
02:04 All right, so the engine that went underwater for 45 minutes with no problems whatsoever, I might add.
02:10 Electronic, not a 4VT, electronic engine underwater, 45 minutes.
02:14 The main difference between what we did with that and the engine that we're actually certifying for a crate engine program is the EGR system.
02:21 That's the physical difference.
02:23 The real magic happens in the calibration work.
02:25 So to make this thing 50-state legal for engine swaps for gas to diesel,
02:29 there's a lot of calibration work that the team at Cummins has done, and we're really happy with the way it turned out.
02:35 So looking forward to tomorrow to see how it performs against the 4-liter and against the V8.
02:40 So this is the plan.
02:42 We put the engine in.
02:43 The motor mounts on the engine does not line up with the 4-cylinder motor mounts.
02:46 However, the motor mounts on the engine may line up with the 4-liter 6-cylinder motor mounts, which are on the frame.
02:52 This frame is for a 4-cylinder, so we're going to pull the engine out, cut the stock motor mounts off,
02:57 clean up the frame, and build something new to hold the Cummins in tube sock.
03:01 [Music]
03:30 All right, so same engine, same block, same head, same footprint.
03:34 So we didn't have to change any of the motor mounts.
03:36 We didn't have to do any of that.
03:38 The EGR system I was telling you about fits in the same footprint.
03:42 You can see a crossover tube in the back here, and then you can see the EGR cooler tucks in behind the alternator.
03:48 So again, we're not in the firewall, no firewall modifications.
03:52 We did modify the grill to put an inner cooler in there, because remember when it went underwater, it just had a tube going over it.
03:58 Now it actually has a charged air cooler.
04:00 We will still be able to run the stock cooling package, but like Fred said, we do have a charged air cooler.
04:06 Steve, is this engine a 4BT?
04:09 This engine is not a 4BT.
04:11 Everybody tells me the 4BT is the greatest Cummins engine ever made.
04:14 The 4BT is a great engine.
04:16 It is a great engine.
04:17 And it might be one of the greatest engines we've ever made, but it's not the best engine for this Jeep.
04:23 You think this is a better engine for this Jeep?
04:24 I think this is the best engine for this Jeep.
04:26 This engine is 330 pounds lighter than a 4B.
04:29 330 pounds?
04:30 330 pounds.
04:32 You heard it.
04:32 Wow.
04:33 You heard it here.
04:33 You heard it first.
04:34 That would be like me trying to lift Steve and Steve.
04:37 Or just a Steve.
04:39 Or just Steve.
04:40 So what we're doing is we're hooking up wires to the engine.
04:43 We built it as a submarine once.
04:45 It's actually a lot easier than building it to drive on the street, because there's a lot more sensors you got to hook up, a lot more plumbing you want to do, power steering's back in, the inner cooler.
04:56 All of that electrical, the heater's hooked up.
04:58 We're going to put the cage back in.
05:00 All of that stuff.
05:01 More complicated.
05:02 See if that's out of the way far enough.
05:05 This is how Jeeps should be with the windshield down and low back seats, no roll cage.
05:12 Super dangerous.
05:13 Super dangerous.
05:14 And that's how they won the war.
05:15 That's how we, yeah, we made freedom.
05:19 So we're going to put the cage back in.
05:20 We got five guys here.
05:22 Look at that, all safe and boring.
05:32 All right, let's bolt this thing down and go four-wheeling.
05:35 So we're putting our 37-inch trepidors back on, and we're also putting 37-inch trepidors on the other two Jeeps.
05:54 We sent the wheels out to our local America's Tire.
05:56 Whenever I do tires, I bring them here to America's Tire, which is right down the street from my shop.
06:01 They have shops all over the place, and their discount tire line is also all over the place.
06:05 And you can order this stuff online if you want.
06:08 So these are Max's trepidors.
06:11 These are one of my favorite tires.
06:13 They're super gnarly.
06:14 See how big the lugs are on the side?
06:16 They mounted them up on wheels and tires, and we're putting them on the other two Jeeps so that we try to have as close to an even playing field on all the vehicles we are testing.
06:27 Remember, always go back and torque your lug nuts so your wheels don't fall off.
06:31 That's never happened to me.
06:35 TubeSock's now back on 37-inch tires.
06:39 Engine is in.
06:40 Mike is here from Rugged Radios.
06:42 He's putting in some headphones because we're not going to run a top for the wheel in.
06:45 In fact, we're using Mike's Jeep in the test.
06:48 His has a 4-liter gas engine.
06:50 Advanced Adapters has a 5.3-liter V8 gas engine.
06:54 Boring.
06:55 And this has a little tiny Cummins.
06:58 A little Warbanger.
07:07 So it's the morning.
07:08 We're going four-wheel in, but the first thing we want to do is fuel up all the vehicles so they all have a full tank so we can figure out fuel economy.
07:13 But one of the things that's really cool is right now diesel is cheaper than even regular gasoline by almost six cents.
07:21 So the plan is that we're going to fill them all up to the top of the tank.
07:24 We're going to drive all day, and at the end of the day we will check how much fuel they take to fill them back up.
07:29 Because odometers are a little different, the tire sizes are all the same, so hopefully the vehicles will run around the same speeds, RPMs, and all of that.
07:36 Usually with a diesel engine, you want to get a few miles on it to get optimal fuel economy.
07:42 But it's running good right now, so whatever fuel economy we get by the end of the day, it's probably only going to get better as the vehicle gets broken in.
07:50 Alright, let's load up and roll out.
08:15 So we're at 57 miles an hour on your GPS. My speedo's sitting at right about 61, so the speedo's off a little bit, but not too bad.
08:25 You can definitely smell the paint burning off, all the fresh engine smells.
08:31 That's the thing that nobody tells you, like you do an engine swap and you drive it and you're paranoid.
08:37 You think it's on fire.
08:38 Yeah, you're like, "Oh, what's that? Why is clear coat on the engine, rust-oleum on the exhaust?"
08:44 Yeah, that's what's kind of cool, because we're not just putting a diesel engine in a Jeep, but we're also helping you figure out what it needs to be in a crate engine.
08:54 We're just going to pull up to the side, everybody's staying in line. Whoever's Jeep we take, just come and take our Jeep.
09:07 [Music]
09:24 The '97 TJ from Advanced Adapters is a little bit different than Tube Sock and the Rugged Race Jeep.
09:30 This has a V8, 5.3 liter Chevy engine, gas, but behind that engine is an automatic transmission.
09:36 This is the Jeep that most people would build. It has a V8, gas engine, it's a Chevy, it's simple, everybody can buy parts for it.
09:44 People have been making adapters for it for millennia. Like Tube Sock, this has a 44 in the front.
09:50 So the axles are a little bit lighter, a little bit different driving style because it's an automatic transmission.
09:55 How does the little four-cylinder diesel stand up to the tried and true Chevy V8?
10:00 This is probably your biggest competitor as a crate engine company, and it's a hard one to beat because people have been putting V8 Chevy engines in Jeeps pretty much since probably a week after they built the first Jeep.
10:16 So I think that's why we look at it as not so much a direct competitor, but it's just an option.
10:23 The Cummins will be right for some people, and a gas V8 or the Chevy V8 will be right for other people.
10:31 Steve's head sticks above the roll cage pretty well.
10:34 Looks like you have a five-year-old driving a Power Wheel Jeep.
10:39 Pull over at this exit, Steve. Let's switch. Pull over at this exit. Let's switch.
10:49 All these fancy Jeeps and no coffee holders.
10:53 This is the Rugged Race Products Straight-6 TJ that they have built to go four-wheeling.
11:03 Now this engine is the venerable 4.0 liter gas Straight-6.
11:07 This is the engine that the Jeep came with. This engine is in a lot of Jeeps. It's in Cherokees, lots of CJs.
11:13 All these vehicles have had Straight-6 gas engines for years.
11:16 They're great engines, very torquey, not very good on fuel economy, and they have a few other quirks.
11:21 How does this engine compare to the new little four-cylinder that we put in Tube Sock?
11:25 And is this the engine that you would want to keep in your Jeep, or would you want to upgrade to something even bigger?
11:30 So from a drivability standpoint, and just what people love about the 4.0 liter,
11:36 I think the Cummins is an amplified version of that more than it is anything to do with the V8.
11:42 I notice you have it in fourth gear, and at this speed, on that grade, with the Cummins you were in fifth gear and not really thinking about it.
11:54 And I'd say that's the biggest thing I noticed, the difference in driving the black Jeep and even this one,
12:00 is you're not hunting between fourth and fifth gear on grades, it just keeps pulling.
12:07 [Music]
12:15 So we're out here at my buddy's ranch where we come, I mean we're at the top secret dirt everyday testing facility.
12:21 But the goal is, all day long, we keep all three of the TJs together,
12:26 so that they're constantly running the same amount of terrain, they're running the same tire pressure,
12:32 we aired everything down to 15 PSI, because none of us are running V-locks.
12:37 The fuel gauge on Tube Sock doesn't look like it's moved at all.
12:41 That would be accurate.
12:43 It's like, these engines are so efficient, it's probably actually making fuel.
12:47 [Music]
12:53 [Music]
13:03 [Music]
13:13 [Music]
13:23 [Music]
13:33 [Music]
13:36 Sounds like that old Chevy's getting hot.
13:39 [Laughter]
13:41 The electric fans in Tube Sock haven't even turned on yet, because we don't have any.
13:46 Never will. 150 degrees.
13:48 [Music]
14:17 [Music]
14:33 We have yet to get over 900 RPM.
14:36 I don't wheel it over 900 RPM.
14:39 [Music]
14:48 This is the toughest driveway in New Orleans.
14:51 [Music]
15:07 [Music]
15:10 You're going to have to back up and move the front end over.
15:13 [Music]
15:24 You got that, Steve?
15:26 You're good. Keep going, keep going.
15:29 Keep it hard, passenger, and keep going.
15:32 Keep going. It's going to start coming down now.
15:36 I don't think we got over 800 RPM in the diesel.
15:40 Just trick, trick, trick, trick, trick, trick, trick.
15:42 Low gears with the Atlas. 538s. Turn on our air lockers.
15:47 This is fun wheeling, and that diesel is a fun engine for it, because it's slow, technical stuff.
15:54 This isn't rock bouncing where you're bouncing over stuff.
15:59 It's not running hot.
16:01 [Music]
16:08 See, the type of guy that would keep his 4-liter would make bad decisions,
16:12 kind of like what Mike's doing right now, making really bad decisions.
16:15 What are you doing, Mike?
16:17 [Music]
16:22 It just needs to grab right here, or I can stack a rock.
16:26 Hold it right there.
16:28 [Music]
16:34 Little girl.
16:37 You're going to turn slightly, passenger, and reverse simultaneously.
16:41 [Music]
16:45 Wasn't enough.
16:47 [Music]
16:57 [Music]
17:22 All right, we're going to climb this thing with no throttle input.
17:30 800 RPM.
17:32 800 RPM, foot off the pedal, first gear, low range.
17:37 [Music]
17:46 You guys out of fuel?
17:48 No, we topped off a little while ago.
17:49 Every 100 yards, steal the gas tanks out of the--
17:53 About 500.
17:55 Every 500 yards.
17:57 This thing's like idling through everything, and the fuel gauge has not even moved.
18:01 Like if this is full, the fuel gauge is like still way over here.
18:04 It hasn't even gotten down to full yet.
18:06 [Engine running]
18:14 So, Xander's is in Indiana, where they probably don't even have rocks.
18:18 It's a corn.
18:19 The trick to rock crawling is how to get your tires up on top of the rock.
18:24 Just try to let the thing climb, let it work, turn the wheels, back it up, get lined up again.
18:29 Just run around them.
18:31 Yeah, why don't you just stay home?
18:34 [Engine running]
18:40 So, we came off a rock and punched a hole right in the oil pan.
18:45 Hmm.
18:48 We don't have a skid plate that goes up under here, and we probably should have.
18:53 So, that's not an easy trail fix.
18:59 [Music]
19:04 This pan is some sort of polymer.
19:06 The LS pans are usually aluminum.
19:08 So, the 4 liter pan is steel.
19:13 Which tells me in the oil pan arena, the 4 liter might be the winner.
19:17 Even though it's drinking all of its fuel, it would probably take that hit better than the other two.
19:24 Probably going to have to run home and grab the oil pan off of another engine,
19:30 off the one that was on the engine sitting back in town, and race it back here and put it back on.
19:37 There you can see the hole in the bottom of our oil pan.
19:40 It seems to line up almost perfectly with this rock.
19:43 The rock that's right in the middle of the things that you could have gone around.
19:48 This rock here is the culprit.
19:49 Actually, Steve, why is your pan made out of plastic?
19:53 It's a lightweight composite.
19:55 Oh, fancy words for plastic.
19:56 So, this engine is used in all sorts of automotive applications,
20:00 and a lot of the noise that comes out of a diesel engine comes right out the bottom.
20:04 And so, the composite pan helps muffle a lot of that noise.
20:07 We do have an aluminum pan for it as well, but unfortunately, it probably would have done the same thing.
20:13 I think in the R&D aspect of your crate engine program, you should maybe consider a steel pan.
20:19 Drop engines on rocks.
20:21 Yeah.
20:22 [Music]
20:37 Yay!
20:39 Let's put this boobajoo back together.
20:42 This is the pan that actually went underwater.
20:46 This one has been underwater for hours.
20:49 So, we're going to make sure it's nice and clean, ready, and we are going to bolt it back in.
20:53 It's got a built-in gasket.
20:57 And hopefully, once it's back in, I will back up and not smash it right back into that same boulder again.
21:02 [Music]
21:06 We did our 50-mile break-in oil change on Tube Sock, just as the instructions say with any new crate engine.
21:14 Put a new oil pan on.
21:16 I think that's part of the original program, but it's in.
21:19 Jeep's ready to go.
21:21 We're going to fuel.
21:22 We're going to peel out, head back to town.
21:24 It's getting dark.
21:25 Go fuel up all the Jeeps and see how we did on mileage.
21:28 [Engine starting]
21:36 I guess I should take a minute and read what the legit break-in procedure is for a Cummins engine.
21:42 [Laughter]
21:44 Because I don't think what you do with yours is legit.
21:47 That's probably not it.
21:49 [Engine starting]
21:53 [Music]
22:00 We are back at the same fuel pump we started at this morning.
22:04 We put in about roughly 90, 95 miles, and now we're checking the fuel mileage to see how each Jeep did.
22:12 We had a little bit of issues with the Jeep, with the Cummins, mostly because we crushed the oil pan,
22:16 which is probably my fault because I ran into a rock and wasn't paying attention.
22:19 So now we're going to check what type of fuel numbers we've gotten.
22:23 Everybody ran it to one click.
22:25 Let's start with the 4-liter.
22:27 How many gallons?
22:29 7.28.
22:31 7.28 gallons.
22:33 6.53 with the V8.
22:35 Cummins, Steve, what do you got?
22:37 5.33 gallons.
22:39 5.33 gallons.
22:41 With a brand new engine.
22:43 The first 95 miles on the engine.
22:45 5, 6, 7.
22:47 We definitely get a better fuel economy with a 4-cylinder Cummins diesel.
22:50 Right now the price of diesel fuel is cheaper, so we're actually saving even more money.
22:54 I had a lot of fun driving Tube Sock, and we all had a lot of fun four-wheeling today.
22:59 It doesn't really matter what engine you put in your Jeep, you're going to go have fun in your Jeep four-wheeling with your buddies.
23:04 Steve doesn't want to hear that. He wants to only put a Cummins engine in, and I think it's a great option.
23:09 Everybody's just the coolest people.
23:12 So that's it for our day four-wheeling with our buddies in the Jeep.
23:15 We had a great time. Tube Sock is back in action, and I can't wait to get it out on a trail near you.
23:20 That's it for Dirt Every Day.
23:22 Those guys in those gas Jeeps sure are eating our dust.
23:31 Sure are. I mean, because it's kind of a dusty day, and they're behind us.
23:36 I mean, because it's got a Cummins four-cylinder.
23:39 There you go.
23:41 But it's also environmental, because it's not using very many fossil fuels.
23:46 That's exactly right.
23:48 It's kind of like a libertarian party. A little bit of both.
23:52 Like, what animal is halfway between a donkey and an elephant?
23:57 A human.