[Vwdiesel] Jeep VW Concersion

[William J Toensing]

I don't have an answer for you but maybe I can steer you in the right direction. Also, perhaps those of you who live in the UK & Finland can help. As some of you may know, Renault bought AMC in the early '80s & had a working relationship prior to that as I read somewhere, Renault was assembling Ramblers in Belgium in the '60s & '70s, I think. I have been to Europe 3 times, 1979, 1985, & 1991 & recall seeing USA Jeeps each time. Because of high gas prices in Europe & more favorable diesel prices in many European countries, especially France, USA car manufacturers, especially now, have had to offer a diesel option to be competitive in Europe.
Whether a Renault diesel engine would match up to a Jeep bell housing, I don't know. This is possible. It is also possible Jeep made a special bell housing to mate the Renault diesel to the Jeep running gear, most likely a manual transmission since I understand most Europeans prefer manual transmissions to automatics. After Chrysler bought  AMC from Renault, they may have sourced  diesels, from other sources, especially after they became DaimlerChrysler.
I would suspect there are Jeep discussion groups similar to this VW discussion group. I would do a Google search & also ask this question on other diesel discussion groups including the www.tdiclub.com . This might give you a choice of engines. There is also the National Chrysler Museum in Mich. that might be of help, or they might be able to steer you to someone in DaimlerChrysler who could give you the interchangeability & parts info you need. A little research of this nature might save you the effort of having to totally reinvent the wheel in this conversion.