alright gents, I have recently taken on a project for someone else without them really knowing.  One of my Marines purchased an 88 Samurai last year and shortly after decided to do a VW 1.9 TDI swap on it.  He found a mechanic that promised he would be able to complete it for an agreed upon price within a couple months.  One thing would come up after another with this mechanic before he finally admitted, 6 months after the deadline, that he couldnt complete the project.  Another mechanic came in and said he could do it however, it drained my guy's savings and the project was delivered to his wife, incomplete, after he deployed.  Now the guy thinks he is going to have to come back and work on this thing before he'll be able to drive it at all.  Does anyone on here have any parts laying around that they would be willing to throw at this project.  My goal is to have it running before I deploy to relieve him so he comes home to something he can drive right away.  Thanks in advance.

Without knowing what parts the Sammy needs, the parts would truly be "thrown at the project."  I doubt you will receive many takers with such an open ended request.  They would probably need a lot more detail.

Knowing which coast you are on would be useful information as well.

As of now we need an intake to get everything started.  Since under the hood is completely different than the average Sami, anything else under there is pointless.  The mechanic removed the steering stabilizer for some reason and now it is impossible to go over 30 without feeling like the whole vehicle is going to shake apart.  Other than that, if anyone else has experience with this type of swap any information that they have would be greatly appreciated.  I have never even driven one of these vehicles, let alone work on one, prior to today, and this one is not exactly the norm.  If anyone has any interior parts that they are willing to part with i would greatly appreciate a pm.  Lastly, does anyone know how to hook up the tach with this set up?

Acme makes a good conversion kit for it.  The main question is what all is there.

Can you post some pictures of what is under the hood currently so we can get an idea of what else needs to be done?

Sounds like the easiest and most economical solution if you already have the diesel engine is to just get a conversion kit and start from scratch.