LS3 swap questions, not regular swap questions....

DKjeep

New member
I am doing this swap no doubt about it, I am gearing up / doing my homework / gathering my cash up every day. One quesiton an old hot rodding buddy of mine posed last night when I spoke of the cost of the kit from motech (which is bad ass BTW) was if I do not care about factory integration why could I not just drop the engine in with a harness that will support it and fab up a instrument cluster / shifter and call it a day and save quite a bit of $$$? I didnt have an anwser and although I realize some of the features of the vehicle would be lost they may be ones that I dont care about. Any input about this?
 

hinrichs

Caught the Bug
This doesnt pertain to a jeep at all.....but when I was building my last bmw to race but still keep it on the street.....which it didnt really have many features stock anyway or a worry about emissions testing due to the year... I was planning on doing an engine swap and just using a simple painless harness to make the lights and stuff work, and then just delete everything else and use a RACEPACK for my cluster which can support a lot of gauges in a small package. This was a weekend toy/giant go kart so I didnt really care about having anything inside.

I feel if you did something like that in your jeep, you would be better off building a buggy that has no creature comforts anymore.
 

Moochie

Active Member
If you need to have emissions tests done in order to register your Jeep you can not remove your OEM dash.
 

Exodus 4x4

New member
Because it does more than just gauges. Everything you currently have will still work, minus the gear indicator on the dash.

I considered going the kit route and sourcing it all myself until I called and talked to Brian at MoTech. He explained the pro's and con's of each. At the end of the call I understood clearly that the professionals that do this every day are worth the money and that going with junkyard sourced engine isn't for me. If I'm putting that much money into something, I'm not going to cut corners at all.
 

DKjeep

New member
Because it does more than just gauges. Everything you currently have will still work, minus the gear indicator on the dash.

I considered going the kit route and sourcing it all myself until I called and talked to Brian at MoTech. He explained the pro's and con's of each. At the end of the call I understood clearly that the professionals that do this every day are worth the money and that going with junkyard sourced engine isn't for me. If I'm putting that much money into something, I'm not going to cut corners at all.

I’m not buying anything junk yard, this isn’t my daily, and I have zero emissions concerns. I want to do it right and to do it 100% right I know motech is the answer. Being that the vehicle is in the situation that it is in I do feel that I could be satisfied with some things not working any longer but only if this results in thousands of dollars saved. Unless the vehicle is so integrated that if I pull the motor and tuck the excess harness away or remove them that things like the windows no longer work. I feel that in the end I will wind up buying the DIY kit from motech I was just curious as to how much potentially easier the swap could be and at what loss / money savings could be had if you decided to really hack it up.
 

Jeepnoub

New member
All things aside. I think the biggest thing is what's your skill and comfort level with doing things more piecemeal. I would think if you've built a few cars and/or performed motor swaps with this kind of electronics, then it's probably a great idea.

If not, then motech will be more user friendly. And you get a complete package with support from a company that specializes in ls swaps. With the amount of frustration I've had with big diy projects that I had limited experience in, spending a few thousand more to save time and headaches would be worth it to me.
 

WJCO

Meme King
All things aside. I think the biggest thing is what's your skill and comfort level with doing things more piecemeal. I would think if you've built a few cars and/or performed motor swaps with this kind of electronics, then it's probably a great idea.

If not, then motech will be more user friendly. And you get a complete package with support from a company that specializes in ls swaps. With the amount of frustration I've had with big diy projects that I had limited experience in, spending a few thousand more to save time and headaches would be worth it to me.

Well said. No shame in that at all.
 

Exodus 4x4

New member
I’m not buying anything junk yard, this isn’t my daily, and I have zero emissions concerns. I want to do it right and to do it 100% right I know motech is the answer. Being that the vehicle is in the situation that it is in I do feel that I could be satisfied with some things not working any longer but only if this results in thousands of dollars saved. Unless the vehicle is so integrated that if I pull the motor and tuck the excess harness away or remove them that things like the windows no longer work. I feel that in the end I will wind up buying the DIY kit from motech I was just curious as to how much potentially easier the swap could be and at what loss / money savings could be had if you decided to really hack it up.

Yeah I understand what you're saying, but I'd still call them and talk to them about it. When the conversation got to pulling the body off the frame I stopped thinking about DIY. No you don't have to, but they do. Not to mention the warranty of the crate motor, their 12 month warranty, and the 200 miles of testing they do to tune and assure its correct.

I like doing things myself and saving money too, but I also don't want a pile of shit sitting in the driveway that I buried tens of thousands of dollars in. It's not as easy as it used to be to swap motors. That ship sailed long ago. My point is do you really think it's logical to buy a brand new LS3 crate motor and try to half ass the thing to work in your JK? Assuming it's a crate since you said it's not a junk yard source.
 

DKjeep

New member
All good points. I tend to lean twords the nice stuff so I'm looking at the 480hp ls3 crate engine combined with a new 6l80 trans. I've also been looking non stop for other info to support the idea and there just isn't any out there for this platform. I am going to pick up the kit from motech, it's worth being able to pick up the phone for help if I need it. At the end of the project I feel certain that I would have been wiling to spend the extra 2-3k for something that was ready to work out of the box rather than having to try and reinvent the wheel myself.
 
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