See that is probably the farthest thing from a street machine as you can get. Your not gonna drive that thing 1000mi, run the rubicon then drive home.
Give Robbie a call at Motech. The web site is lswrangler.com. I have his 5.3 kit and love it! Daily driver. Mine was one of the first kits he did outside of his shop so I had bugs but that was to be expected. His kits are way better and probably as close to painless as you can get without having someone else do it for you. At least on the LS side I can work through the problems. The jeep can-bus can be to say the least and be nice a bear! Right now my issue is my BAS/ESP light came on after skidding around a corner when the streets were wet. Hoping it has to do with my brake pads in rear needing to be replaced but could be the ABS pump or controler too. Was all replaced with new when I built this thing since the engine fire took all of the original stuff. My biggest problems have been stuff the former owners did. Suspension geometry all messed up, terrible aftermarket stereo wiring and such. There are quit a few of his kits running around Cali for you to look at or give a try. If you take a trip to Vegas he will let you drive his stuff also to get a feel of them. Do a search on YouTube for LS Wrangler. He has done several videos of progress on these kits along with install videos and comparisons. He is a wealth of knowledge on all systems of the jeep and is fairly easy to access for help. He is realy busy but will still make time to help or answer questions. Always trying to better what he has also. Can't say enough about the guy and I haven't even met him yet except over the phone. My wife has met him when Robbie and his wife with Mo picked her up at the airport as a surprise for her 40th birthday. Not many vendors let alone people you have never met would do that for you! Any questions throw them out there. You will be surprised how many people have these motors in there jeeps! Just keep an open mind that this is a project with a wealth of knowledge to be gained. You will learn about every square inch of your jeeps heart buy the time you are done. And by the way staying over at a Holiday Inn Express will not make you an expert it's a FRICKEN WAYALIFE!!!!!!
Jim
I've done alot of reading, the pros and cons of each build hemi and LS. I have no doubt that there's quite a few V8 JK's runnin around, I just wanted to know how many of the Wayalife guys have them in SoCal. I'm interested in what's being done and what goals need to be met in order to make these things LEGIT here in Cali.
I've talked to JSS and be says be is the ONLY shop that builds swaps that are emissions legal in CA.
From my understanding in order to make the swap legal the engine has to from a model year newer then the vehicle, I thought it had to be from the same mfg but it's not looking like that's right anymore, also needs to retain all the FACTORY smog crap, and vehicle getting the swap has to be out of there fed emissions warranty 8yrs or 80k mi... Programming seems to be a proprietary info so I don't know what all needs to be done there.
I've got me an AEV 5.7 jku that I just purchased outta state. It runs like a champ. No over heating issues, no CEL's and daily driveable... That's my concern, it HAS to be reliable! I'm not one to take my vehicles somewhere to get worked on, I do all my own wrenching so learning the in's and out's of this beast is gonna happen eventually.
The whole can-bus crap is a little intimidating but only cause I've never delt with it but that will change.
I love my v8 jku!!