sixgun4559

First let me say sorry if this is a repost and if anyone has a link to a current thread that would be very much appreciated.
As probably most of you I love my JK and plan on keeping it forever. Now that the miles on my 2007 jk 2dr are getting up there I'm dreading the moment when she starts to fail on me. With the 3.8 motor I was never "happy" with it. It's sluggish to say the least and when I put my 33's on it 6th gear basically went bye bye. I love my manual transmission and refuse to drive an automatic wrangler. Idk why but something about shifting makes driving a jeep more fun.
Well here's my ideas.... A 5.3 swap sounds like a great swap to me because the motor had been used for a long time, it's light, parts are easily accessible and I've worked on them many times. I really want to put one in however I have yet to find a kit that lets me put in a 5.3 with a manual trans, preferably a 6 speed. The 5.7 swap are available however I believe the 5.3 to be a better motor. I'm willing to try either motor however finding a trans is becoming almost impossible. I'm not a professional mechanic more of a shade tree mechanic however I do all of my own work on my vehicles. I want to do this swap completely on my own with minimal outside professional paid help. I have an ls2 block at home I got for free from a guy but it's literally just a bare block. I could probably get a junked 5.3 easier than rebuilding that ls2. I've had my jeep torn apart more times that I would like to say and had piles of parts on the floor for months at a time however I always get her back together and running.
Sorry for the long post but any and all input from you guys would be awesome.

As a side note I've made a point to obscenely wave a jeepers who don't wave back haha I've gotten a few dirty looks from yuppies in there matching color fender flares and hardtops. (Nothing wrong with those jeep btw)

Albino Lizard

I'm only replying because my flares are black. Lol. Did you change your gears? It sounds like you are already set on a motor swap, but if you still have factory gears and they aren't 4.10 your jeep with 33's will be utterly gutless. A gear change is far cheaper than a new motor.

sixgun4559

Thanks,
Haven't changed the gears yet I was going to do that and probably still should first but. I'm pretty decent with motor and trans stuff but gear numbers elude me lol. If I change the gears to the 4.10 will I still be able to do the swap. When I do the swap I'm going to change gears as well I just don't want to have to do it twice.

Grimscale

So, on my 2-door manual I had the 4.10 gears and went with 285/75R16 tires (comes out to be about 32.8") and it ran fine. A little sluggish off the line, but I could hold 65MPH on mild inclines and against headwinds.
IMHO, 4.10 gears will be fine with an LS swap, and could even allow for 35" tires in the future.

Albino Lizard

IMHO, I wouldn't run an LS motor on anything but dana 60's. Its a simple matter of power and torque that will destroy everything in your factory drive train.

33's are really small in the jk world. Find one of the gear ratio calculators and match up the gears for your year and desired tire size. I have the 3.6 with a manual and get by with the factory rubi 4.10 on 35's. I'm putting on 37's next spring. I'll go 5.13.

I hear the 3.8 is really low in the hp category. When/if you swap motors, the new transmission gear ratios are needed to determine your new differential gear ratios. You must take many factors into consideration.

sixgun4559

Thanks for all the help it looks like before I start a swap I need new gears. I'm glad you guys could straighten me out. I will eventually get 8 cylinders in my jeep but like Mr. Cash put it "one piece at a time.