How many of you with the original 3.8 engine are still in love with your Jeep? I love 98% of my 2011 JKU..the look, the stance, all the things I’ve done to it (gears, driveshafts,lift, line-x, etc) except for the unbearable 3.8 liter engine. I’ve recently had both the 2L turbo JL and a 2020 JT as rental cars and was blow away by their torque and highway handling. the downside to a JL/JT are car payments (which I haven’t had for about 4 years since my JK is paid off) and all the money I need to get a new one looking like I want. Should I just suck it up and enjoy my Jeep with its mini van engine? My wife is open to the idea of a hemi/LS swap. It’s still cheaper then a brand new or lightly used Jeep with a newer Pentastar. I’m at appx 125k miles on the Jeep, but I replaced my engine at around 100K. (I also had the transmission rebuilt at 70k and transfer case done at 115K...long stories, don’t ask), so the critical components are pretty low mileage. How many of you just accept and enjoy the 3.8? Thanks, steve

 

I still love mine, 218k miles on the original motor and trans. The power is terrible, everyone knows that, but when you open the top....there's nothing better. That being said, my girlfriend has a 16 JK on 33's with the pentastar and it's fun but it isn't quite the same as all of the effort I've poured into mine.

I want the LS (who doesn't?) but the rareality is that I'll need a new motor in the near future ($3500) and if I'm going to invest that money then I feel like I should go ahead and regear as well, so another $2000. That still, as you mentioned, much cheaper than a new car payment.

 

I own both an '07 JK and a '20 JT. Both manuals, both on the same 35" tires, JK with 4.88 gears, JT on 4.10 OEM gears. And the JT blows the JK away for highway driving and just fun seat-of-the-pants feel when accelerating around town, while getting better gas mileage! But, that JK still puts a great big smile on my face. It will remain my primary overlanding rig. Because I've blown two sets of gears in the rear and one in the front, I'm upgrading the axles--D60 in the rear, D44 in the front--sometime in the next year. With 276,000- miles on the motor, it will probably be soon I do something to it as well. Probably just drop in a reman.

 

My 2008 3.8, with almost 200,000 miles on it, is still getting the job done. I can't justify trading a less complicated push rod engine for a much more complicated VVT engine. That day may come, but for the foreseeable future, I'll stick with what I have.

 

Encouraging to hear. Purchased used, I'm at at 137k now. A few days after purchase I had the upper oil pan seal replaced and changed the oil. Replaced the tranny, transfer case & differential fluids - all synthetics, also had him go through it for other issues that may present down the road. Came back all good. I suspect with proper maintenance (which I always do) I should get to the 200k club as well.

 

Love this thread. I still have my 2010 JKUR. 106k miles, manual transmission, mygig and navigation. I have this pesky co-worker that just bought a 2020 JLUR. It is amazing and the power seems substantially different. The rat fink let me drive it... Made me want one until I saw the real price paid was just over $48k.. My trade in offer was probably fair, but felt low at $18k. So, I came to the forum today to calm myself from joining the JL side in a really expensive way.

I haven't really "needed" the features of my Rubicon, but feel like I wouldn't want to take a step back from one now that I own one (of course no payments for several years has been wonderful)

Still original 3.8, all oil changes done myself with Mobil 1 synthetic since the day I brought it home. I really haven't had a problem, with exception of recently knowing there are more powerful options out there. Looking at the DIY HEMI swap thread has me a little more than interested in researching that. Just don't really want to get rid of my manual transmission.

 

I also still like my 2010, 3.8L Jeep. I've been working on a few issues lately, recently got new tires and have been thinking how great this thing has been driving. I'm pushing 80k miles. I am now very familiar with the engine, so I think that has value too.

 

Still lov'n mine! Same reasons as in other posts...

 

I have a 2011 with the 3.8. My biggest issue was going up hills on the freeway around Northern Arizona at 7000 feet. It was screaming along in 2nd gear and up and down shifting constantly so I have 4:88 gears now which mostly solved that issue. I have 77K miles on mine and the only major repair I had to do was replace the transmission (auto) at 50K miles after taking it to a local garage to have it "flushed". They flushed it alright, down the drain as the next day it froze up on me backing out of my garage. Of course they said there was no way they could have caused that, blah blah blah. Now I am looking at about $600 for the Stealer to change the brake, transfer case and diff fluids. Sounds high but I no longer trust the local garages to work on it. Your thoughts?

 

Over 170,000 on my 3.8.... never had to do any work on it... just took it on a 3000 miles trip in late Sept... and it still works great. Auto tranny still works too!