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Articles and Publications |
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| · Mopar Supercenter Project Vehicles · 2008 Rubicon HEMI Wrangler · | 06.03.2008 |
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Mopar Supercenters Project HEMI Wrangler
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2008 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon HEMI Conversion
What do you do with a new Wrangler to set it apart from all of the others on the road today? You jack it up, add off-road bumpers, a winch, and big tires with rugged wheels. Well, there is more if you really want to make it stand out from the rest, add a HEMI engine to it. While your at it, why not put the SRT-8 6.1L Hemi engine in place of the factory V6. That is exactly what we decided to do to this Jeep victim.
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Our story begin's, with a 2008 Jeep Wrangler with only 334 miles on the odometer. A recent trade-in, as the previous owner wanted power windows and this jem didn't have it. We have already begun disassembly of the Jeep to make the work easier by removing all of the front end sheetmetal. Since we have no idea of what to expect, this will make it easy to identify problems quickly. Also with all the crawling around, it will save the paint job from scratches and dings while cramming in the big HEMI engine. |
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Now that all the front sheetmetal is off of the Jeep, we can begin pulling the engine & transmission. In an effort to keep things simplified, we decided to pull the engine and trans as a full assembly. We will also keep the engine harness attached to the V6 engine so we can identify all components to be swapped over or scrapped easily. So now with the motor ready to be pulled, the engine hoist is setup. With a few tugs, and shoves, the V6 and trans come clear of the frame rails. Once the engine was free, we removed the V6 mounts for a little extra clearence
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Rather than try to re-invent the wheel, we decided to use the hemi conversion kit from Burnsville Off-Road. They were the first to bring to the market a kit to make this swap simple to do. Simple may not be the right word to use, as this is no simple task even for us. The kit comes with a new radiator, engine specific harness,engine mounting frame brackets, a steering column relocation bracket, and a pre-programmed PCM for the new engine.
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| Now the frame brackets for the engine from the factory need to be cut off and the new ones welded into the proper position. In order to do this properly, you need to use an engine and transmission bolted together and position it into the engine bay. In an effort to simplify this, we used an old 5.7L hemi block with an empty used tranmission case. Sliding this into place will provide us the extra clearence needed to ling everything up before welding the new mounting brackets to the frame rails. |
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| Before we actually begin placing the engine in to identify the engine mounting location, we need to install the suspension kit. This will provide us with an exact fit of the end result so we can identify clearence issues that may arise due to the new 6" long arm kit from Sky Jacker. This is a very well constructed kit with plenty of brute strength and will provide the needed clearence for the new 37" tires. The included items in the Sky Jacker JK 6" Long Arm Kit are the off-road shocks with boots, redesigned steering pitman arm, new 6" lift coil springs, stainless steel braided brake lines, and all of the needed brackets and hardware. |
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Our tires and wheels have also arrived, the new M-16 Super Swampers. These are 37x13.50x17 in size with the American Racing Teflon coated Predator series.
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With the added lift from the Sky Jacker kit, the Jeep now sits tall and proud. With plenty of tire clearence for some trail riding while providing the flexability of some great climbing. The project is coming around well, and now that the suspension is done, we will be setting the motor and tranny into position.
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Check out our photo album of this build
PHOTO ALBUM
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