Best summation I’ve ever read, on the corporate thinking on the V8 question. There are some real Jeep people designing and engineering your Jeeps. But trust me, their enthusiasm only gets them so far, they ultimately answer to a much higher power.
I've had 2 life altering epiphanies that cause me to view stuff in a different perspective than most. One turned me into a real cynical asshole early on, the other had to do with Jeeps. I got my broad "education" from the internet about the TJ and the supposedly "horrid" Dana 35 that must be removed at all costs or you will die or at least not garner the respect of your fellow Jeep owners who will look upon you very unfavorably if you still have one.
I have a good friend who worked at a Jeep dealer for many years including a period of time when the YJ was still in production. Chatting with him one day I asked him much of a pain in the ass it was to have to keep repairing and fixing all those terrible Dana 35's. He replied that they rarely if ever see them for repair which absolutely astounded me. If the internet were to be believed there should be a line of Jeeps out the door of every dealership just trying to keep that poor Dana 35 on the road and bailing wired together until the warranty expired whereupon they could foist the maintenance responsibility upon the owner forever. They almost never see them for repair. What? How it that even possible? I know that the vast majority of Jeeps have them, they must be working on them. Nope, not at all.
Well now, what does that mean? I know he isn't lying to me, what's going on? Then it clicked and the lightning bolt of understanding hit home hard. The popularity of myths and how if something sounds "true" because the author has an authoritative definitive posting style and sounds like he knows what he is talking about, make it is very easy to believe and perpetuate the myth if you don't have some knowledge or personal experience to refute or doubt it.
In fact, we just dealt with this yesterday solving a problem that has been going on for months for a Jeep owner. He developed some play in his steering. Internet buddy convinces him that it is his steering pump, plops in a generic from an XJ. Nope.
Gets convinced that it is his steering gear, plops a reman Saginaw in in place of his ZJ by drilling beside the bolt hole which was the correct thing to do according to Redhead. (do not do it that way)
Nope, now he has horrible return to center, it is twitchy, not fun to drive.
Removes Redhead and plops in a Durango box according to another internet buddy. Nope, no change.
Shops tell him it is his steering stabilizer, needs a drop pitman etc.
He brings it to us and we do a diagnostic and swap in take out parts we've kept that are good. ZF steering gear, matching pump and hoses, fluid and lower steering shaft.
He goes for a test drive and upon returning says it is better than it has ever been since he owned it. The initial problem was a worn lower shaft and he went through months of trouble because no one could diagnose the original issue and sub par and incorrect parts were thrown at it which only made it all worse and they were so bad that when he finally did fix the steering shaft, it wasn't enough.