5.3 LS vs 5.7 Hemi vs 5.9 Magnum vs SBC 350

[Sj's TJ]

This is why I love this forum. Tons and tons of experience which will be very helpful with me as I plan it out the next few months. My biggest concern with this is how I mount stuff below. I feel like the stock skid plate will have to move and that worries me for how I will secure everything. I’ve seen videos of people having to do a lot of fabricating on trans mounts etc. I’m very much a beginner in fabricating. I have some welding experience but this project would be a great excuse to buy a welder.
Ideally, I would want something that is easiest to replace the 4.0 with. I’ve heard lots of 5.2/5.9s being some of the easiest but also some LS videos have made it seem pretty straight forward. I understand it’s a big project. Just don’t want to get caught lowering the engine and trans in and then having issues with needing a fabricator to custom make something for me…which would make my budget a lot larger.

To do any swap you will need to have a welder and do some level of fabrication. At a minimum you'll need to weld in the new motor mounts and a new transmission mount of some sort. Most buy a universal kit from someone like Barnes/TMR/Motobilt etc that let you place it wherever you need it.

I did an LS swap and I just made my own motor mounts, but that was because I also did a Motobilt front-half kit. There are plenty of examples of V8 swaps on here that will help you decide. The point about legal/smog is a big one. Mine is a offroad only rig so that didn't matter to me.