2010 JKU "OLJEEPY" LS SWAP Build thread

Some of this post will be past work. I picked up a 2010 JKU with a blown head gasket and bad transmission in August 2023 very cheap. I was just planning on getting it running but the costs to rebuild/swap both the motor and transmission to stock made me rethink what I wanted to do. I will discuss what I did, What I did wrong to hopefully keep other people from making the same mistakes.

Here is what it looked when I first bought it.

I took it to the shop (before I had it running/driving) and took some of the old stuff off and had it detailed. Put a 4 inch rough country lift, rough country bumper, rough country inner fender and fender flares, XKglow grill, XKGlow headlights, XKGlow pod lights (fog and spot) XKGlow light bar, New Katzkin seat covers, Stinger head unit with a Pioneer Sub and speakers, and put some 35 inch Nitto Ridge Grabblers and Fuel rims one.

I waited on the crate 3.8 to come in and was having the transmission rebuilt.

More pics.

I should have started with this is my first jeep (I am 50+ and always wanted one) so I really did not know what I wanted except a jeep to drive to the gym with the top down. I had not done a ton of research and feel like I should have (it would have saved me a ton of money). Then I start looking at cool jeeps and run across the LS Swapped jeeps. So I decide I wanted one. I should have stopped my build right there and honestly sold mine and bought a different jeep that someone had already had built and then make a few minor adjustments to make it how I want it (Once again I would have saved a ton of money).

So I decide to go the LS Swap route. There is a shop in my town that does LS swaps. I head over there. I decide to go with a crate Chevrolet Performance LS3 6.2L 525HP Crate Engine with a 6L80 transmission and the RPM Extreme conversion kit. At this point I had already paid for the stock tranny to be rebuilt so more wasted money.

I decide to have it painted since I was already dropping a ton of cash into it so I wanted it to look good and it had lots of sun fading and the parts were a few months out for the swap.

Get it painted, get the swap done. It will not stop overheating. To stop the overheating we first change the grill to a factory grill. It was still overheating. Added larger electric fans, still overheating, changed the water pump and thermostat even though they were already new, still overheating. Finally we had to put a 2014 OEM fan on. The 2014 OEM fan resolved the overheating issues.

Finally it is ready to drive.......

Get it home and drive it, It sounds amazing but handles horribly. The XKGlow lights continuously went out and stopped working. The Stinger head unit give me zero extra functionality and is only a bad head unit. You have to have a 2012 or newer JK to get all the functionality that the stinger head units provide.

At this point the jeep was in the shop that did the stereo and light work more than it was at my house or on the road.

If you decide to use XKGlow with an LS swap the XKGlow snap in connections will come loose. Finally after months and me threatening to sue they cut the connectors off and hard wired all the XKGlow lights. Since then they have worked perfectly.

That being said I removed the light bar (it made too much damn noise), removed the XKGlow grill because of overheating, and removed the Rough Country bumper and winch because of the overheating (I forgot that on the last post.

I replaced the head unit with a sony that does wireless apple car play (The Stinger did not) and I replaced the bumper with a JKS Pyro Stubby Front Bumper and a Smitty Built Winch.

The saga continues....

As always something is always breaking or driving me crazy. The next things that goes wrong is the AC goes out. Now all of this is new and the hoses come with the RPM Extreme kit. Well guess what, the hoses go bad. We reach out to RPM extreme and let me just say they are less than helpful if you buy the kit and do this yourself. Well I live in South Carolina 2 blocks from the sun so I need AC and I have to get new hoses made and the AC recharged. Also have to get the tune for the AC fixed since it is GM equipment and a Jeep ECM. Finally get that worked out.

Next the crank windows were driving me nuts so I bought the JE18-KIT Jeep Wrangler JK 4 Door (07-10) Power Window Kit from a1Electrical and inner door panels off ebay (these are harder to find than you think they would be. I was very skeptical but these have been amazing!!

I was finally driving it almost daily but the ride with the Rough Country lift was horrible no matter how I adjusted the shocks.

Still more to come....

Here where we are currently. After a few months of driving it to the gym and back, no off-roading or burn outs, both the front and rear axles start to fail. I know this was more than likely to happen since they were the stock D30 front and D44 rear with 3.23 gears.

I was looking at swapping them to tons but went with a crate G2/Terraflex D44/60 hybrid with 4.88 gears and ARB Lockers for the front (found it on marketplace and got a good deal) and East Coast Gear Supply Dana 60 JK Rear Bolt In Axle Assembly (Semi Float) with 4.88 gears and ARB Lockers for the rear.

I am taking EVERYTHING Rough Country off the jeep!! I am installing a MetalCloack Jeep JK Wrangler 4.5" Game-Changer Suspension & Lift Kit (FYI The Sway Bar in not included) with Fox 2.5 Factory Race Series Adjustable Reservoir Shocks - 4.5-6in Lift for the front and rear, MetalCloak Aluminum Overland Tube Fenders front and rear, MetalCloak UnderCloak Integrated Armor System, JK, 4-Door, GenRight Inner Fender for the front and rear, Mickey Thompson Baja Boss AT 37/12.5/17s, Method Wheels Bead Grip 708s, 4-Tire Air System / Air Locker Manifold Kit with ARB Twin Compressor for under the drivers seat, New front and rear Adams drive shafts, ICT Billet Alternator relocation bracket, and PSC Big Bore Hydro steering assist.

To date here is want I have learned:
Research as much as possible and lean on the Jeep Community both in the forums and in person. They are very helpful.
Never buy Rough Country ANYTHING! BUY ONCE CRY ONCE!
The 2007-2018 Jeep JK Heat Dispersion Hood does NOT fit 2007 - 2011, no matter what they say. The Smittybilt 07-18 wrangler (jk) h.e.m.i. vented hood does fit!
Measure twice cut once!!
If you are looking to do an LS swap, look at using the Holley Terminator products instead of harness like RPM extreme. It is probably the next thing I change
The Stinger head units give you ZERO extra visibility/functionality for the 2007-2011.
The TrailDash3 gives you ZERO extra visibility/functionality for the 2007-2011. Read the forum posts!!
IF THEY ARE THINKING ABOUT THIS, I IMPLORE YOU TO BUY A JEEP THAT SOMEONE ELSE HASE ALREADY COMPLETED ALL OR MOST OF THE WORK ON! IT IS LITERLAY LESS THAN HALF THE COST UNLESS YOU CAN DO ALL THE WORK YORSELF AND THEN IT IS STILL PROBABLY CHEAPER.

I will post updates as the last of the work gets completed.

Artisanau said:

Click to expand...

That is my Impala!!!

pc1p said:

If you're not changing parts you've already changed 3 times, are you really building a Jeep???

lol - seems to be how I build mine too, even with good planning!

Click to expand...

Exactly!!! It never ends!! I am starting to think of it as a racecar. It always needs something, It can always have more horsepower, and something is always breaking!!