What's up guys.. I am contemplating on buying a 2014 JKU Sport. Prices seem pretty good right now, and I like that 3.6.

I love my '08 Rubicon though, and feel like I might be downgrading, despite going 6 years newer. My JKUR has 148K which is the biggest reason I'm looking at new. I have 2 small kids, and when we're out wheeling I just worry about a major breakdown sometimes.

I drove a Sport JKU with a manual today and didn't like it $26k. Test drove a Sport S with auto, and liked that much better. Just seemed peppier believe it or not. But it's about $30k. Not sure if it's worth it to me.

I'm also thinking of adding a RIPP stage 2, to get the power up on my Rubicon. It's paid for, and runs excellent, but what risks am I running SC'ing a 3.8 with 148k?

The Rubicon is auto with a Flashpaq, and Airaid intake. It does the job in the city, but it's incredibly slow going up the mountain passes in CO. It's my 3rd vehicle though, so it only gets 3500 - 4000 miles per year.

 

That's a lot of miles on the engine. I think you would want to look long and hard at doing it. Does the engine burn oil? Have you run a compression check on it? I would definitely do that before deciding.

If you lose this engine are you willing and able to replace it?

How much $'s to get into the'14? Run the numbers. If you supercharge you still have a jeep with 146k.

That being said, I love my RIPP and have 43k supercharged miles on it. Total of 85k and would do it again without a doubt.

If you are worried about breakdowns with kids, I would be Leary about doing it with that many miles

Just my $.02

Mike

 

Thanks for the reply. Thought I'd get more, haha.

Well, I went and test drove 2 more Rubicons. 1 manual, and 1 auto. Still didn't like the manual.

But I do not like the new interior, so I'm keeping my 2008. If something happens to this engine, I can afford to replace it. The current engine runs excellent. You'd think it has 80k on it. I'll have to research the boost a bit more. Will it affect the tranny and driveline as well? I don't run my JK hard. Just want a little more punch for these 10,000 foot passes. I have to climb them now in 2nd gear and at 4,000 RPM. I know gears will help, but I'm only at 33x11 right now.

 

I struggle lately with the same decision. My situation is a bit different in that my 2010 only has 28K miles. I look at the $6000 the Ripp is going to cost and think how far that money would go towards a 2015.

Car payments suck and my JK is paid for so I think there's going to be a Ripp in my future.

 

I would definitely do the RIPP if I were you. You still have the nice interior.

 

Your JKU Rubicon is paid off and that is a huge benefit. Rather than installing a RIPP why not think of doing an LS Conversion. Check out Motech and you will have one bad ass Rubi and it will cost you half as much as purchasing a new one.

 

I didn't know about the LS conversion.

Overall, what's the best bang for the buck? I thought it was the RIPP?

 

Yeah, bang for the buck is probably the s/c. From browsing a few s/c threads, surging at freeway speeds seems to be the only real negative people talk about with the ripp. But there are a bunch of threads to read through to help make the decision.

Hemi and LS swaps are getting more and more popular, and a few shops are even doing 4bt diesel conversions. Just depends on your skill (if you want to buy the pre-made install kits and do it yourself) or bank account (if you want a shop to do the swap) as to which is right for you. $2.5-6k for a s/c vs $10k +/- for a v-8 and self install vs $20k +/- for a shop to do a v-8.

If this wasn't my daily driver/only vehicle, I would be tempted to spend a week (probably three or four) pulling it apart and doing the LS swap myself. No way I'd pay 20k for the swap.

 

How can you not know about LS swaps ?

 

I've not installed a SC on a Jeep but I've installed (and fixed MANY other botched installations) many on fox bodied mustangs back in the day. I think what generally holds true is that it's rare that you get a plug and play scenario that never needs to be facked with. The lower the boost, the less wear and more dependable it becomes but then you're defeating the purpose of why you installed it in the first place.

So you need to either have the experience/knowledge of how to tune and troubleshoot or you need a good friend that's readily available for such or deep pockets to pay a shop form time to time. Back then there was an advantage of a pretty simple on board computer system (EEC-IV) but now you're pretty much at the mercy of having to work with Diablo and RIPP, etc. Not a bad thing, but sure takes away from the DIY aspect of tuning.

All this and the (usually) minor inconveniences aren't such a big deal when you drive around town and anywhere you may be you can limp home or worst case, get a tow truck. But I don't want to assume the extra risk/hassle in the middle of nowhere where I wheel and with the fam on board.

Let the "I've had mine for xx,xxx miles and it's always ran great!" posts ensue.....