#JEEP WRANGLER JK REVIEWS PRO#
“I reckon it drives better than a factory Jeep.”Īnd you can bet this thing is a monster off the road, too, thanks to that Hemi V8 power, front and rear lockers and the aggressive 37-inch Pro Comp Xtreme Mud Terrain tyres on bead-locked AEV rims. So how does it go on the road? “Yeah, good,” Mark says in a most understated way. “The rear is a Dynatrac 60 with 35 splines and ARB Air Locker.” “The front diff is a Dynatrac 44 with 35-spline shafts, ARB Air Locker and RCV universals,” Mark says. The factory diffs have also been flicked in favour of Dynatrac units. All that V8 grunt drives through a heavy-duty Jeep/Dodge automatic transmission and then on to the standard JK Wrangler transfer case. The engine is factory standard, though its claimed 260kW and 530Nm on tap is a marked improvement over the standard 3.8-litre V6, which could only muster 146kW and 315Nm. Mark employed the services of the boys at Jeep Konection and Dyers Auto Engineering to do the V8 conversion on his 2007 JK Wrangler, as well as perform a host of other modifications. To make the engine swap as easy as possible, the AEV kit includes no-measure engine mounts, a fitted exhaust system, a custom radiator and a plug-and-play wiring harness that uses OE connectors and factory colour-coded wires. Yep, AEV says this conversion kit is simple enough for do-it-yourself types, and it includes everything you need to complete the swap with factory-like results. It was easier to buy old Jeeps and then spend too much money on them,” chuckles Mark.Īnd that’s still the case today dropping a V8 into a Wrangler is as simple as buying a JK Hemi Kit from respected US-based company American Expedition Vehicles (AEV), and then finding someone with a basic mechanical understanding to do the job. It was easier to do Jeep stuff back in the day getting stuff for Nissan Patrols was just too expensive. “I just liked the aftermarket parts you could get for Jeeps.
You see, Mark kicked off his four-wheel driving habit in a Daihatsu F20, moved on to a Suzuki after that and then a Land Cruiser, but eventually he discovered there were more off-the-shelf bits and pieces available for Jeeps than Japanese brands. The thing that attracted Mark to the Jeep brand in the first place has also played a big part in the reasoning behind this vehicle’s V8 conversion: availability of aftermarket parts. Sure, from the outside it looks only slightly modified, but lurking under the bonnet is a 5.7-litre Hemi V8 that makes this JK Unlimited a serious piece of kit or, as Mark describes it, “a go-fast tourer.” The car Mark’s referring to isn’t your average tourer. When pressed a little more on the subject, though, Mark admits: “We still like to play a little bit hard… but yeah, we’ve still got to drive the car home.” “We used to do a lot harder stuff back in the day, but now having family, we don’t do as much,” he claims with a laugh. Now, as a family man, Mark says he’s more into general touring.
Mark Clancy caught the Jeep bug more than 20 years ago and he hasn’t been able to shake it.Īs a young bloke he was into some pretty serious hardcore off-roading, and he admits to ownership of “probably around 25 Jeeps”, many of which were heavily modified.
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