LS-Swapped Jeep Wrangler Is the Perfect Budget Tire Slayer: Track Time Tuesday Presented by the All-New Nitto Recon Grappler™ A/T
A few spare dollars and hours of time transformed this LS-swapped Jeep Wrangler into a smile-inducing thrill ride.
Nine times out of ten, when someone swaps an LS into another vehicle, it’s being done with performance in mind. And that makes a ton of sense considering that this engine family offers up plenty of bang for the proverbial buck. But this LS-swapped Jeep Wrangler built by GasRatz Customs wasn’t slapped together to rip off fast quarter-mile passes – rather, it was specifically built to slay tires and plaster a smile across its owner’s face.
In this video from AutotopiaLA, we get to see the junkyard build in action, as well as watch it do what it does best. The owner, Blake, runs GasRatz with his father, which is what made building an LS-swapped Jeep Wrangler so appealing in the first place. “I got it and it was a six-cylinder five-speed and I dumped the clutch getting on a freeway,” Blake explains. “I ripped the motor mount off the block. I didn’t want to put the six-cylinder back in – it barely ran, to begin with.”
Thus, Blake made the obvious choice – he snagged a junkyard LM7 5.3-liter V8 and paired it with a TH350 automatic transmission and an 8.8-inch rear end from a Ford Explorer. Of course, he couldn’t just leave that new motor stock, so it has received a few upgrades that push horsepower up to around 400. That’s more than enough to light up the rear tires, which are the only ones subjected to abuse now that the Jeep has been converted to a rear-wheel-drive vehicle.
To help get that power to the ground, Blake fitted the Wrangler with a few simple, cheap upgrades, including old-school slapper bars and a longer perch. Up front, Blake went with a PowerStop brake kit to help slow things down. Throw on a set of cheap wheels, and you’ve got a pretty killer old Jeep that offers up more smiles per dollar than just about anything else out there. Especially when the LM7 is singing its song out of a cutout exhaust.
Out on the road, Blake shows off what this Jeep Wrangler was really built to do, and burnouts are incredibly easy thanks to the addition of a line lock. He can’t drive this thing without having a smile on his face, and who can blame him? For just a few spare bucks and a few hours of his spare time, Blake has built one seriously fun, open-air machine that he can actually drive and enjoy without having to worry about breaking stuff, and that’s what hot rodding is all about.
Presented by the All-New Nitto Recon Grappler™ A/T
The Recon Grappler™ A/T combines versatility and distinctive design into an all-terrain tire that stands out from the crowd. Learn more here.
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