I got a $4,000 quote to swap in a 6 cylinder/tranny/transfer case combo with all electrical wires and coputers hooked up in the High Desert in California. those avengers cost close to the same amount when considering an install. Not to mention the desire to upgrade the pistons and camshaft and all the other stuff to accomodate the new higher pressures on your system.
A v-8 swap will be close to the same as well.
You decide!
I will save my money for a v-8 swap in the next few years. 4wd hardware just came out with bolt on v-8 swap engine mounts for my TJ so the future is looking bright for me. I'd rather have a small block chevy v-8 under my hood. Then again
But are they doing a complete SMOG legal swap? Last time I checked a 5.7L pre-vortech on a pre OSBII YJ was still close to $10,000 for all the labor and wiring, getting it through the Referee and 100% legal.
If you have a TJ you get stick with a ODBII engine and deen all of that extra stuff. Like multiple O2 sensors (possible up to 4) Cats and pre-cats. This become a problem when trying to stuff a V8 from a truck that had dual exhaust. It's all got to be in there. If you bought a complete donor and did all the work, then sold off the frame, any body parts, axles, etc,... you could probably keep the cost down. But you might still run into problems with the referee. A friend did a 5.9L into a '97 TJ a few years ago.
Now another guy I know did a '99 4.3L Vortech in his '95 YJ. He bought the engine cheap, $500 with tranny. Took hi several months to get it installed. He ran into many problems but finally got it running. It was not a legal swap but the Jeep was registered in another state. He still say's if he he had to do it over again he would have finished his turbo install instead.
Can we get away from that e-turbo nonsense. He wants a real solution.
Looking back at the original post; what size tires do you have? I'm starting to suspect you might have larger then stock and are still running stock gears. This would really account for it's sluggish performance. With that few miles on the engine, it's still in it's prime. With the right gearing it should be able to turn larger tires fairly comfortably.