Haha--these are not horrible or gutless engines.
I contemplated this very idea this weekend as I was thinking how dumb Jeep guys are. The Chrysler 3.8 liter motor in my 02 mini-van runs like a raped ape pushing a 4000 pound van!! We've driven it over 100,000 miles now and it was the top engine you could get in that van for it's time. We've even towed 3000 pound trailer from Utah to Canada and back with it and it was a great trip.
Now how stupid were the Jeep engineers thinking, "hey, this works great in our mini-van line up, it's going to be even better in the Jeep!" And those Jeep morons want to put a HUMMER rescue sticker on their junk, thinking I want them strapping onto my deuce? Hell, I could hook the mini-van up (I'm even pretty sure it would wheel as good as a Jeep!) and pull the deuce out with that stupid line of thinking.
Let me re-word that then, the 3.8L in a JKU is a gutless engine....
I've driven both JK/JKU with the 3.8L and while the 3.8L is okay in the JK (although throttle response from the electronic gas pedal is as slow as a banana slug) in the JKU it is darn right dangerously under-powered. I test drove an 08 JKU Rubicon before I bought my Alpha and when I tried to get out on the freeway I was to the floor and I was barely able to hit 65MPH. That was in a 100% stuck JKU Rubicon without gear or passengers. A 3.7L I5 H3 has a lot more get up and go vs that no questions asked and GM apparently knows how to program the electronic gas pedal vs Jeep/Fiat..
We had a 3.8L JK in Maui for our honeymoon, and it was okay, but in Maui the fastest road was 55MPH. Also a Minivan equipped with the 3.8L isn't even in the same ballpark. Unibody for starters and it's geared completely different.
The 4.0L engine lasted decades upon decades in Jeeps while the 3.8L only lasted from 07-11. There is a reason AEV was making so much $$$$$ on their Hemi JK/JKU conversions. A stock Jeep from your local Jeep dealership will not come with a V8. All JK/JKU's with factory installed Hemi's are mainly from AEV with a few other small businesses jumping in on the $$$$$.
I just read that Ford bought out Jeep for 15,000,000,000.00 so maybe they'll use some Land Rover technology/engines in the next lineup of Jeeps.
