The day I picked up the chassis I had about five different motor ideas that I spun around in my head all in the course of about three hours. Those were (not in order):
2UZ
1FZ (N/A)
1HZ or 1HD turbocharged diesel
Some version of GM V8
Hemi
I don't really NEED this truck to be fast. I just want it to drive like a modern SUV in terms of straight-line performance. And I want really-good highway gearing. And I want it to ride nice. Basically everything I tore out of my red 62

(except it keeps up with traffic very well besides the low gearing).
So let's look at the options and dissect this a little bit:
I like the availability of GM parts. I like that I can buy a low-mileage engine and transmission for less than $1500 and it makes 300-40HP already.
Hemi would be ludicrous but cool.
2UZ would be too complicated, parts availability ain't that great and it ain't that much better then a 1FZ.
The 1FZ powers a stock 80 just fine for my tastes, driven about ten of them and was fine with all. It's the parts availability that's the issue though, and with the 2UZ I'd be married to the 80 transfer case. I want to use the 62 split case.
The 1HZ with an H55F would be really cool it's just not in the monetary cards. Engine mounts are already there though so that's cool. My next truck will be a bone stock FJ62 with a 1HZT/H55f.
So that narrows it down to the LS series. I have seven LS swaps into Defenders scheduled for the next year so I'll get plenty of practice
So, triple-turbo Hemi it is
