The best thing to do is spend the money, you will be doing that anyway, and get a Painless harness and the ECM they recommend for it. Then you will find that if you want your gauges to work, that you will have to wire separately to a set of Jeep analogue sensors to make it work.

Another kit:

http://advanceadapters.com/product/2288/713109.html

Need a 3" lift for it though. Not sure if you need 3" lift for novak.

You will. The V8 bell housing will be hit by the front driveline.

I'm thinking of a v8 more to the point an lq4 or lq9 th400 atlas 3.0 combo I got about 5k on my money tree and need another 2k ,but the only reason I want a v8 is big mud and deep snow ,and I don't do mud often so I guess I don't need it ,but I want it since the stock 4.0 does not spin 39.5x18.00 boggers much at all even with 5.13's ...But I don't understand a v8 conversion for the 35x12.50 radial and under crowd especially those running d30/44 ,d30/8.8 or other lite weight axles ,as the 4.0 and gears spins these fine .

a sweet sounding 5.3L XJ

if your puttin in a v8 im hoping you have atleast a 3" lift