uh oh, the Ford 8.8 police is here!
if you're going through the trouble of an axle swap, it would be a huge disappointment to end up with only an 8.8. I know you have an 8.8 under your vehicle, and you feel the need to defend it. that is ok.
if it were me, i would get a ford 9 and be done with it. endless aftermarket, and much stronger than any 8.8 could ever aspire to be. that, and it has the pocket pinion bearing and uses a removable third member. shop around and you can build a 9in for the same or less money than an 8.8.
Wow, thread of misinformation here
The 8.8 in my TJ was roughly $400 installed, counting the new no mile 8.8 (thought I doubt any of those are still available). At the time I couldn't find any D44s in that price range and a 9" under about $1500 really wasn't an option either.
The c-clips are only an issue if you break a shaft and want to attempt to drive out on it. On most any other axle that's still semi float you're probably going to cause damage to it attempting to drive on it broken anyway. But first.. we'll you'd have to break a shaft.
a 9" also has a painfully low pinion, (more so than the 8.8). A high pinion 9" solves that, but then you're working on the coast side of 8.8 IFS gears
to the OP.. if you happen to have an 8.8 with 4.10s in it already I'd just got to MORE.. get the XJ mounts for it and run the 31s with the lift you're talking about. Its not a bad combination and I've worked on and driven XJs like that in the past that worked well (though that one still had a D35 that finally killed its R&P and has never been offroad).
32x11.5s would also be an option for that lift size if you added bushwacker flares or other cut outs.
8.8 'disappointing' over a D35? really?
Would I go through the trouble of swapping one on a 8.25 Jeep? Prob not, though it does have a better locker selection.
Would I swap one for a D44, nope not enough gain.