While I am upgrading to a 34" core radiator for a 2005 e-fan upgrade ... I want to put in the heaviest duty radiator that I can get. I have verified that a 6.0L 3500 radiator will work, but what about a 8.1L 3500 radiator? I want to get one with both oil and auto transcooler. Are the radiator hose sizes the same at the radiator end? Any other possible differences?

 

the 6.0 liter usually have the oil cooler lines along with the tranny cooler lines.

 

Rado01 How did you verify this info. Sounds interesting.

 

After some further research, I found out that the radiator support structure is different on the trucks that have the 8.1L and Diesel engines.

At this time, I don't want to go as far as changing the radiator support frame (taller hood style required also??), so I will go with the 6.0 radiator.

I am going to use the 6.0 radiator with optional oil cooler, for extra efficient trans cooling. I'm going to route the transmission fluid as follows: 1) Through a remote mount oil filter, 2) into the radiator oil cooler, 3) into the radiator's transmission oil cooler, 4) into the factory front mount transmission oil to air cooler.

This arrangement will also help engine cooling also. The reason for this is that the radiator oil cooler is on the inlet tank of the radiator. Therefore the transmission fluid will dump most of it's heat into the engine coolant right before the coolant is cooled in the radiator core. With the standard setup, the transfluid puts it's heat into the coolant after it flows through the radiator core, right before it goes into the engine.