a dmax engine has an engine oil cooler built into it. your right about needing an engine oil cooler, i'm going to get one probably from summit racing. there is a hydraulic shop by me that i'm going to use to modify my existing lines when the time comes. the tranny uses the intregral cooler in the rad and an external one you see mounted in front of your a/c cond. the other small one is for your power steering.

 

another thing i see that may complicate things a bit is the fact that the radiator will sit about 3" closer to the water pump. This could spell bad news if you dont have electric fans. I Dont think the Dmax radiator will clear the clutch fan on the 8.1L.

 

on a dmax the clutch fan has only like 2 inches of clearance. it will be tight but it should work.

 

Well, the fan on a Dmax is definately different (looks like plastic blades or something) than the 8.1L fans. I hope to have the I/C by Saturday so i can start figuring this thing out. I wish someone had some good shots of the Dmax setup for reference. wondering about the A/C condensor lines too, looks like they are right in the way of the inlet/oulet of the I/C.

 

your gonna have to move your ecu also. the bottom pipe on that side will not be able to sqeeze past it. good thing you have an hd because it won't fit on the 1500 and it will not go infront of the core support no way i tried. i've been working on getting mine in for ever i finally got it cut to fit had to take off about 2" to get it short enough. here is where i located my ecu to.

 

Very cool 4.8T. Moving the PCM should be manageable, now how are you mounting the I/C? In front of the radiator or behind it? Is the I/C wide enough that the inlet/outlet will wrap around the radiator from the back? Is the A/C condensor going to be an issue for you? Another obsticle for me will be the allison TCM. It mounts to the fan shroud just to the left and above the PCM (facing the truck). Not sure if i can or even need to move that yet.

 

i'm gonna mount it in the radiator spot and mount the radiator in front of it. i have done some playing around with it and since i have the shorter radiator i can weld two 1 1/2 pieces of pipe on the frame rail right in front of the support and the radiator will sit in there and put spacers on the top mount screws and get longer screws. then extend my hoses for the external trans cooler. the ic will fit around my rad. oh and i think i will shorten the lower rad hose so its not crimped up. i am running electric fans also. i'm going to drill some holes in the lower core support to fit the ic and run bracket down to the screw holes on the ic that are for mounting the stock dmax rad. hope this helps a little. there is a guy on here that moved his rad in a simmilar fashion as what i want to do but i think his is the larger rad and he had to make diffrent bracket then what i want on the frame rail. i'll try to find the pics.

 

Okay, after some more investigation and some more searching and measuring....it looks like i will most likely be able to use my stock radiator for this MOD and here is why. The core measurement on the Dmax I/C is 37-1/2", which is about 4" wider than my (and the Dmax) radiator and should allow it to wrap around my stock radiator just like it would a Dmax radiator (which are the same width). The height of the Dmax radiators are about 2" taller, but that wont make any difference to me. Since i will be putting the I/C in its stock location, the A/C condensor and lines should not be an issue (cause the I/C will sit in front of them, not behind). This way i can use the oil and trany coolers that are built into my radiator and not have to worry about a remote oil cooler. Dmaxes use an air to water oil cooler mounted on the engine block i believe. I will then mount my radiator in front of the I/C (like stock) using a simple fabed up mounting block that i already have pretty much worked out. I will have to bend my oil and trany lines a little to make up for the 2" i will be pushing closer to the engine, and i will have to trim my radiator hoses a few inches as well. With my radiator being less thick than the Dmax, i should be fine with the fan to radiator clearance and stock shroud, but i wont know for certain until the I/C comes in today. I will keep this thread updated with pictures and info as i go along. Looks like this long weekend coming up should be a good one to get things rolling.

 

what year i/c did you get?

 

Great! LOL, does it matter? I am not sure, i thought they were all the same. I will check and see what year it is.