The only part of the whole cooling system I am changing is the cooler for the hydraulic fluid driving the fan and the power steering. It sat in front of the radiator and condenser and was only 100mm-4" high, but went the full width of it. That meant the whole radiator assembly had to be spaced back for it. So I thought replacing it with this 18" dual pass, (two chambers inside), finned cooler used for automatic transmissions would be a good idea.
Doesn't take up any space sitting in the V, but wasn't happy with the look of it and the outlets interfered with the latch. These are typically mounted to the frame rail so could place it there instead, but have decided to go with a shorter but taller OEM cooler instead with the same surface area as the stock one. So if anyone wants a brand new finned cooler for $50, let me know.
Next thing on my list to tackle is the triangle portion of the guard where it bolts to the firewall. I want to have the even gap continue all the way.
What I thought was caused by damage when I first got the truck, turns out to be factory! This part of the guard actually goes inwards by 10mm-3/8"!
The ruler is showing where the edge of the bonnet sits over the guard.
Now you can clearly see the gap they all have and how they have gone to some effort to make it this way too! Why I think it is there is that the corner of the bonnet drops down into this area as it is lifted due to the type of hinges used. I don't have stock hinges anymore so can't test that theory out. When choosing the different hinges to use on this I made sure this wouldn't happen so I could get rid of this.
That triangle piece is actually part of the inner guard stamping, so not easy to redesign. The outer guard is spot welded to it as well so removing the gap actually moves the guard outwards. So all has to be redesigned.