Need some help from Dmax guys for a swap

hummin cummins

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Dec 17, 2006
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I'm seriously pondering a Dmax swap in a 4 door jeep. I know, cool right! I'm a cummins guy and know nothing about Dmax's, so I have questions. First off there umpteen versions of it, which one is the best? Second, what does it take to make it run correctly? Next issue is there doesn't look to be a bunch of room under the hood, so I'm wondering if it would even fit. I would probably use the duraflite trans and dld because I have all that laying around. Let me know your thoughts on it. If the Dmax won't fit maybe an LS motor then.
 
Do the LS engine. Smaller in size, cheaper to buy, cheaper to build, cheaper to maintain.
 
I'm seriously pondering a Dmax swap in a 4 door jeep. I know, cool right! I'm a cummins guy and know nothing about Dmax's, so I have questions. First off there umpteen versions of it, which one is the best? Second, what does it take to make it run correctly? Next issue is there doesn't look to be a bunch of room under the hood, so I'm wondering if it would even fit. I would probably use the duraflite trans and dld because I have all that laying around. Let me know your thoughts on it. If the Dmax won't fit maybe an LS motor then.

Personally, I would use any Dmax after 2004.5. The pre 04.5 (LB7) Dmax engines had injector issues and they were inside the valve cover so replacement is tougher. Post 04.5 and later engines were all pretty solid, (LLY) 04.5-05 had scattered overheat issues but nothing that would scare me from a swap. Plenty of guys will prefer LBZ and later engines (06-newer) because they had better rods than LLY/LB7 but pistons had more cracking issues. Long story short, anything past 550-600hp in a stock rod Dmax is a crapshoot. So if you're going to pour the power on, you're gonna have to stuff rods in it.

You'll need an ECM, FICM, engine harness, throttle pedal from same generation truck as the engine, and at least the ecm to fuse panel harness to harvest ECM connectors if you're going to build your own standalone harness. Or you can pay someone to build you a standalone harness if you don't want to tackle it. It's time consuming but pretty straightforward to do yourself if you can get the diagrams.
 
Do the LS engine. Smaller in size, cheaper to buy, cheaper to build, cheaper to maintain.

Or do this^. LOL. Unless you're looking to drag something big. Only reason I'd do a Dmax over an LS is cool factor and it'd probably get better mileage.
 
Dmax is about the same size as a BBC. About the same weight, too.

1000ftlbs torque in a Jeep platform is what would worry me. That would be a very hard-to-control little monster.
 
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