OEM head bolts or ARP studs?

[dlcarr]

I have blown head gaskets on my '05 King Ranch. The heads are at the machine shop now being machined. I am deleting the EGR, installing a new oil cooler, replacing coolant with Cat ELC after flush, blue spring upgrade, high flow banjo bolts, installing STC fitting upgrade, and installing a 4" turbo back straight pipe exhaust. My question is would I be fine installing new OEM head bolts instead of the ARP studs considering I'm deleting the EGR and replacing the coolant and straight piped the exhaust? I have no intentions of using any tunes or horsepower upgrades. I use my truck as a daily driver and to tow our camper and boat.

Thanks for your help

[JasonY]

Stud it...Even if you dont "need" to, it'll be a great selling point when/if you sell the truck.

Jason

[MountainMan]

How many miles on the truck when the head gaskets failed? If you replace the OEM oil cooler you will end up in the same boat again sooner or later. You might consider installing the Bullet Proof Diesel oil and EGR cooler upgrades. Costly but once installed, problem solved once and for all. I would stud it while it is all apart.

[ZMANN]

while they say no question is a stupid question

cough cough LOL

Stud the truck and use OEM gaskets throw the included OEM head bolts in he garbage and get a coolant filter

[dlcarr]

It has 117,000 miles on it.

[jwiger]

Stud it, and bullet proof it. my $.02

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of resolve.

[Tuscany]

I got lucky with mine as it lasted almost 140k on the clock before the hg's let go. Now it's sitting in the driveway til I get the money put together to rip it down and fix it with OEM gaskets and arp studs. If you have it ripped down to replace the hg's you might as well fix all the other problems with the motor on your way out eg; stand pipes dummy plugs stc fitting turbo oil feed and drain tubes ccv mod etc etc and most importantly assemble the engine with arp head studs. Would hate to see you spend that much money and time fixing it only to have to do it again cause it wasn't done right the first time.


Edit: mines been egr deleted with 2 new oil coolers replaced in the last 30k with a coolant flush and fill with cat ec-1 elc and coolant filter kit and it still blew. So if I were in your shoes and I am so to speak I would stud the truck while doing the repair consider it a $400 insurance policy on a $3000-$5000 repair down the road that could have been avoided by adding the studs the first time. Just my $0.02

[dlcarr]

I intend on using the factory gaskets just trying to decide whether to use the bolts or studs. I've had a couple local diesel mechanics say I didn't need to use the studs since I'm not going to hot rod the truck.

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[Tuscany]

They told you that so when it blows again they got anode work coming in to them it's their job security to fix your truck over and over because it wasn't done right the first time.

[Snake]

$400-500 now to stud it and reduce the risk of the head gaskets blowing again. Or $2,000 later if they do.

Consider it insurance.

Tuning or hot rodding aren't the only things that will cause the gaskets to blow. Towing can also cause a failure, even if you've deleted your EGR.