The oil cooler looks to be the right one.

$400 for studs seems to be about the going rate. You might check E-bay and see if anyone has some cheaper over there. I think I remember studs running upwards of $700 years ago.

I know it's painful now, but it will be worth it in the long run!

 

Perfect, thanks so much EODguyJake...I really appreciate all your help. Can't thank you enough!

 

Just got off the phone with a local truck repair shop, they mentioned that to replace the head studs/bolts (with the arp bolts) they would have to remove the cab and I would be looking at ~$4k...that didnt sound right to me...how about you guys???

Maybe I wasn't clear with him regarding replacing the 4 head bolts. Other than that, he said they could do the egr delete, oil cooler swap, and machine the heads if necessary. Im assuming they can do the bypass and vc 9 flush too. Also, they have done quite a few of these before so there should be some experienced hands working on the truck.

 

Yes, they have to remove the cab to do the work, but $4k sounds high to me. Really high. If they're doing all the other labor for your parts AND having the heads machined, that might be closer, but still seems high. My job for just studs and gaskets ran me $2500, and that included the cost of the gaskets, studs, and machine work. Don't let them talk you out of having your heads checked.

Where are you located?

 

Good call...It really did seemed like he was trying to talk me out of having the heads checked and head bolts replaced.

Im in College Station Texas, there are a TON of trucks around here...but its a smaller town so I might have to haul the thing to houston and have a performance shop work on it instead of a basic mom and pop auto/truck repair place

 

There are a couple of very knowledgeable folks in the 6.0 forum that are in Texas and should be able to recommend you a shop. I personally would stay away from a mom and pop that isn't used to working on these trucks. For one, they shouldn't be trying to talk you out of studs, that's just ridiculous. And if they care about their reputation and offer any kind of guarantee on their work, they should at the very least have your head surfaces checked. I don't know what the tolerances are for these heads, but I know it's VERY small. And a machine shop will be able to check and see if they're within specs. If your heads need to be resurfaced and they're not, you will continue to blow gaskets.

Do a search or two and try to locate a thread about shop recommendation in your area, or Texas in general. Or just start a new thread and ask for suggestions.