Since it's a new Jasper engine you should be good to go on the Head studs.......key word is SHOULD ...Buy new bolts anyway...never hurts to have spares.
The trans.....it's a crap shoot, for everyone that's gone 500k miles no issue, there's one that crapped out 30seconds after the 1st key cycle of ignition......and a few million in-between, general consensus is 450hp is the threshold, after that you really need to pay attention to how you drive it........No WOT in to OD, avoid the temptation to hard kick it down at 60mph to beat that clown next to you for that lane choice.
4.56 gears are your transmissions best friend, 3.92 ,4.10, 4.30 are groomsmen. Tow haul is a good idea around town.
I've have roughly 110k on my 1st 04GTX(yellow one) I bought new, trans crapped out just under 38k, did some research and learned how to drive it* (copied response from another thread )" now after I did some research and basically followed what Mr Harley has described... kept it from going from 3-4 wot, never let it kick down out of anger, manually shift it from D to 2nd when you want to stretch it's legs so to speak and it's got another 70k miles on "
I've had one of these 3rd Gen rams as a 2-5 day a week daily driver since 04 , seat belt will drive you crazy, dam things never seam to retract, my current Daily 04 has a ghost wiper thing going on, once in a while the wipers make 1 to 3 passes across the windshield , oil pressure gauge drops to 0 then goes full tilt, then comes back to the middle.
two of my 5 boys and my daughter drive a 3rd gen ram as daily drivers, Benny has 345k on his 04 Rumble bee he bought new....original trans, trans was out once to have a 3k stall convertor and a upgraded Valve body ..it's had Mopar's CNC pre-eagle heads and a comp cam 273 in it since late 2012, has a indy Mod man intake on it with a custom top with two 80mm TBs on it, though the years it's had the normal wear issues.
Jacob's 03 QCSB 4x4 SLT , he bought used in 08 with 80k on it, now has 310k on it, 3 trans, every 100k it needed a trans....that truck is as OEM G3 hemi as they get, still has the oem airbox, iron manifolds, and crappy steel wheels(rusted to sh!t steel wheels)
Noreen has two Bee's and a Daytona , the 05 bee has 275k on it, trans was hurting when she bought it @ 265k . Her 04 Bee has had a 518 or a 727 in it since 2010, it hasn't seen "street duty" since 2014. Her Daytona, she bought new has 70k on it , 60k with the stock 5.7 10k with the 392(6.1based) in it....winter has kept her from stretching it's legs out ...but I know it won't last long behind that 392.
two of my other 3 boys have 3rd Gen rams , those are more performance orientated trucks, 1 has a Cummings in it, and both my grandsons have a 3rd gen ram, both daily, both get the crap beat out of them, both have had trans replaced.....
Between us all we fourteen 3rd Gen, five 4th gen rams. 12 out 19 rams are Hemi trucks, and one LA powered 02(with a t56 behind it)
1st cam choice , Comp 260 , or one of crower's cams SKU# 33490 , 33491,33492 , 33493 and up will be hard on a stock 545.
Headers are always good, but with were we've come with tuning on these 3rd gens , we can make as much as 420-430hp through the Iron manifolds.
There is a lot of Good info in this site for the 3rd gen trucks.
