What all should be replaced when you do a head gasket

Aarin208 said:

I’m going to be replacing the head gaskets on my 2018 JK unlimited sport currently I have about 52,000 miles on it. Is there any suggestions of other parts that I should preemptively change while I do the head gasket and any thoughts about aftermarket versus OEM?
So back story on this, my thermostat failed, it blew apart and and the retaining washer got sucked up into the water pump and made its way into the radiator and punctured a hole into it.
My wife wasn’t paying attention it over heated. She limped it home about two miles. I’m not certain the head gaskets blown I figured while I’m in here doing the water pump, radiator, oil cooler transmission cooling hoses
I should just do the head gaskets now rather than put it back together to find it’s blown and have to tear it all back apart.
I’m a novice at this so any advise is well received!
Here’s the guy I found in the radiator

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It should have some form of fail safe cooling strategy for loss of coolant. Ford vehicles do but I'm not as familiar with how Jeep does it. Point being that you may be ok having driven only a short distance. Replacing head gaskets is a much larger task than replacing the radiator and other external accessories - especially with the engine in the vehicle. If your doing the oil cooler that starts getting more intrusive, however, you're still not going into valvetrain, camdrive, etc. Overhead cam engines are no fun when it comes to that stuff, relatively speaking.

Can it be done? Sure, but I would be more inclined to determine the state of the head gaskets first, before I dissected the engine.

When you get the intake off and have access to the spark plugs I would do a leak down test as an indicator and see what the results are. If you have some inconsistent cylinders then maybe you proceed with gasket replacement... Just a thought.

I would wonder about the rest of the engine as far as if it is okay. But to answer your question might want to consider the following since it is apart.

1. Oil cooler housing to Dorman
2. Spark plugs since it is all apart.
3. Ignition coils?

I would OEM for any electrical components.

If you do end up doing head gaskets get the heads machined flat . It’s an extra step but not crazy expensive
If engine was dramatically over heated heads can twist compromising sealing integrity of gaskets .
Fel Pro makes a great top end gasket set inc head gaskets
They also make head bolts which will have to be replaced
when taking off heads.