Anyone ever reuse a head gasket after it has been installed and torqued? The engine is still on the stand and was never run. I had to pull the head back off to repair a broken bolt. It looks good but I have never reused one. Problem being this gasket is not available unless you buy a complete engine set at $150.
I have (on a late Sunday night) and it worked, but it's not advisable to do so. The head gasket will never lay in exactly the same place as it was first torqued. My question to you: Is your time to do it twice worth 150.00?
If its a copper head gasket go for it, I have reused my copper head gaskets about 4 times now with no problems.
I have done it before with shim gaskets. You may try soaking it good with copper coat head gasket sealent and retorque it. If you have bet it ot pinched it it probably is not going to hold but it may work for you if the gasket is in good shape.
Just went through this last week when the threads stripped out while torqing my studded block. Had to pull one head and helicoil the block, and was sorely tempted to resuse it, but chickened out and got a single instead.
When I was a kid and knew everything, I always re-used head gaskets on everything from Briggs and Srattons to WD-9 tractors. Had a few leakers, but a hot re-torque usually fixed 'em. Now, though, I hate the thought of pulling the engine down again, so I use new ones. If the engine was never started, though, and there are no marks on the gasket, I would use it again.
Just swapped heads on a Pontiac Super Duty four, same story, and I am kind of a cheapskate about some things, but got a new $50 gasket. Saved the old one though, they say they are "preflattened", might be ok, might not be OK....
If the engine was never run spray it with silver paint or copper coat, put it back in exactly the way it was and don't tell anybody. Have heard of soaking head gaskets in hot water to swell them up and reusing them out of an old engine but never tried it.
if it steel or copper bill jenkings advise was to reuse up 10 times? and spray with copper coat. sandwich no i would not.
Depends on the material. I've re-used a torqued down head gasket twice but both times were the non graphite coated ones. You could tell with a graphite deal it layed down material on the block/head surface while the "standard" gasket did not (the ~.038s vs the .047s) I wouldn't recommend it but I've ran retorqued 1011-2s on a 302. They lasted 3 years before I sold it and the motor was still running with zero issue. Turbo motor and made right at 500rwhp on 93. It was also the motor I've cared least about . . . didn't even check bearing clearance. Was out of a junkyard and didn't care to do any machine work. Coppers and cometics I wouldn't think twice as you can easily run those multiple times.
Reuse it. The motor wasn't run and I assume you didn't use a sealant? If not install it as before (not flipped over) and spray it with Hi tach. Torque it in steps, lube the studs or the head bolt interface with the head. It'll never leak. g
You should be able to get a FelPro head gasket set alone - or the set that just includes the top end (for doing a valve job). I just did for a 318 Poly in the '62 Dart.......
Take this information in the spirit that it's given; from real world experiences. Back in the late 50's when I was a kid I helped and worked on my uncles race car. He was the late New England Race Car Hall of Fame , Ollie Silva. At the time he ran Flathead's and later Chevy's. When we pulled the heads off we always measured the head gaskets and when they came within spec they were reused. Fast forward to the 1970's and I was racing both World Class Hydroplanes and Super Modified race cars running both injected small and big block Chevy's. We would start with a new gasket and they measure .043" and when they are installed and torqued down will crush to .038". We used the old gaskets over and over again each time measuring looking for .038". If they drop below the .038" to say .037" they got discarded. The trick is to clean the used gasket with lacquer thinner and when coat it with copper coat and let it dry. The great part about using the head gasket over again is that you don't have to re torque the heads. When I first learned this I didn't beleave it and would re torque the head but after twenty or more times building different engines and the results always being the same I finally believed it. We had one of the first dyno rooms and when we were building engines and testing different heads we would always use the head gaskets over every time. It didn't matter if the engines were built for Super Modified race cars, Sprint Cars or World Class Hydroplanes and in some cases Drag car engines we never used a new gasket. It was always funny as hell when some young guy was having an engine built and he was in my buddy's shop and wanted a new gasket. We took the old head gasket and measured it and if it came in at .038" we took and cleaned it up and copper coated it and hung it on the wall for the future. Thinking back I cant think when the last time was that we paid for a head gasket. Years later after I had stopped racing I was at the Circle track trade show in Dayton during speed week and at the show the Felpro people were set up. Just for kicks I went over and talked with the engineers, being one myself about gaskets and if what we had been doing for forty years was what they found. Come to find out they told me that that's what they would tell the racers and they were surprised at how many wouldn't ever consider using the head gasket over again. They just shrugged their shoulders but did say thinking like that was good for buisness. At that time the new gaskets were being coated with I beleave a graphite coating on them and they crushed to .038". This is my real world experience and it should give you a base line to work off. Back in the day I had both Grumpy Jenkins out Pennsylvania and Smokey Yunick out of Dayton Beach build me engines and I went to Joe Mondelo's school for porting heads when he was on the West coast. In every shop they did the same thing; it's not like it was a big secret but any guy that raced professionally would know this. We took the Jenkins and Yunick engines that took me a year to get and pulled them apart and more or less copied them when we started machining and building our own. I will submit that any engine shop that a guy coming off the street will go to will sell him a set of gaskets for his build and mark them up; that's what their in buisness for. I suggest that you mike your head gasket and see where it comes in at. Keep in mind that these numbers are for Chevy engines. Well take the information in the spirit that it's given from a fellow HAMER that's been in the racing arena and done it hundreds of times over the last fifty years. Johnny Sweet
The Jalopy Journal
