[wingd]

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Can a new head gasket be reused if the engine was never started? In other words if you torqued the heads and took the heads back off the next day, could you reuse the same head gaskets?

 

[Hatchetman]

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i would. I dont see a problem there!

 

[Whiskerfish]

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Me too.

 

[wingd]

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What I'm up againt is that I think I put the head gasket on the dowles and then put the oiler and o ring in and then the heads and torqued them and the manual says the oiler 1st then gasket and so on. I didn't realise it until after.

 

[wingd]

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That's as far as I've gotten thank god!

 

[exavid]

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I wouldn't hesitate to reuse the gasket either. Go for it. Be sure to clean the head bolts and lube the threads and the under side of the bolt head before retorquing. That will give you more clamping force for the same amount of torque.

 

[Shimmy8]

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wingd wrote:

What I'm up againt is that I think I put the head gasket on the dowles and then put the oiler and o ring in and then the heads and torqued them and the manual says the oiler 1st then gasket and so on. I didn't realise it until after.

Head gsks mostly fail due to the stress created by the differnt expanction and contraction rates of the heads compared to the engine blocks. If you are re-usingthe gskon the same head and block location any imperfections that may have been impressed into the gsk will just match up with the head and block.
I have had to re-use head gsks a few times over the years and never had a problem.
Good Luck, Shimmy

 

[wingd]

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I greased the threads and under bolt heads before torquing heads the 1st time so they should be good to go after I check that the oilers are in correctly and re-torque them. I did that right.