Can I reuse head gaskete? Motor has NOT been started...

[nidyanazo]

I bolted the engine togeather, then thought, ah I'll get the ARP head bolts. So my question is, since I already compressed the head gaskets from the first time I torqued down the heads using the old bolts, are the gaskets okay to use? I was thinking of spray painting them silver. One thing I noticed is they had started to flake all over the block and head surfaces, like thier outer layer was coming off. What do you all think?:SNSign:

 

[nidyanazo]

BTW they are Fel-pro gaskets. I really don't to buy another set, since these are all ready to go.......

 

[z2o_what]

yes
i did it on my 302 when i had to take the heads back off because i decided to change valve seals..and everything worked fine

my friend use some old head gaskets on a sbc, he just sprayed that copper gasket spray on them and they sealed.

 

[Grn92LX]

You can NOT reuse that gasket!!! UNless you want to do thigns the wrong way, then go ahead and reuse them. The $50 you save will be worth it in the long run LOL!!!

 

[onefaststang]

Do yourself a favor and get new ones now. That way when you put it all together, you won't be back here asking why it is spewing white smoke all over the garage. Then you have to tear it all down again... Not fun.

 

[Rick 91GT]

Sounds like a graphite style gasket (I assume a 9333), those can not be re-used, if you had the paper style gasket like a 1011 you could re-use it since it has not been fired yet.

 

[crazypete]

If you are replacing the factory bolts with ARP bolts....

Then switch one bolt at a time and you should be all set: wont even need to remove the head and it will stay torqued down the whole time.

 

[nidyanazo]

Ya, but I already pulled the heads off....

 

[jrichker]

Once you compress a non metal gasket and then remove it, it is toast. Tiny pieces of the gasket surface lift off the gasket and stick to the surface they were mated with. The result is a gasket with a surface that will not seal like it should.