mark kibort

never run in scot new euro engine. No heat at all, but torqued down to spec. any thoughts here?

they look good, but if they are compressed are they kind of gone??

MK

jyoon

i thought you could stick them in the oven for a bit and then reuse them? probably not recommended though.

GlenL

I'd look them over and then re-use them. Not squished now any more than they will be later.

mark kibort

Im more worried about the crushing of the rubber insert in the gasket deforming for any deformaties on the head or cylinder surfaces. I dont know, and we grenaded the motor the first time, and dont want there to be any issues the second. if it is a clear, no problem, like the main bearings (rods looked a little scarred for some reason), ill do it. otherwise, there is some more costs for poor scot!!

they look brand new though ! does that count? and again, absolutely no heat, just cranking down of the head nuts to spec in the three stages

MK

GlenL

It's always a personal choice; I would do it. Isn't that like $150 worth of gaskets? Might be a small part of the total but those chunks add up.

SharkSkin

I've always lived by the rule of thumb that a head gasket only gets installed once. You have to decide if it's worth the risk.... few $ for some gaskets vs another teardown and collateral damage potential.

m21sniper

I would buy a new one.

Composite head gaskets are not meant to be re-installed.

If you're using a shim, no problem, a fel pro type composite...buy a new one.

Hell, it's only money.

mark kibort

so, the score is 1 to 1. Hmm, maybe we need the conservative Devek or Greg brown to break the tie.

Mk

mark kibort

1.5 to 1 now. (M21 sniper even knew the brand name!)

leaning toward new ones! heck, its only scots money! but gosh, i just hate waste! these gaskets have seen no heat and look brand new!

MK

UKKid35

So how do you know if you've torqued them correctly if they've aready been squished?

Bill51sdr

Ummm... it's just me, but piece of mind is worth a LOT more than saving a few bucks, as well as the chance that you would be pulling the heads TWICE in the event it doesn't work out. False economy, buy new ones

SharkSkin

I hate waste too... I would hate to waste my time putting in used head gaskets, only to have them leak, resulting in wasted time going back and doing it again. Insurance is a waste too(hopefully) but we pay it anyway.

GlenL

If you torqued it down and then removed the head, would you get new gaskets?

An engine builders trick to to re-torque the head multiple time to make sure the gasket is fully crushed and the studs are all at the same force. Seems like that's what oyu've got: a pre-crushed gasket. It's not bad to have lost "fresh springiness" as that's absolutely what you _don't_ want.

Imo000

Canging it would be ideal. However in the past ,I had the same situation and did re use a head gasket. It wasn't my car(90 cavalier), so it didn't matter that much.

What you might want to to is, IF you re use the gaskets, first torque them to spec. and then just a little more, maybe 5% more. This way the gasket is more compressed than before. If you do this, the gasket will hold just like a new one would.

I always over torque the heads by a couple extra lbs. Gives me a bit more safety margin.

JP Rodkey

If it has not gone through a heat cycle or engine fired up, I'd reuse them.