I recently acquired a 95 Volvo 960 that doesn't run. The PO replaced the head gasket and torqued down the head, but didn't make it any further.
I pulled the head to verify the Valves were OK (they were) but I am unsure if I can reuse the head gasket. It was properly torqued but never ran, would I be ill-advised to run it?
It has some type of orange-ish sealant on the underside of the gasket. I did not pull it off the block.
eh.. I'm just going to order new one.
I wouldn't reuse it - you're not doing yourself any favours if you have to tear it apart again if/when it turns out the head gasket wasn't reusable.
Nice common intake gasket like that? New and carefully clean the decks.
When I pulled the heads off of my Ford Capri's 2.6 Cologne V-6, I re-used, because they had been in "use" for a month (long story, rebuilt engine had about 20 miles on it) and didn't have a problem. But, that was a somewhat lower compression N/A motor with rather difficult to find head gaskets and I figured it was worth the risk.
When I didn't know any better, I re-used a HG once. And then had to tear the motor apart to replace it cause it was puking oil out the side. However, if the motor has never been started, it's tempting to try to get away with it. If it has been heat cycled once, I would certainly not.
It depends on the application, but if it was never fired, I would reuse it. I used to reuse the HG on my 1.6 Mitsu motors 3-4 times.
I reused a Neon MLS gasket a bunch of times. Never a failure, boosted to 18 ish psi. YMMV Nathan
Years ago at a Trans Am race at Watkins Glen I saw the Pontiac factory team re-use the head gaskets on the factory car. I spoke to one of the mechanics later and he told me they did this as common practice. He said, as long as there was no damage to the gasket, they were less likely to blow out as they had been compressed and were less likely to lose their torque. I have done this for years on my high compression race engines with never a problem. If the motor was never fired up and you did no damage in removing the head, there is no reason not to re-use the gasket.
I had to reuse a assgasket one time that had been heat cycled by a steady intake of jalapenos and habanero pepper flakes. Never did seal right again, but I digress......
We swapped a head gasket from an engine with rod-dump on a LeMons CRX to a parts engine to make a complete unit. We got six hours out of that engine before it met the same fate. I wouldn't recommend this practice, however :).
I know some headgaskets have deformable seals, and some don't. I'd imagine whether or not the gasket had a deformable seal (and whether or not it had been heat cycled) would give you your answer.
The headbolts should be the one use stretchy ones anyway.
I have heard in the Supra community, that a metal HG is okay to reuse. Mainly because they are 250 dollars....and some of us a cheap.
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