I put brandie new head gasket on yesterday. I stripped a Exhaust Cylinder Head bolt, removed the head to tap the hole. Can I reuse this same Head Gasket?

 

Nope, gotta get a new one. They can only be torqued once.

 

if it's the fepro one's and the car HASN'T been started yet you'll be fine

 

Car has not been started, OEM Head Gaskets. I didnt even put in the spark plugs in. It was less than 24 hours later.

 

for the price of a new one, I sure wouldn't want to have to pull the motor apart again if it doesn't work....

 

Have tried that before (on a 4cyl volvo engine). The engine hadnt been started ( the shop hadnt machined the springpockets deep enough ) So instead of giving me a new gasket they told me to reuse the one i had wich i did (young and dum). Went to a race the day after and checked the oil after 2 runs and it was mixed up with water. 90 miles from home in the middle of the night.
So im not gona recomend somebody to reuse a head gasket wich been torqued. And im definitly not doing it myself again.

 

I would definetly change it to be safe.

 

Ok thanks all,.., even though I see no signs of usage on the head gasket, I will go ahead and buy a new one. But I am gonna sell that one I am taking off on Ebay.,.,

 

I was putting a stroker engine together. The tourqe wrench didnt feel right. I check it with another one. They were to tight. I loosened them all up and redid them all. It worked fine. no problems. This was with felpros.

 

If you didn't run it I would go ahead and use it again. Even if you ran it for a few minutes and took it back off you could re-use it. It's just like retorqueing your heads. Your suppose to go back and retorque your heads after the engine has been ran for a little bit. This is a must on aluminum heads. So basically it's just like retorqueing your heads.

But if you want peace of mind, throw in the new gasket but I wouldn't worry about it.

 

retorquing a head thats in place is a bit different than removing the head and trying to reset it right back in the exact same marks you made before...

 

Everyone has there own opinion on this one and it all comes down to what you think.. But from talking to engine builders since this scenario has even happend to me before on a motor, with me torqueing the heads down to find a headbolt pulled the threads out of the block and me removing the head and heli-coiling it and putting it back and using the same gasket. This was done a long time ago and car is still running without a flinch of an issue. But anyway to each is there own. It wouldn't matter if you pulled the head and reused the gasket again. These were the FelPro Blue too.
By the way the gasket doen't move since you have the dowel pins holding it in place and it would be in the same position again.

 

This is one of those opinion questions lol

If it was my motor i would by a new one --but it's not my motor

It would probably have no problems what soever..........but i don't like taking risks with something that is a pain in the a$$ to fix later

 

I agree on that too.

For the amount of work involved I would put a new one. It's not like my old '69 Camaro where I can have the head off in no time.

All i'm saying is it could be done and would be fine, but for the amount of work in these types of cars, throw a new one in.

 

Did yer gaskets get torqued down btwn the block & torque plate when it was honed? Mine did... and I'm using them on the engine .

If it wasnt heat cycled, it'd probably be okay, but if it makes you feel better to buy another one.. whaddever, go for it.

FWIW, good gaskets like Cometic's MLS' can be re-used again and again provided the outer viton coating isn't disturbed . Of course for $100ish each, they should be .