I had a guy tell me that he uses only head gaskets and head bolts for a head and cam install. So that makes the install only cost ruffly 5o.00 dollars.
Are the gaskets reusable?

 

if he is reusing head gaskets and doing a cam swap for 50.00

run dont walk away from him

 

Is this a trick question?

 

replacing gaskets is cheap insurance. Just do it.

After you spend $1500+ on heads, $1k on headers, $500 on tuning, $500 on exhaust, $1500 on other bolt ons, etc. etc., does it make sense to chance messing something up over $100 in gaskets?

 

nall I agree and it wasnt a question (i shouldnt have used a "?"), I really wanted to know if it would work? He uses just head new head gaskets and new head bolts everything is reused?

 

thats just fine, i have reused my other gaskets with no problem so new head gaskets and headbolts will work

 

Well we there is one, is there another. Full force how much did it cost to do your whole swapp and what made you want to try that?

 

yup thats what i do. hell i've even reused bolts and head gaskets on my car.

 

you cant be serious? are the gaskets reusable

 

Honestly, I can do it for less than that, but I pay someone to work on my car because im clueless .......hint hint

 

lol lol

 

I would never reuse a compressed headgasket, bolts probably so. All of the camswap gaskets are reusable. I did have to replace my water pump gaskets the first time I did my camswap because they had 80 plus thousand miles on them and the o rings fell out of the metal plate.

I would not reuse head gaskets. I think bolts are ok but would recommend replacing them.

 

It really just depends... Most of them I have done all the gaskets came off fine, so they were reused with no problems. Other times it was not possible to use them again. I haven't bought a crank bolt for my car yet, but if I'm installing for someone else I always replace crank and head bolts.

 

Look at a Haynes (or similar) manual for teardown and inspection procedure. There is always a section on inspecting head gaskets for re-use. That may not fly for someone with $2400 heads, but...

 

Am i reading correctly that you guys are re-using stock headbolts? That there is a big nono. Torque to yield bolts get distorted when they stretch, therefore they're only good once. Period. Why hurt a 2k set of heads with old head bolts when new ones cost 50 bucks? If your pockets are that tight, you shouldn't be putting heads and cam on a car in the first place.

Eric

 

Yes, you can safely reuse all the other gaskets. Do not reuse the head gaskets.

 

well i've torn apart all the motors i have had in my car more times than i would care to remember. And yes i have reused head gaskets a few times and reused stock bolts MANY times. Do i recomend it? Nope. But since its my car and i do all my own work i'll try anything. I'm not much of a follower. Everyone will tell you you can't reuse bolts cause of this and that, but i'de rather have first hand experience rather than just regurgitate something i read on the intraweb.
The head gaskets i have reused are the compsite 98-99 head gaskets. there are two kinds the older ones that would tear apart when you pulled the haeds off, wich obviously you can't reuse. And the newer ones that come off in VERY good condition. I tried re using the MLS head gaskets a coouple times once theye were the original ones with a few thousand miles. when i reused them they leaked coolant a tiny bit on one head. The other time theye were only on the car a couple days, after i swapped heads yet again. those i never had a problem with. A head swap for me is a few hours out of my sat afternoon.

 

alot of the so called "no no" things are true technicaly speaking but in reality are not always the same

 

this is crazy, but i was not talking about the head gaskets but all the other gaskets included in the swap.

 

Bad move, LS1 head bolts should not be reused period. Once its removed, you lose the torque to yield strength of the bolt, or soemthin gliek that. GM even says do not re-use.