Head Gasket reuse?

Started by Hercplt, January 21, 2021, 11:40:49 AM

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Hercplt

Just wondering how often or if a Head Gasket can be reused.

The composite one I took off looked damaged (burnt) but was used for maybe 300 miles.

The copper one I replaced with recently did about 50 miles before being removed to get at the timing issues.

Any chance that the recent copper gasket can be reinstalled?

I have a new one from Minispares, but still curious... from a technical point of view.

Thanks
1980 Mini 1000 (Canadian Spec).
998cc +60.  12G295 Head (ported, skimmed etc), VP7 Cam, Twin HS2.... sweet sweet 7.5" Cooper brakes!

MiniDave

#1
I think it might work OK - but I also think once you've squished it down it might not seal up properly the second time. I always replace them, mostly cause I don't want to have to pull the head off again!   ;D
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

tsumini

Not a head gsket expert but experience with crush gasket elsewhere basicall confirms Dave's opinion of replacing.
The copper gaskets I use has crush features which seal water, oil passages and combustion chamber when crushed. Relaxing the crush will just encourage leak. Example: oil pressure reguilator cap has a crush gasket. I re-used one and it leaks now. Thanks Dave for the new one.
I wouldn't trust it sealing water passages.
An old good one could be used for testing ( compression check verification? etc).

94touring

I use once and discard for the reasons previously mentioned.

cstudep

Yeah I wouldn't risk it, supposedly some copper gaskets can be reused but not all. How do you know which you have? I don't have the slightest idea. I know some are annealed so you have to re-anneal prior to reuse and generally speaking it's also a good idea to recoat the gasket with that spray on copper gasket coating stuff.

When I used to help a guy with his drag car on occasion he would reuse a copper head gasket if he absolutely had no other choice. He followed the steps I mentioned above and never had an issue, but he was also only leaving it on for a race day anyway so it only had to work for a short time. This was of course on old V8 motors so your guess is as good as mine as to whether the type of copper gasket he was using is anything like the Mini version.