I just broke my 292 rebuild in last week.   Had a leak in the head so I took it off to trouble shoot the leak.  Should I or can I reuse the gasket?  I know I need to get a new intake gasket.

Thanks

i have often used them over if they look good

should I use gasket sealer?

The last time I did a head job, I coated the gaskets with hi temp cooper paint. On the exhaust gaskets I use Molikote Cooperpaste. works great.

Do not use anything with silicone, like RTV sealer on the head gaskets.

Túlio Lazzaroni "FORD", Florianópolis SC Brasil.

'74 Ford Galaxie 500 292 V8

'82 Ford Galaxie Landau 302 V8

'98 Chevrolet S10 4.3 V6

'01 Ford Focus 1.8 Zetec

You didn’t say if this was a steel shim or composition head gasket.  If the gasket looks good and wasn’t damaged when removing it, then it could possibly be reused again in a pinch.  But a new head gasket would take some of the risk out of reusing a gasket.

 

With that being said, I’ve been having good luck in reusing the intake gaskets repeatedly by using WD-40 and white grease on them.  Likewise, WD-40 used on the composition head gaskets has also worked in this regard as I’ve used the same head gaskets on as many as three different sets of heads in the recent cylinder head test that was performed.  But in my case, the risk failure is low and if there is a failure, the engine is in a position to be worked on very easily.

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)