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DHZIEMAN · 11-21-2018, 11:22 AM

As a kid, probably around 10, not sure any more at my current age of 77, dad had to remove the cylinder head from our Model A Ford. I don’t remember the details of what he was doing but, when he went to put the head back on, the new head gasket had a problem Don’t know what????

So, he had not damaged the old one getting off the head, and he took it in the shop and did some cleaning and inspecting and got out some kind of silver stuff and brushed it on and let it dry briefly. He then smeared wheel bearing grease on both the cleaned head and cleaned block, stuck the “still kind of wet painted gasket” on the block and installed the head and got the car running, I know he retorqued the head the following week and that was that.

When I got to high school auto shop, at age 14 or 15, the teachings were use new gaskets!

Also, my dad’s old Model A, the day he sold it years later still had that used head gasket working just fine and no leaks.

Today, the way most of us operate, thinking about reusing a head gasket on an 88-year-old vehicle and taking a chance we would have to pull it all off again, on our special car we love, just seems to be out of the question.

Old timers, such as my dad, time was cheap, and depression era people just thought different than we do today!

11-21-2018, 11:22 AM	#347
DHZIEMAN Senior Member Join Date: Dec 2016 Location: Sunrise Beach, Mo Posts: 439	Re-Using a head gasket, my dad an old timer mechanic As a kid, probably around 10, not sure any more at my current age of 77, dad had to remove the cylinder head from our Model A Ford. I don’t remember the details of what he was doing but, when he went to put the head back on, the new head gasket had a problem Don’t know what???? So, he had not damaged the old one getting off the head, and he took it in the shop and did some cleaning and inspecting and got out some kind of silver stuff and brushed it on and let it dry briefly. He then smeared wheel bearing grease on both the cleaned head and cleaned block, stuck the “still kind of wet painted gasket” on the block and installed the head and got the car running, I know he retorqued the head the following week and that was that. When I got to high school auto shop, at age 14 or 15, the teachings were use new gaskets! Also, my dad’s old Model A, the day he sold it years later still had that used head gasket working just fine and no leaks. Today, the way most of us operate, thinking about reusing a head gasket on an 88-year-old vehicle and taking a chance we would have to pull it all off again, on our special car we love, just seems to be out of the question. Old timers, such as my dad, time was cheap, and depression era people just thought different than we do today!