Reuse cylinder gaskets after deckheight check?
 

Can I reuse the copper after the deckheight check? Thanks.

base shims
 

I have no problem with that.
Mike Bruns

I found that the copper shims/gaskets on a 2.8L 8,200 rpm race motor where squished some - you could see where they stuck out a bit beyond the cylinder, because that part was thicker. These may have been used through many rebuilds when this motor was a 2.2, though. So I decided new ones were in order.

But just torqjuing things without running shouldn't change their thickness. If they don't give the appearance of having been squeezed thinner in spots, I'd not worry at all. In the past I have just reused these on rebuilds. And you could get out the micrometer or calipers and measure them all.

If Mike has no problem with it, then you should be fine!

I've seen cylinder base shims reused on top end rebuilds. I'm not necessarily endorsing it. Just saying that i've seen it done and the motors have not leaked afterwards. So reuse of the gaskets after deck height check should be no big deal.

Thanks, guys.