How do you determine which gaskets to reuse?
 

Eyeball test? Just buy new for all of them? My 1st rebuild had less than 2000 miles on it before it spun another bearing. Most of the gaskets look fresh but I dont want to chinz on this one I also cant throw a gazillion $$ at it. I paid a mechanic to do the 1st rebuild, I have a friend helping me with this one. Comments/thoughts? thanks

Anything that's paper, replace. The rest you may be able to get another cycle out of if desperate. If it's deep and requires a teardown to replace, such as the case through-bolt o-rings, then I would pony up for new. When servicing crush washers, you may find that quick wet-sanding on a flat surface gives perfect, fresh sealing face. I've done that in the past when I did not have a new washer on hand and needed a fast, reliable repair.

I would go back to the shop that did your work and have them do it over again...Less than 2k on miles. I would complain!! I am sure that was not cheap build. I am going through my own rebuild at this moment...

Otherwise buy new if you are going the route of rebuild. Sorry to hear... Good luck.

Cheers

It's a gamble. You might be fine until you find you are not. I would pony up and get a new set.

If you insist. There's probably a gasket sealer/compound that will seal most anything a gasket will (High temp. areas might be an exception). The trick is to identify what compound works best for the application. It's usually cheaper to buy gaskets or sealing rings. Porsche has welded cylinders to cylinder heads to avoid blown head gaskets. YMMV.

If the contact surfaces are flat and w/o a new sealing ring, I will sometimes use Locktite 574 or equivalent to assist sealing a used gasket. Confirm sealing after installation.

Sherwood

Is there a guide in the "101" book that indicates approximately how long a job should?Such as replacing the rear cranksaft seal.

You should be able to tell by its appearance how good or bad a gasket is. There aren't all that many gaskets as such. The intake manifold gaskets, and the exhaust gaskets, should be just fine. The crankcase breather gasket is probably fine. So is the intermediate shaft cover plate gasket, though you have a 3.6? I don't know if they have this gasket. You can inspect the gasket which holds the chain box to the case to see what you think, Maybe use a little gasket sealer on it. Same with gaskets where the cam meets the chain box. And inspect the gaskets for the chain box cover plates. Those, too, could be replaced later if you guessed wrong and didn't use some goop. If you have a 3.6 in there you don't have any oil sump plate gaskets to worry about.

I think the cost is in all the rubber (or whatever) seals. The through bolt O rings simply have to be replaced as they get torn up. The O rings on the oil return tubes should be fine. All the seals in the oiling system should be fine - they are all captured in those milled recesses and don't wear. The front and rear crank seals should also still be fine if they have that little mileage on them.

The valve cover gaskets you can reuse. If they start leaking too much, you can easily enough replace them in the car.

A shop is naturally going to purchase a full gasket set. Not worth their (or your) while to fuss around making decisions and adding sealants and so on with used stuff. And certainly not taking the risk that the car will come back with a demand that the leaks be stopped. But you are not a shop.

Buy a Wrightwood gasket set and use it. Oil leaks, or pulling the motor apart again to fix them, are not worth the price to worry about.