head gasket and bolts

[tigga]

what are the implications of not renewing gasket and head bolts when refitting cylinder head ?

Thanks

[BillyNoMates]

Many ! ... you may not get a good seal without a new gasket, same without new bolts.

If you reuse old head bolts you run the rick of them not torquing up accurrately, possibly fracturing one inside the head.

Both are big No Nos when refitting a cylinder head.

[Simon R]

Totally agree, if you put it back together without replacing the headgasket and head bolts,you may aswell not do the job... it probably will not even start.

[tigga]

guess ill fit new ones then !

thanks

[KebabMeister]

Depends what car it is.  Always replace the head gasket.  As for the bolts we changed 1000s of head gaskets and it was only on a few Rover K-Series engines that we replaced the bolts (because they're so huge and they stretch!).