I was torqueing the heads on my EA81 when I pulled the threads out of the last stud. My question is do I need to replace the head gasket since I had about 42 lbs. of torque on it or should it be fine to use once I get the stud fixed. Thanks

if you're taking the head gasket off and talking about reusing it, i'd get another one. not worth the few dollar risk for such a big job to me.

Edited October 9, 201015 yr by grossgary

I'll second that. If it's already been compressed $15.00 or so should get you a new one.

I had the same thing happen on an EA82. Had already repaired one stripped thread, then on the last tightening sequence another one pulled out

 

Heli-coiled it (again), used the same head gasket, and the car is running fine.

 

YMMV

I have no prior experience with this but, I'd re-use it. Mostly,because if it didn't work out,I wouldn't mind too much doing it over.

Unless you have far more time than money, I would replace it.

 

On a slightly different topic, the thread repair kits on the EA81/82 are uncommon and expensive ($70-ish for Helicoil when I was looking recently). 11Mx1.25 thread. Good luck.