General Question about various seals/gaskets replacement cycles

[BaltimoreBimmer]

So this winter I am doing a hefty overhaul of my e30 for two reasons

1) it keeps me entertained in my spare time

2) want to make it reliable

My question is that, say I replace a ton of stuff only to realize come summer I need to tear it back down to access some obscure part. If I remove parts that have new gaskets on them (think driving for say 500 miles or something then taking back apart). Will I be able to reuse those various gaskets or should I try to keep as much together as possible.

For example: on the intake side I am replacing the gaskets between the head/intake manifold, among other things. Say my starter fails in the middle of summer, will I be ok in reusing the new intake gaskets I put in this winter after removing the manifold to access the starter?

I guess there aren't too many examples of seals that would be removed constantly tbh, but just want to cover my bases.

What about with Valve cover gaskets and doing valve adjustments? Are you expected to replace it whenever you do an adjustment? I guess the idea is to not have to be doing mad adjustements, but I will probably be doing 2 or 3 before getting it where I want it

[straight6pwr]

intake manifold gaskets are $6!
you are worried about $6? me thinks you need a new hobby. maybe jogging? thats free.

i know you are asking for an overall discussion on the this topic, but since you say you want to keep the car reliable, do the gaskets whenever you have to remove them for work. e30 gaskets tend to be very cheap! personally, I would do all new gaskets that are hard to reach or 'buried' under other gaskets. the valve cover gasket is not one of those, so just keep using the old one until it leaks since it takes 5 min to swap.

[nando]

E30 starter failures are pretty rare, so I wouldn't worry about that one too much.

Just replace them when you need to, as said above, E30 seals/gaskets tend to be cheap.

as far as the VCG, I usually re-use it a couple times, as it only takes 10 minutes to replace, and it's usually good at least twice.

[101]

my rule is:

If it's a rubber gasket - I reuse it as long as it is still soft and pliable and was not leaking.

If its a paper or metal gasket or one that somehow deforms when the parts are tightened, I replace them every time.

[TobyB]

The vcg is not rubber. I have yet to replace one.

+1 for jogging. pedalbike?

fix it when it breaks. drive it until it does.

t

[BaltimoreBimmer]

The vcg is not rubber. I have yet to replace one.

+1 for jogging. pedalbike?

fix it when it breaks. drive it until it does.

t

I don't use this car as transportation. I use it to entertain my desire to wrench on cars in my spare time. So not sure why everyone is pretending like I'm complaining about the prices of gaskets being too much to afford. I am not. I guess I just didn't make it that far in my online searching.

Apparently gaskets aren't as expensive as bushings. Several of the bushings I looked at were close to 50 dollars each so I was expecting gaskets to be more as well. From my searches i also found that not every gasket and bushing on this car has an aftermarket or OEM equivalent. So if I were to go gen bmw then it would be way more expensive.

All of the exhaust gaskets probably total to under 80 bucks. Not a big deal.

I was more asking simply because I am not a mechanic or an engineer, I don't intimately know the characteristics of rubber after hundreds of heat cycles or what the best practice is for replacing them. Don't want leaks I can avoid on my e30. More interested in having my car run well than saving money on reusing gaskets. Just trying to learn some things.

[jeffnhiscars]

The only actual rubber I can think of are all O rings which are generally $2 or less and unless they are hard or obviously damaged can be reused, at least temporarily. Always buy multiples just because.

Besides the HG they are all a few $$ @. Buy a VR HG kit for cheap and pitch the HG.

[e30strokr]

any gasket that gets compressed should be changed... unless you want to go and do it again once it leaks...specially when theyre so cheap to buy... :hitler:

[uturn]

More work to remove the intake manifold then it is to change the starter. You'll find that once you do finish one thing, something else will crop up. Suspension, trim, paint, stroker upgrade, engine swap, your e30 will keep you entertained. Drive it as much as you can, while you can. :)

[slammin.e28]

1. Don't take the intake off to replace the starter.


Next.

[TobyB]

any gasket that gets used should be changed

You'll never go wrong this way. It's really not a bad idea to just replace them.
Yes, it's overkill. Yes, that way there's the least chance it'll leak.

I do it that way as much as I can- except for the valve cover, which I pathologically
never change until it's leaking. I don't know why.

t

[eastcoastcory]

Posting for my future reference.