Can you pull the heads on a new rebuild without ruining the gaskets.

I have a 272 that has been bored out to a 292 for my 55 F100. I just got back from checking the progress on my rebuild and was not impressed with the quality of work I saw. The lower end is finished and the heads are on.

The guy doing the work seems to know his business and I have a friend that is driving a 292 that he rebuilt several years ago that seems to be running ok.

Buuut..... his shop is dirty and disorganized and he lost some of my bolts and a push rod and he is not cleaning the parts as good as I would have. The original push rods have a coat of rust on them and there are bits of metal shavings here and there. Several of the bolts he put back in while I was there were not as clean as they should have been.

Am I being too picky or would it be prudent to disassemble this one when I get it home to see what kind of job I got before I put it back in the truck? If I do should I use a new set of head gaskets?

BTW should I be concerned about having 15 old push rods and 1 new one?

 

can't reuse the head gaskets, but cheap price to pay for piece of mind, one new pushrod won't hurt anything, and if it was my engine I would get it out of there as soon as possible if it is as bad as you say

 

Thanks hiball....sounds like good advice to me. Reminder to self....order new head gaskets.

 

BURT..I understand your concern..but I would be more worried about the bottom end

 

Yeah your right....life's lessons come hard...next time i'll just build it myself and then there won't be any dought. Thanks for the imput. The guy was so close to finishing that I decided to let him complete the job so that I could be reasonably sure that I got all my bolts and parts back. Guess I'll make some decisions when I get it home and look it over good.

 

you can use the head gaskits no problem.ive put used ones back on with lots of miles on them.

 

hope all goes well, I'm nobody to make judgements on other peoples work, my shop is semi dirty and disorganized (I need a janitor) but my engine builds are spotless, they have to be...it just scared me when you said metal shavings....does he warrantee his work??? anyway....good luck

 

Friend who had his done had to have him redo it because a wrist pin keeper came loose after he installed it....he said he did not have any trouble getting him to fix it.....just doesn't seem worth it to take a chance though...thanks for the imput....makes it easier to decide just what I'll do...