well i am putting my engine back together(350) and i was putting my second head on my block i realized i had a piece of blue painters tape/masking tape on the bottom of it telling me it was the passenger side. i glanced at my first one when i put it on and didn't see anything. now i am worried about it having a piece of tape on it. i used new head bolts and of course a new head gasket. if i wanted to take this one back off to be sure there is not tape on it do i need to replace the gaskets and bolts or is it ok since the engine never ran yet? the bolts had it's own sealer on the threads so i am wandering if just torquing them down and backing them out will ruin it or only if the engine is ran. another question i wander is will a piece of masking tape even matter since the head gaskets have a sealer already on them.

 

You need to remove the head if your not sure about the tape being there, the bolts can be reused (apply more sealer). what type of gaskets did you use, metal shim style or composit coated style ? Shim style should be OK to re-use, composit style would need some inspecting.

 

i am not really familiar with types of gaskets. it was black/dark grey with metal rings around the piston holes and said it already had a sealer on it. kind of tacky but not really sticky. all solid material, no seal lines around everywhere like i have seen on some of them. i don't have the package here at the house to look at it

 

Gaskets are cheap, I'd just replace them.

You could have saved yourself a lot of trouble with the tape though, both heads are identical.