Replacing cylinderhead

[Bob Culver]

On my own car over the decades the traditional cu asbestos head gasket was  reused repeatedly and no apparent leakage. Old books like Nicholson assume re usage. Similarly on a Javelin car I ran for 20 years and which involved very many head removals.  (Although on both cars gasket did not remain bright cu all over.) Many Javelins were originally prone to gasket problems because of settled liners but the problem has recently re emerged significantly despite rigid seals (seriously compromising the reliability of the vehcles). As per Ian, the modern gasket material seems to be the common weakness. Also the fact that single sided gaskets cannot be reused represents a significant cost.
The users are mostly little fish and the chain of manufacture and supply is tenuous so any feedback may not get far. Would expect in this day and age something reliable to be producable.