Head gasket Question - 1997 FzJ80 221,xxx miles

[DirtyPepper]

Hi everyone! Another question!

I found post #5 of THIS THREAD ABOUT FIPG which kind of answered a question I had in reply to one of my own threads on "is there any way to externally KNOW if the head gasket has already been replaced or not?"

I had wondered what the "Half moons" were under the valve cover...from the pic of mine, they look grey/black...so I'm assuming that the original HG is still there, correct?

I'm not having any issues with it...I've just been curious to know if there is an obvious external way to know if it's been replaced and by reading the aforementioned thread...if the half moons are grey, it's pretty indicative of being the original HG, correct?

My first big baseline is the cooling system - I have everything except the hoses which will be purchased this weekend



Thanks in advance!

 

[Cruiser804]

Not sure those have anything to do with the HG. They need, or should, be resealed when the valve cover comes off. Can't think of a way one could know conclusively the HG had been replaced other than seeing it done.