A mechanic friend of mine told me that since I haven't run my engine since assembly I can remove the head and reuse the head gasket. The gasket is Mopar Performance P4349559.

Anyone agree with that? I feel like it might not seal well since it has already been compressed. But I really don't want to have to spend another $100 if I don't have to.

Thanks.

Some might say you can but, I would be a little gun shy to do so. Are you willing to take the chance?

I think that it depends on the gasket but I tend to agree that it should be fine. If you're running sky high compression, turbo, nitrous or a blower, I'd just get new ones. Otherwise, I think it is worth the small risk if it is a Fel Pro blue style.

I'm going to ASSUME that gasket is a composite gasket, if so, reuse it without worrying
I've been building and racing Mopars, early hemi, SB and BB since 1964 and building my own motors and 100s of customer motors since 1971.
I've experimented on my own motors on reusing the head gaskets on both BB and 426 Hemi that have been run as well as those new motors that had set for a long period of time and I removed both heads to make sure there was no rust or damage on the fresh honed cylinder walls before starting them up to break them in.
I saw Sox and Martin engine builder, Mr. King, reuse the same head gaskets at the 1974 Winter Nationals and I got to talk to him a little bit about that and he said as long as their is no damage to the gaskets, block or heads he has reused them several times with no bad results
Those guys made a hoop of power and RPM the dog snot out of those SS cross ram hemi motors
Make sure and keep the head gasket head surface against the same head, don't flop them or switch sides

I've reused them with no ill effect. My current 15-1 motor had the heads back off twice after they were torqued.
Doug

I've run and reused composite head gaskets. Tried that once with the old steel shim type (OEM BB ones) ended up blowing one.

Copper head gaskets can usually be annealed and reused, which is probably what Sox and Martin was running.

My flathead ran an embossed copper head gasket, but they are no longer available, except NOS.

I had to pull my motor apart after losing a couple cam lobes. Reused the head gaskets......it's been fine for years now. 10.2:1 470" w/Felpro gaskets