Reviving/renewing old cork gaskets. I was finishing putting together the motor and some of my gaskets had shrunk. Given the gaskets are cork and 80 plus years old they are brittle. I looked online and found one listing on how to revive cork not much else so I asked several older mechanics and found out several ways to do it. Some of the ways I was reluctant to try. One way to revive the gasket was to soak it in marvel mystery oil that had been warmed. MMO is flammable so I wanted to try something a bit less hazardous so I had also been told to soak them in room temp water for a couple days, this seamed more safe. So I tried with one of my extra gaskets and it didn't do much. So on to what worked and quick! I was told hot almost boiling water was what works the best. So I first cleaned out a old parts wash tub to hold my gaskets. I boiled a large pot of water. I carried the pot out to the wash tub and carefully poured it in. I laid the gaskets in the HOT! water and used some tongs to turn and sink the cork into the HOT! water. I saw a immediate change to the gaskets as soon as they touched HOT! water. The gaskets sat in the HOT! water for almost two minutes and was back to normal.