What is this part in head gasket kit?

[Luis A.]

It's in a protective cardboard short tube section to prevent it from getting crushed since it's soft. It appears to be made of impregnated paper/cardboard or some such soft material. Came in the Reinz complete head gasket kit and I can't visualize where it belongs.

 

[bill]

Yeah, what is that stuff?

 

[deQuincey]

no idea luis,
but, a part that comes in such a kit does not necesarily mean to be mounted in your engine
i mean, when I did my engine, (and I used a victor reinz kit), some of the gaskets and o-rings of the kit were thrown away because they didn´t belong to my engine (CS) but to the CSI version
regards

 

[Stefan]

Looks more of a part that fell of the machine who was producing the head gasket.

Use it as a sinker when fishing instead