How can a smaller, thinner gasket seal better than a larger thicker one?

I received the S&S gaskets from THC (thanks man) and whipped out the dial calipers.....

The stock HD gasket is .294 tall and .127 thick

The S&S gasket is .240 tall and .113 thick

What the?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

 

Do you have an S & S manifold? I have an S & S and I prefer Harley seals for a better fit.

 

That's just it, I have the S&S manifold and HD seals installed, but, the S&S guy says their seals are the ones to use............

 

Is there a difference in diameter? Depth of recess in Manifold? TD
Remember someone mentioning a difference in an older S&S and a newer one.

 

Yea, the newer manifolds are a larger diameter......

 

Any chance S&S set ya the wrong o rings

That sure looks to be alot difference. If you were having trouble getting the manifold installed right with the HD rings, thinner S&S rings would make sense.Umm Dang things that make go Ummm.

A couple years ago I was thinking well. This bike is giving me more trouble than my wife. I looked into trading it. Them I remembered times when the wife was more trouble than the bike. I just kept them both

Hope ya get figured out WP

 

Actually, THC sent me the smaller S&S seals....I bought 2 sets of the HD seals. One set is installed.

Yea, I'm keeping both also..........for now.............

 

Unless something has changed a Super E uses stock size Harley O-Rings. Super G uses the thinner O-Ring due to the difference in manifold sizes.

 

Something did change.
Back in 04 S&S made their intake manifolds bigger.

 

I'm calling s&s tomorrow to figure out if I have a pre or post 2004 manifold.

Do you know the OD's?