One of my shovelhead buddies in passing mentioned a gasket that instead of sitting flat on the collector plate like most shovel exhaust gaskets would go around the top portion of the pipe as it goes into the head. I have it narrowed down to an evo gasket or the much smaller screamin eagle gasket. Has anyone else heard such a thing? Getting ready to install my new Paughco drags. Never could seem to get my front pipe to completely seal. I stud and double nut them. Anybody? Thanks in advance.

 

A long time ago, one could go to a Honda motorcycle shop and get two 450 Honda exhaust gaskets (Like 450's from the 70's). They looked like a copper o-ring. If ya ran a round screwdriver shaft around the ID of the gasket, it would open it up enough to slide onto the Shovelhead pipe and would seal pretty much any uneven gap ya had in fit-up.
Just a backup plan in case nothing else works for ya.

 

+1 on the Honda 450 gaskets, but they are getting hard to find. I have seen some similar in aftermarket catalogs that work well. I beleive the originals had asbestos in them, encased in soft copper, made them conform very easily.

 

Head flange wear and/or pipe quality have alot to do with sealing.Stud and double nut works better than bolt atttachment only.Make sure the head flange threads are good and helicoil if need be.Dont be afraid to use more than one harley style gasket if needed due to uneven flange or pipes that just wont mate properly.