HD Cylinders vs. Aftermarket Cylinders

[soundnav]

I recently bought a set of cylinders and pistons for my Sportster. They were advertised by the seller as late 73 to 85 HD NOS OEM cylinders but I have reasons to doubt this claim now that I have inspected them (don't you just love those acronyms?).

Can anyone provide some guidance on how to confirm my suspicions? How can I tell if cylinders are in fact HD product or an impostor?

Additional info:

Gasket surfaces on both cylinders are a bit irregular. The halves don't line up. I'll try to get some pics later today to show what I mean.

I don't see numbers on one cylinder but the other one has "2429" on it. No other casting numbers are present on the cam side base of either cylinder.

Both pistons have "B3" and "2227072" on the inside of em. One Has "B" stamped on top of piston and the other has a "D" on it.

Boxes for these parts have faded HD labels and are marked with part numbers "16464-73A" and "16465-73A". My HD parts book sez they should be "16464-73C" and 16465-73C". Not sure what's up with this discrepancy.

They bolt up nicely to my late 73 heads and the bolt threads are recessed about 1/2" into top of cylinders, which is correct for late 1973 to like 1985 cylinders, but I'm trying to confirm if HD manufactured them.

Thanks for any help in identifying these cylinders.

[soundnav]

Here's photo showing fore and aft misalignment of gasket surfaces on cylinder that I suspect are not HD product. See the way the two halves of the gasket surface do not meet correctly? They'll work but I'm thinking that this misalignment is indicative of aftermarket cylinders. Can anyone confirm?

Any info about casting markings on V-win, Dixie, or any other aftermarket cylinders will be appreciated.

Sportster Cylinder.jpg

[soundnav]

...and another photo showing head gasket surface.


Cylinders.jpg

[Chris Haynes]

The label on the box tells you they are not Genuine H-D.

[soundnav]

Hi Chris, The 2nd photo with the box in the background, is not an actual photo of my cylinders. It is a photo that I found on Ebay. I included it in my post because the cylinders have the same head gasket surface irregularity as the cylinders that I recently purchased. I thought it was a better photo than the first one and realize now that I should have noted all of this in my post.

Thanks for weighing in.