The washers are made from a soft aluminium that crushes to make a seal when torqued correctly. The crushing makes them more dense meaning harder, the more they are reused the hardness progressively increases making a seal less likely unless over tightened. Thats why they really should only be used once. Over tightening puts you on the road to a stripped thread.
This is also true of the crush washers on either side of the fuel feed line on the tank. I tried to use mine twice, torqued correctly. Luckily I pressurised the system before lowering the tank and found the union dripping, not a lot but enough. If the tank had been down before pressurising I wouldn't have noticed it and the drips would have been going strait on top of the motor, not good.