You may not be too far off the mark, Mayhem. Until last year the only work I'd done on cars were oil changes air filter and brake replacements.

But I am gonna have to blame the spacers. I did a dry run assembly of the Code3 spacers, NW gaskets and NW manis last night. When you stick your finger into one of the holes, you can feel that the spacer is about 2 mm off on the inner side of the mani. I mean that the spacer is restricting the hole by about 2 mm.

Not only is the restriction a bad thing, but the wall of the spacer is only so wide. So basically by being off, the spacer is only seating about half the width that it should on the inner side of the mani. Unfortunately, you can't see the restriction because the spacer covers it up. You don't know its there unless you feel around the inside.

When I take the stock manis off, I will check the fitment of the spacers against the head. I'll bet the fit is the same.