OK, back on topic:

I spent the afternoon playing at being a mechanic.

I took off the stock manis and put the NW manis back on with out the spacers. While I had the intake system torn down, I decided to test my theory about the spacers. So I set the spaces on top of the intake holes and screwed in some bolts to make sure they were lined up right. The spacers were a little off from the intake holes into the motor, but not as bad as I had expected.

That doesn't agree with what I suspected from looking at the spacers and gaskets after taking them off and from mating up the spacers with the NW manis. I assumed that the spacers wouldn't line up well with the motor either, but they were pretty close - less than a 1/32" (about 0.8 mm).

Remember that it was the bottom gaskets (between motor and spacer) not the upper gaskets (between mani and spacer) that blew out. So it wasn't the way the parts mated up.

Now I am regretting only torqueing those bolts to 10 ft/lbs. So in my book, that's the real culprit.

So, back to my reassembly of the motor:
I put the NW manis back on without the spacers, and with a single set to NW cork gaskets. Rather than use the adhesive and stick the gaskets to the manis, I stuck them to the motor. I know that they will be harder to get off next time I pull them, but I felt that it was better to stick them in place where I knew for sure they were lined up and let the adhesive set before I mounted the manis. I'll take my lumps when I take them off again and bust out a paint scraper.

When I torqued down the bolts, I first torqued them to 10 ft/lbs - no problems there. (Remember last time I did this, I broke 4 of the 12 bolts off while torquing them.) I figured I would work up to the 15 ft/lbs in steps. 10 then 12.5 then 15, just to see if anything breaks.

Sure enough, at 12.5 ft/lbs I broke two more bolts! Dammit! They were the front-most bolts - one on each side. So I stopped at 12.5 ft/lbs. I didn't have another set of short bolts to use even if I wanted to. So now I'm stuck.

Well, I was pretty annoyed at this point. So I hopped in my other car and drove over to the industrial supply store. I told the "bolt man" that I needed a set of high tensile strength bolts and gave him a sample bolt and the measurements of the others. He said "this is stainless, do you need stainless?" I told him that I didn't care if they were made out of Kryptonite, just so long as they could withstand 20 ft/lbs of torque (I went 20 to give myself a little breathing room over 15). He said he'd call me Monday with a quote. I'm ordering two sets. I don't care how much they are as long as they don't break.