yeah i checked both faces and they were perfect, were talking about the 2manifold halfs here not the manifold to cylinder head gasket , but perhaps i should take that one off and check too,
the gasket between the two halfs is a soft rubber gasket and theres nothing but the clamping pressure to keep it in place, i guess they didnt plan for it to handle 400hp when they designed that part.
might end up just welding the too halfs together if possible.