just lap the flange

Yeah i paid more to flat table all the surfaces than it cost new!:lol::)

:D... it's handy to have one at work for all my lapping needs

The manifold is not flawed its just cheap crap (to good to be true) tubular manifold for 100 bucks + or - on eBay. And people wonder why it cracks !ITS CHEAP! You always get what you pay for. Speed and Safety cost MONEY and if you try to cut corners you will pay more in the end.

I know a guy who spent thousands on his 7 everything new from the dealer (LITERALY) and watched it burn to the ground because of bad wiring.

A welder I know told me that all stainless will eventually crack under the heat and cycles and conditions we put them through...when I told him how hot rotary egt's were I shit a brick :rofl: He said that with our cars good stainless that's welded up well will hold up much longer than the OBX shit that I showed him (Mine also cracked)..he said that mine pretty much wasn't stainless anymore and when he tried to fix the crack another crack was made and that process continued until he said it'd be easier to buy another one to last another 5k miles or buy a better quality one.

stainless steel is not a good metal for exhaust heat. A better one is mild steel or iron.