Okay, here's the sad part... when I took off the manifold I put a straight edge on it and it appeared warped. Then I put a straight edge on the head and it appeared warped too. Too much of a coincidence for both to be warped so I re-read the above posts and discovered I should clean the surfaces first, then put the straight edge on. Well, after I cleaned them real good they were magically transformed to perfect. Who da thunk it <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/notooth.gif" alt="" />!!!! I still wanted to know why this happened so I started looking closely and found that what I had done was put the gaskets on backwards <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/scared.gif" alt="" />. They were metal with holes on one side and gasket on the other. I had mistakenly put the metal side out so it was against the manifold so it wasn't able to get a good seal. That in turn blew the gasket material off the metal surface. Thanks to all who helped. Now if I can just fix that clunking sound.<img src="/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> That's next.