Well I drilled the bitch out. It now sits flat on the flange (except for some burring that occured while drilling the holes out :( )
Here's most of the material I took off. Had to do it to I think 8 of the holes. I don't think its an issue of shrinkage. Some of the holes were alright, others were way off. I had to move them over almost a stud radius in some cases.

Sooo I was all happy that I got it to sit flat on there. Still doesn't just slide on loosely or anything, but it goes on. I would have had to take out way more material than is worth doing with a regular drill. So anyway, I'm all happy and such so I decide to try and put some nuts on it. Bad decision. Some of them wont even thread on due to contact with the runners...let alone trying to get an actual socket or even open ended wrench around them. Looks like its going to take some grinding of the runners to get it on the car. I'll leave that for this coming Friday when we do the whole install. Should have some time to dick around with the grinder while Tom TIG welds the IC piping up.

and here are a few pics I didn't include in that thread because they were mostly irrelevant.
my awesome tubes in the background (I'll have to get a pic later of me bustin' some butt on one of them lol)

and the setup required to keep my happy doing automotive work in south Florida (on a budget)
-trusty fan
-trusty ipod radio
-drill and HF 115 pc drill bit selection
-and lots of light



still have MUCH bigger plans.