Looks like I may have found what the problem is, but I will believe it when I have fixed it and it's running right. The gasket still had some thickness to it and would have sealed pretty tight still, but I do really hope this is what the problem was.
On step 102 they have you "position the supercharger forward", this is so you can better access the coolant hoses to the intercooler at the rear of the manifold. Later on step 112 they have you "realign the supercharger to the cylinder heads". Then you bolt it down.
The edges of the cylinder heads are razor sharp, very literally. If during the install of the intercooler coolant hoses, the manifold happens to slide, even just 1-2mm, it will slice the gasket as you see in my pics. Those hoses are in such a tight spot it's very likely you're going to move the manifold in the process. Another possibility is if you don't completely lift the manifold off the cylinder heads when you move it around the same thing will happen.
My lesson here is to avoid having the manifold in contact with the cylinder heads until it gets bolted down, or install the gaskets after you're ready to both it down, then the gasket won't get damaged. You don't even need to move the supercharger forward to put the coolant hoses on, I both installed and removed them fine with the manifold bolted down.
I'm assuming the damage was done during install because I could not find the gasket pieces which were missing, and the valves were closed.
I will get this fixed this week and let you know if that was indeed the problem. Fingers crossed, I don't want to take this thing apart again.
I'm not surprised the smoke test did not find this, because the gasket still has 2-3mm of sealing surface, and would have been quite tight.
If this was the problem I could have gotten to the source a lot faster if someone would have recognized that the fuel trims were good indicators of a leak, another good lesson learned!
Another way to put all this is it looks like I might have F--ED UP! At that point I will bend over and take the public humiliation like a man
