Was poking around under the hood this afternoon and while I was looking everything over I realized that it's been 4 months and a bit over 800 miles since I installed the manifold gaskets. I'm happy to report they look exactly the same as they did the day I installed them. No discoloring, no leaking. Excepting a little dust on the visible surfaces nothing looks at all different. The two separations near the bolts mentioned in my posts above are apparently stable, as they don't seem to be any different than after the initial drive cycle either. I think this gasket material is going to work out ok. I'll try to remember to update this again around the 1 year mark or so...
