EGR Valve HOLE?

Hi,

I have a 96 sl2 that has been missing (misfiring) at idle once it's
warmed up. I think I may have found the problem but am not sure what
to do about it. I was poking around under the hood with the air
cleaner removed and I noticed some black/brown discoloration on the
drivers side end of my intake manifold, near where it attatches to the
head. I looked closer, and there is a huge gap (enough for 2 fingers)
between where the manifold and port attach, as if the gasket were
supposed to be covering it, but is not. It looks like the port in
question is the one that goes from the EGR valve back up into the
manifold.

This makes a lot of sense to me in terms of my misfire problem. It
only happens at idle, which is the only time the EGR valve is open,
right? It only happens once the car is warmed up, which is when the
fuel system would be in closed loop mode, right? If the engine is
calculating it's fuel based on having some exhuast gas in the intake,
but that gas never makes it there, could that be causing my problem?

But the ultimate question is: has anyone ever seen this and what in
the world can I do about it?

 

can you take a picture? I'm having a hard time figuring out what you're
talking about without seeing it.

 

I'll try and take a picture this weekend. I'll also try and explain
it better. The intake mainfold (dohc) branches down into four
seperate ports that each fit against the ports on intake side of the
head. The injectors and fuel rail mount onto these chanels. There
is
also a 5th channel, closest to the drivers side, which appears to run
from the EGR valve back into the manifold. When I examined my car,
it
as if the last port on my manifold is not lining up properly with the
port on the head, there is a visable space there. The head has had a
valve job done on it before could maybe they have returned a
different
head? I was not aware of any major revisions to the DOHC head.
Could
I be missing a piece of gasket perhaps? If anyone's seen something
like this let me know. Thanks!